When you're carving, your mind just clears. It's the most wonderful thing because you're totally involved. You never even hear the sound. Concentration is not the right word - it's almost a trance. You see what you have to do and you do it. I don't carry a mobile phone. Can you imagine? The vibration in my pocket might mean my taking the head off some carving.

Happiness is contentment. Health is number one. You have to be like an athlete to do this. All day I'm bending at the knees, crouching. It's a lot of physical exertion, but I know carvers in their 70s who are still doing it.

I'm not happy, I'm content. I don't owe anything, no mortgage. All I've got belongs to me. If I've got a smoke in my pocket, I'm happy. Change your lifestyle if you're not happy. Don't be afraid. I was an HGV driver for years but that was like being a clockwork doll: get up, and the boss says do this, do that. I was going from A-B with no real satisfaction. I was brought up in the countryside, the woods, the fields. Now I walk out of the back door and it's 40 yards to my studio.

I never saw my children while driving. Once, when my son was small, he hid behind his mum because he didn't recognise me. That had to change.

My boy started carving a fortnight ago. My daughter's interested. I got a lump in my throat when they were old enough to pick up the chainsaw.