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"I was born in Sheffield and moved to a pub near Bradford when I was one. As I got older I apparently used to stand on a table in the bar and tell stories to customers about a character called Big Dumb Tackle (whoever he was). I spent much of my childhood playing sport, fighting and drawing with my older brother. I went to a grammar school in Cleckheaton, then studied graphic design at art college in Leeds. My father died suddenly and horrifically in front of me while I was there and this had a huge effect on me. I went through a rather dark period which didn’t sit very happily with the world of graphic design. After leaving college I heard about a job as a medical artist and thought that it sounded interesting - it was. I worked at Manchester Royal Infirmary for 3 years painting delicate watercolours of grotesque operations. It taught me a lot more about drawing than I ever learned at art college, and I believe it taught me how to tell stories in pictures. I thought that it was probably time to move on when strange little figures started appearing in these paintings, and so I began a career designing greetings cards. I continued to do this for many years working for the Gordon Fraser Gallery.