In this witty, candid, and revealing self-portrait, Hockney recounts his early years in Bradford, England, where he was born, grew up, and first went to art school; his years at the Royal College of Art in London, during which he had his breakthrough; his sojourn in California, which inspired his best-known paintings, drawings, and prints; and his subsequent phase in Paris, where an exhibition at the Louvre established him as a "continental master."

The book's fascination lies not only in the fact that the text is entirely Hockney's own--so that his life story is given full clarity--but also that it reproduces more than 400 of his paintings, graphic work, and drawings. The story, presented more or less chronologically, is informative and humorous, full of descriptions of his work, anecdotes about himself, other artists, and friends, his thoughts about art, and his ambiguous relationship with abstract and other styles of art. Above all, it is the story not so much of someone who has achieved something, but of an artist who is ceaselessly striving to improve his craft and imaginatively to portray the world around him.