Over the past years the renowned art critic Martin Gayford has, through personal meetings and by technology, been in conversation with David Hockney, one of the world’s most famous living painters.

All these he has now put into this book, which gives us a rare insight into the mind of a working artist. Hockney has become obsessed with the problems of depicting space and time within a flat surface and through his own observations and insights into artists of the past helps us to question what we see as reality and makes us understand that art is not only about making pictures but solving visual problems. Drawing helps us to see and understand the world around us and the artist is ready to point out that it is an essential activity for all creative people.

Hockney now makes images on an iPad and is excited by the progress of technology and how it will affect the way we see the world, for, he points out, that history is made by images.

We are inundated with pictures in one form or another but in the Middle Ages people might have only seen one or two pictures throughout their lives, and usually had to visit a church to view them.

It is these sharp observations that make David Hockney a unique teacher.

He is now painting with the moving image. He was born in Bradford then went to Los Angeles and is now back in his beloved Yorkshire depicting the changing seasons and light with a variety of media.

This is a book to enthral, widen your horizons and entertain in equal measures and will certainly become one of the standard works of an artist we are proud to have working in this county.