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Tom Perkins has worked as a letter designer and maker for the last twenty-four years. Born in Plymouth in 1957, he first studied calligraphy at Reigate School of Art and Design from 1974 to 1976 followed by a year learning lettercarving in stone with Richard Kindersley. From 1983 to 1997 he was Visiting Lecturer at Roehampton Institute. Today, most, but by no means all, of Perkins’s work is inscriptional. His numerous commissions include work at Westminster Abbey and Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford. He recently completed a commission for carved lettering for the newly-enlarged Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. His essay ‘Calligraphy as a Basis for Letter Design’ in The Calligrapher’s Handbook is a powerful argument for the practical application of calligraphy with a broad-nibbed pen as a reference point, not in the sense of making ‘pleasing archaeological reconstructions’ but in making available a wide range of options in the design and use of letterforms.