Encore: A brother’s insight into the genius of artist David Hockney

2026-06-30

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John Hockney's memoir gives a rare insight into the unusual life of one of the world's most famous artists.He grew up in the industrial town of Bradford in Northern England and was one of five children in a creative household, led by his iconoclastic father Kenneth, a conscientious objector who always told his children to 'never worry what the neighbours think'.During the war, there were many shortages. As child, John's brother David would creep downstairs in the morning and draw on whatever paper was...

John Hockney's memoir gives a rare insight into the unusual life of one of the world's most famous artists.

He grew up in the industrial town of Bradford in Northern England and was one of five children in a creative household, led by his iconoclastic father Kenneth, a conscientious objector who always told his children to 'never worry what the neighbours think'.

During the war, there were many shortages. As child, John's brother David would creep downstairs in the morning and draw on whatever paper was available.

He drew figures, streets, houses, landscapes and cartoons on the white edge of the newspaper, his mother's magazines, or whatever comics arrived that day.

When David got his first sketchbook at the age of 10, his parents realised his drawing was much more than compulsive doodling.

This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2020

Further Information

John Hockney's memoir is called The Hockneys: Never Worry About What the Neighbours Think

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