In the autumn of 1977, London was a city of stark contrasts. I was a young boy just starting his first term at Sir Philip Magnus School, the world felt like it was expanding. The transition from primary school to the imposing corridors of secondary school was a rite of passage, marked by the rush…
In the lineage of a creative life, there is often a single point of departure that defines the horizon. For me, that moment arrived over twenty years ago with my fourth masterpiece. It was a physical interrogation of Jacques Brel’s 1959 recording of “Ne me quitte pas,” rendered in marble. It represented a seismic shift…
The Abraham Lincoln Room at The Savoy is a space defined by layers of history. While many recognise it for its Edwardian elegance today, I have a different connection to its walls. In the late 1980s, I was part of the team that fitted the St John’s travertine cladding, a material that defined the room’s…
In the early 1990s, my career as a carver was defined by a transition between two of the most prestigious estates in England. I had just completed a significant period of work at Woburn Abbey, serving the Duke of Bedford. Woburn was a masterclass in scale; the seat of the Russell family demanded a masonry…
The Craft of Self The philosophy of Court Master Carving is not a collection of aesthetic choices, but a structural legacy. It is a 900-year-old technical science designed for the restoration of the individual. To enter the retreat is to move beyond the “vicious circle” of modern noise and become a sovereign conduit between the…
There are certain journeys that remain etched in the mind, not merely for the destination, but for the manner in which one arrives. In 1986, my path to the ancient wonders of Alexandria began on the waters, departing from the small port of Keramoti. To approach Egypt by sea is to witness the horizon slowly…
In the tradition of the traveling Court Masters of the Renaissance, my career has been defined by a nomadic devotion to stone. To understand the soul of a cathedral or the strength of a fortress, one must not only touch the stone but walk the land from which it sprang. The Alpine Descent My journey…