I began printing in 2008, working with Phil Abel at Hand & Eye Letterpress in London. Soon after, I began volunteering at Monotype Hot Metal [based at the Type Archive], making Monotype matrices and cutting punches. I began running Monotype casters in 2010, and established Effra Press & Typefoundry when we moved to North Yorkshire in 2017.

I was awarded a QEST Scholarship for my work in typefounding, which led me to study punchcutting with Stan Nelson in the US. In 2024, I was awarded Heritage Crafts’ England Maker of the Year award. 

I have experience of running tabletop-, treadle-, hand-fed powered- and automatic platen presses; Albion and Columbian hand presses; powered and manual repro presses; cutting typographic punches by hand; casting type in a hand mould; running Monotype Composition and Super casters; engraving matrices directly using a pantograph; bookbinding; European and Japanese papermaking; various decorative and artistic printmaking processes.

I’m Printer-in-residence at Thin Ice Press, the University of York’s bibliographic press, where I also convene and teach the Letterpress Printing MA module. I’m the Master Printer at Thin Ice York: the York Centre for Print. 

I’m part of the expert panel invited by University of Wales Trinity St David to help reinvigorate Gregynog Press / Gwasg Gregynog and to bring it back into full operation.

When I’m not working in the world of printing, I’m a playwright, musician and composer.