For much of the 20th century it was customary for many artists, when finding themselves with family responsibilities, to turn reluctantly to commercial art for a living, whilst waiting to be recognised as 'fine' artists. Unashamed Artists is a celebration of those artists who saw commercial art as a valid outlet for their talents, and who felt that a commissioning brief stimulated rather constrained creativity; they were not only not ashamed, they were proud of what they had chosen to do.

The book covers some 50 years of British commercial art from the 1920s and includes accounts of iconic work by such artists as Tom Purvis, Tom Eckersley, Austin Cooper, Eric Fraser, Frank Newbould, and Francis Marshall.