I don't want anything that I buy to have done any harm to anyone or anything.

Building your own house is a primal urge, one of those universal genetic drives like the need to provide for your family.

Every decently-made object, from a house to a lamp post to a bridge, spoon or egg cup, is not just a piece of 'stuff' but a physical embodiment of human energy, testimony to the magical ability of our species to take raw materials and turn them into things of use, value and beauty.

My favourite authors include Trollope and Dickens.

I'm not too fond of really cool design. I've got quite kitsch taste really, in things like tableware. I'm quite a sucker for 1930s pressed glass.

I like the absurd and the surreal: the Coen brothers, Bunuel, Kubrick.

I'm driven by issues, not driven to be political.