Born in London, we soon moved to Folkestone which is where I have spent most of my life.
When leaving school in 1983, I had no clear idea of what I wanted to do and spent a year at college and then worked in the docks in Dover.
In 1985 a job came up at a stamp company called Benham, between being interviewed and starting the job, my manager had told the owner where he could stick his job, so I was thrown in the deep end not knowing a CDS from a FDC.
This was a massive learning curve, going from a junior clerk to a proper cover dealer, buying everything from single covers to entire stocks filling transit vans. Benham expanded, eventually being sold to the Flying Flowers group.
In 2003 I felt I could no further but had the chance to work again with Tony Buckingham at his new venture, Buckingham Covers. Giving me the opportunity to again deal in covers, and help build the company. For the last six years I was a director, doing everything from speaking to the CEO of Royal Mail to making the tea!
Over the last 40 years I have sold and bought thousands of individual covers and hundreds of collections, as I write this, it has probably been more. Since 1986 I have attended nearly every Stampex, lots of regional fairs and the last four Internationals held in London plus one in New York.
After much thought I decided I needed to make big changes in 2024. It was time for me to go out on my own, to be a cover dealer again, buy and sell, give advice and promote cover collecting.