How it all began

As a pony-tailed nine-year-old growing up on the white shores of the Arabian Gulf, I tagged along after school one day to ‘calligraphy class,’ where we were shown ‘the italic alphabet.’

It was the astonishing union of my two greatest loves: writing and art. I fell stupendously in love all over again with the idea of beautiful pages of text – which I could learn to create.


My first collaborative book project began soon after: Drip-Drop the Rainy Monster, lettered by me in careful roundhand, illustrated by my sister (6) in full-page felt-tip technicolour, and ‘bound’ by stapling the pages very carefully down the left-hand edge.

My mum probably still has it somewhere ... oh yes:



Throughout school, college, an MA and a PhD in medieval studies at Cambridge, I kept writing historical scripts on the side, learning more about page decoration, and getting paid quite well for a lot of it too.

I found that, while not everybody was as concerned as I was with the evolution of insular minuscule, or how to form an uncial serif, most people very much liked beautiful pages.

Pieces of my work were commissioned to be gifted into the most extraordinary hands: some Highnesses – some Excellencies – a former president – the British Columbian government – writers, entrepreneurs, captains of industry – and lots of friends.

Why didn’t I strive to become a ‘professional calligrapher’? And why now this website?



Because, like many, I want to write and decorate pages for the pure love of it, according to whim, not as part of a daily struggle to pay bills and maintain a career.

Because I’ve found a tool for building websites which allows me to get the word out to as many people as possible.

And, more deeply, because I believe that not just the starry elite but everyone has a few startlingly good pages inside them – more than good enough to embellish their corner of the world.


Which means: while I’m continuing to improve my own calligraphy skills, I hope I can encourage you to produce those pages of yours.

I'm very pleased to announce in October 2010 that two US art suppliers with excellent reputations have approved my site as an affiliate. They are Dick Blick Art Materials and MisterArt. When you buy an item linked from Calligraphy-Skills.com, I receive a small commission which goes towards the costs of managing the site.

Beautiful pages are everybody’s to make.

What will yours look like?

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