Looking through the design workshop yesterday I discovered a book I made nearly twenty years ago. It reminded me how grateful I am to one of my mentors, the bookbinder Michael O’Brien, a man of enormous talent, insight and good humour, and without a doubt the most eccentric person I’ve ever met. I met Michael in 1994, just before he moved his workshop from Auckland to the South Island. One of the books he was working on was for a European art collector, to mount his Picasso drawings. This was a revelatory experience for me. Do people like this exist? Do they pay thousands of dollars for books? How did Michael get that work? How could we do the same? It was a pivotal moment in Queensberry’s history. Shortly after, we launched our Companion range, which still lives on in our pagemount products. It attracted the interest of photographers internationally and the rest is history, as they say. Michael taught me what it means to live a life of your own design, the mindset needed if you aspire to greatness, the sheer hard work and dedication you need to bring to your game. He chose to turn his back on the throw-away society, moved to the Victorian precincts of Oamaru, and makes his way restoring old books and making exquisite new ones. If you check out the short movie above you'll see he's happiest in the Jacobean period, and likes the spiritual consolations of single malt whiskey, and espresso coffee made on the wood burning range. Best, Heather