As a child I was always playing with mud, delighting in its squelchy feel. My family lived in Malaysia and the frequent monsoon rains provided our garden with lots of warm muddy puddles for me and my sisters in which to play.

Later on, back in the UK, and at school in The Lake District, a teacher took our class down to the banks of Lake Windermere, where we scraped away some gravel to
reveal a seam of clay which we scooped up and took back to school. Thus I came to fashion my first ceramic pot which was then properly fired in a kiln. It was a not very artistic ashtray which I gave to my parents!

Now over sixty years later, with one or two gaps in between, I am still making and firing pots, inspired as ever by the feel of clay and the alchemy of the kiln.