... I always try to swim again at lunchtime. My mother used to cook a full roast for me every single day until she died a few months ago aged 101. I often didn't want it, which annoyed her. I tend to eat chocolate biscuits all morning which is terrible. I know. It's my only weakness.
On average a design will take me a day and a half and I'll work Saturdays and Sundays if I've got the work. If I have not, I'll have the weekend off, but I'm not happy. I can't take time off and I never could. I worked so hard when my children were younger. I never saw them grow up. Everything is black and white with me, there is no grey tone. I look at people swanning round, having coffee and I think: Why aren't they working?
I have to stop at 5pm to get the finished dies and the copperplates to the post office before it closes. Then it's a 18 mile drive to Halesowen to coach at a junior swimming club. I might have something to eat before I go, or more biscuits in the car. My second wife, Luba, is very tolerant, but I think her patient is wearing thin.
I have a glass of wine in front of News at 10 and wake up a couple of hours later. If I've something special on, I'll work late into the night. I've always felt that work for the royal family deserves it own ambiance and I might head back to my workshop at 10pm with a bottle of champagne, a loaf of crusty bread and a chunk of roquefort. I love the work, because I'm doing something special with my own hands. I'm usually filthy dirty and I have ruined all my clothes with the acid, but knowing the Queen of England signs her name on paper bearing my engraving means everything to me.
Interview by Caroline Scott - Sunday Times
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