For more than half my life I have scratched a rewarding (if rather uneven) living as a designer and woodworker, trades I learned from my father, now one of the UK’s foremost Master Wood Carvers, and that I am lucky enough to share with my wife, with whom I have worked closely for over fifteen years. I’ve made all manner of things from all manner of woods, for clients that range from local families to some of the world’s most iconic luxury brands, in a career that has taken me from a cramped country workshop on the east coast of Scotland to galleries and museums as far afield as London, Paris and Shanghai.

Quietly, though (as anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an email from me can attest), I have long been just as passionate about making things with words as I am with wood. As a writer I’m thrilled and humbled to have contributed to publications including The Guardian, The Observer and The Scotsman, and that my award-winning debut book, Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman, was published in the UK and the USA (where it became a National Bestseller) in 2024.

Currently I am working on a new book, making things in my workshop, and probably being bossed around by my border collie.