Eamonn McCabe continues to provide a wonderful photographic insight into the minds of authors, poets, novelists and cultural writers with his outstanding portrait photos. Writers are probably one of the hardest subjects to photograph as their profession takes place completely inside their heads. They don’t stand on a podium and wave a baton, or demonstrate the physical beauty of playing a musical instrument. The photographer has to somehow capture what it is that inspires authors to create and communicate this to his audience.

Shirley Hughes has captivated decades of young readers with her sympathetic characters and she smiles winningly at us, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who died on 3rd April as we are writing, seems to muse on the endless magic webs she spins around her characters in India and America. Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author recognised for his key role in developing African literature, has died on 21st March in Boston, where he was working as a professor, draws us close in Eamonn McCabe’s photo. A C Grayling, Master of the New College of Humanities, welcomes us to his book lined office. Nadeem Aslam, the young British writer, sits anxiously on the edge of the bench. The skill of a great photographer is that he allows the viewer a place to weave their own fantasies around the images that he shows them. Eamonn McCabe fits into this category.

Adam Phillips

Chinua Achebe

Shirley Hughes

Paul Durcan

Nadeem Aslam

A C Grayling