Born in June 1962, I first discovered clay at an after school pottery club in 1973. I’m not sure if it was the clay or the fact that the sixth form students were playing Dark side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, which had just been released that year, but week after week I kept going back for more.

My Father was an engineer and together we built a small electric kiln and a potter’s wheel, my parents could tell I was serious when we cut down my football goal frame in the garden to make the legs of the wheel, both items were fitted into the small store room at the back of the house. This is where the picture to the right was taken, at the age of twelve.

If ever any author of a pottery book of techniques has doubts about the value of such books to young students, let me tell you now. I taught myself to throw on the wheel from reading every pottery book I could lay my hands on from the local library, and then spent hours and hours practicing.

By the age of eighteen, having been unable to find a suitable apprenticeship, I set up my own workshop. At the time I was making domestic stoneware. If I am honest I was too young and inexperienced at the time. This inevitably meant I had to go off and find a real job. So I ended up selling ceramic wall and floor tiles for first Pilkington’s and latterly for H&R Johnson tiles. Pottery has always remained in the background, and now 25 years on it has risen to the surface once again, only this time, my love of old country pottery has come to the fore. My aim is now and always has been to make good quality domestic pottery that should be used on a daily basis.