I have always loved books and from a young age wanted to be a writer. With a growing collection of poems published, I read that Virginia Woolf wrote her diaries in journals bound by herself. It seemed to me wonderful that a book could have a literary legacy and also have the added aspect of the book being physically created by the author.

From that day on I was hooked. I gradually stopped writing and started binding.

So into my tiny flat in Hackney, London I brought some basic tools, boards and papers. I read widely, attended lectures at the Art Workers Guild, bought highest quality materials I could afford, made many mistakes and learned the trade of a bookbinder, mastering many styles of binding and branching out from books to portfolios and archival boxes.

I still work from home but now in a flat in Melbourne, Australia. More recently I have become attracted to the simplicity and beauty of Japanese and Chinese bindings. I use traditional Asian bookbinding methods in new areas such as making portfolios which are inspired by 4-sided Japanese boxes.

Even now as the wooden handles of my paste brushes are becoming worn with use, I'm still learning and intend to be a willing apprentice until I paste down my last endpaper.