Some memories just stick. My soon to be wife and I were sitting on a plane heading out to Turkey for a seaside holiday in what was then a relatively new tourist destination in 1987. Ahead of us stretched long hot lazy days flopped on the beach topping up our tans, eating, drinking, whiling away the time dozing and reading.

It’s factual books over fiction for me, Danzinger’s Travels was a book I’d heard discussed on the radio it was first on my reading list. A graphic hair-raising account of travelling alone through Asia and on into war torn Afghanistan by Author/photographer Nick Danziger it is a powerful account filled full of daring-do approached with warmth and wit.

Apart from it being a terrific read what I remember most about it was his introduction where he explained how his adventure started. Describing how he sat anxiously in a corridor belonging to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust waiting to be interviewed for a Travelling Fellowship that ultimately funded the trip. Wow! I thought how nerve-wracking & amazing would that be. Perhaps you can imagine my excitement nearly 30 years later when ‘little old me’ was sitting in the exact same corridor awaiting to be interviewed for a WCMT Travelling Fellowship then the thrill when the letter informing me that I had been successful popped through the letterbox.

Various things have delayed my travels but they are finally upon me. Summer 2017 sees me and my wife Jane heading off to the USA & Canada to undertake my research project – ‘the contemporary use of stone and how traditional skills & modern creativity can make a positive contribution to the shared built environment.’

Over the last 30 years I have focussed solely on my own career and worked at developing my stone working skills. The Churchill fellowship is the most brilliant opportunity for me to take some time out to meet other talented members of the ‘Stone Tribe,’ to spend some time with them, hear their thoughts on the craft and see the results of others working in a similar way. Over the course of 5 weeks (not long enough) we are going to be zipping about the USA and dipping our toes into Canada with the hope of seeing lots of ‘Custom Creative Stonework’

I’d like to thank the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for this wonderful life opportunity and of course not least thank the great man himself, Winston who as the picture shows dabbled a bit in the craft – I’m not too sure about his tools or his pointing but good effort!!!

Spring 2016 proved to be a long, hard & busy one. Set the challenge of  constructing a series of Basalt stone ‘Mounds’ by rising young designer Hugo Bugg for his 2016 Chelsea Flower Show Garden; it was one of the most difficult projects I’ve created, it proved to be a very demanding but nevertheless interesting build.  The Garden is now on it’s way to be replicated on a public site on the Channel Island of Guernsey. (read more about the garden)