John was born in Radford, Nottingham. He was educated at Peoples College Secondary Technical School. He left school without any formal education in the Arts, but with a great respect creative minds and the achievements of the engineers of the past who created and shaped our modern world. His heroes were always Isambard Kingdom Brunel whose monumental engineering works endure to the present time, and Leonardo de Vinci whose vision and inventiveness, combined with his artistic brilliance and anatomical knowledge were pure genius. Since retirement he has used his spare time to become more creative. He is now enjoying using his photography skills to produce work to share with others.