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 almost 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 recieved an email from me knows only too well), I’ve long been just as obsessed with another form of creativity: storytelling.

I’m delighted to have written for publications including the Guardian and the Scotsman, and my debut book, Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman, is out now in the UK via Doubleday, and will be published on December 3rd in the U.S.A & Canada via Ecco