Keith Brymer Jones' first clay touch was 'epiphany moment'

Keith Brymer Jones said he loved and respected Stoke-on-Trent

Potter Keith Brymer Jones's first touch of clay was an "epiphany moment" leading to a career spanning 40 years.

His first creation, a pottery owl, was praised by his art teacher in north London.

"You always remember an inspirational teacher, just one. And there was one for me and his name was Mr Mortman.

"He gave me a lump of clay at the age of 11 in my art class and quite frankly the rest is history," he said.

Brymer Jones spoke to BBC Radio Stoke ahead of his role as a judge on the fifth series of The Great Pottery Throw Down.

"The moment I touched the clay it was an epiphany moment, it was like a religious calling," he said.

"Due to my dyslexia and due to other things that were going on in my formative years I realise now it's so blindingly obvious why I took to clay the way I did - but I did and it was fantastic," he said.

Series of The Great Pottery Throw Down have been made at Middleport Pottery in Burslem

He believes his dyslexia gave him an affinity with "form and volume".

Brymer Jones details his life in "Boy in a China Shop: Life Clay and Everything" which he wrote with a friend and which is published next year.

Its chapters focus on influential people and objects as it goes through "all the different connections" made in his life, he said.

Stoke-on-Trent features heavily.

"I've seen the changes but I have really grown to love and quite frankly respect the whole place. And I love the people as well. They are very, very down to earth," he said.

In recent years the city had had a "bad lot", he added, and suffered from under investment, but it was slowly changing.

"I go to China, India, Sri Lanka, I go all over the world to ceramics factories and everyone knows about Stoke-on-Trent. It's what the Beatles are to music, pottery is to Stoke," he said.

The Great Pottery Showdown, by Love Productions which also makes the Great British Bake Off, returns on Channel 4 in the new year.

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