I am Stephen, a hand-letterer based in England, UK. I live with my ragdoll cat, Chestnut, and also work as a traditional butler.

I was born in 1979 into a creative family. At the age of eight I joined a cathedral choir and later studied the organ. Leaving home at eighteen to pursue a butler career, I brought with me a life’s love of lettering: writing, sketching, doodling onto any paper I could find.

Whilst as a butler I had the privilege of living in some of the UK’s most prestigious private stately homes, in 2009 I left the career to try my vocation as a Cistercian monk. It was here, during an immersive and decisive three years, that my love of lettering took its current form: a contemporary take on Celtic script. My gallery, on this website, is bursting with examples of this style, in which I redact the busyness and complication of Celtic lettering and embellishment, in order to find an almost minimalist identity within the script.

I would use the early hours of the monastic timetable, when we were supposed to pray in silence, to write the prayers instead of reading them. Thus, not only did I stay awake easier, but I got my daily practice in, too.

I left both the monastery and my religious identity behind. However, my career as a calligrapher has flourished, and most of my work now lives in Churches and places of worship across the globe, from the UK to Montenegro; from Australia to the USA. One of my completely hand-lettered books - a prayer called the Exsultet - now lives in a private collection in Uganda.

I also write lots of non-religious lettering, many examples of which you will see in my gallery.

I hope that you enjoy this, my gallery of works. It represents only a portion of my entire Opus. Should you like to purchase some original artwork for yourself, please contact me and I can give you a quote. I look forward to hearing from you.

Stephen Duckett.

January, 2023.