LONDON.- Here's a great idea for your wish list: A Bigger Message - Conversations with David Hockney is a book destined to become a classic. This remarkable new title from Thames & Hudson records a decade of private conversations between David Hockney and the art critic Martin Gayford (author of Man with a Blue Scarf).

In A Bigger Message, David Hockney reveals via reflection, anecdote, passion and humour the fruits of his lifelong meditations on the problems and paradoxes of representing a three-dimensional world on a flat surface.

The conversation is punctuated by wise and witty observations from both parties on numerous other artists, and enlivened by shrewd insights into the contrasting social and physical landscapes of California, where Hockney spent so many years, and Yorkshire, the birthplace to which he has returned. Some of the diverse people he has encountered along the way - from Henri Cartier-Bresson to Billy Wilder - make entertaining entries into the dialogue.

What the press is saying:
'There is much to be enjoyed in - and much to be discovered from - this book... you will find out much else behind Hockney's extraordinarily voracious appetite for reinvention and self-scrutiny' - Art Quarterly

'I devoured this from cover to cover and can highly recommend it, because much like Gayford's other recent book on Lucian Freud (Man with a Blue Scarf) the conversational flow leads the reader to many other ideas around and beyond its subject' - The Bookseller

'Part anecdote, part diary, part essay, part biography, it's a shot in the arm for all painters and a must-read for all who want a sound and stimulating introduction to the great challenges of any artist that are both timeless and pertinent' - James Hanley, The Irish Times

'Beautifully illustrated (and very fairly priced) ... This man is blessed with great gifts, and he shares them with great generosity' - Margaret Drabble, The Guardian
'A must read for fans everywhere of the straight-talking Yorkshireman' - The Daily Express

'Elegantly and simply written ... full not only of good-quality reproductions of Hockney's paintings, but characterful photos of the artist at work' - The Observer
'A remarkable picture of Britain's greatest living artist' - The Daily Telegraph