Bobby Baker, Shobana Jeyasingh, Joanna MacGregor, Lawrence Norfolk, Jo Shapcott, Shelagh Stephenson, Tim Supple, Errollyn Wallen, Richard Wentworth.

Nine artists, successful in different branches of the arts, each kept a diary over a period of a few months reflecting on their work in progress. The resulting narratives make an absorbing read and powerfully illuminate the process of making art. Music is improvised and composed, artworks conceived and displayed or performed, a novel is completed, poems are written, new plays evolve and old plays are reinterpreted. The diaries offer glimpses into the authors’ personal and professional lives and though each is distinctively different, all reveal that art is made in a practical matter-of-fact way.

Though often obsessed with their work, these contemporary artists do not live the cliché of Romantic torment, nor do they indulge in ‘self-expression’. Dreaming up ideas is relatively easy, realising them is harder. They break boundaries of language and art form and all work internationally. They are enquiring, adventurous, as interested in the telling detail as in the grand design, self-mocking, problem-solving, inventive, diverse, thoughtful, ambitious, open-minded, sexy, fun.

‘… a generous and radical book, with so much passion, angst and imagination seething between its covers … compulsory reading for anyone who cares about contemporary culture.’ Louisa Buck, The Art Newspaper

‘… surprisingly intimate access to the agonies and ecstasies of creative minds … it made me want to read the novel, hear the music, see the show.’ Robert Hewison, The Guardian

Paul Allen is best known as presenter of the Radio 4 arts magazine Kaleidoscope, and more recently of the Radio 3 cultural discussion programme Night Waves. He is also a playwright, who has written for radio and theatre. He is former chariman of the Arts Council Drama Panel and chairman of its New Writing Committee. He is vice-chairman of the Sheffield Theatres Trust and a member of Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust. He holds an Honorary Doctorate of Sheffield Hallam University, and teaches dramaturgy at the University of Sheffield. His biography of Alan Ayckbourn was published by Methuen (2001).