Alex Monroe

Alex is one of Britain’s foremost jewellery designers. His exquisite pieces are renowned for their originality; they are inspired by nature and by his extraordinary childhood in the wilds of Suffolk. 

Following a foundation course at Ipswich School of Art, Alex took a degree in jewellery at Sir John Cass School of Art in Whitechapel. He set up his business in South London in 1986 and quickly grew in popularity. In 2008 he was made ‘Designer of the Year’ at the UK Jewellery Awards, for which he was also shortlisted in ’09 and ’10. His work regularly appears in the pages of fashion magazines and in 2011 Alex opened a stand-alone store in London Bridge.

His memoir, TWO TURTLE DOVES (Bloomsbury, 2015), is essentially a story of the creative process – how an idea, a feeling or an impression is turned into a beautiful piece of jewellery and how something deeply personal becomes a physical object of adoration. He tells the story that lies behind a piece of jewellery, from the childhood experiences that shaped the creator’s whole approach through to the genesis of a specific concept, the intense finessing of a prototype and beyond. The narrative blends past and present and sets Monroe’s feral childhood against an atmospheric backdrop of village life in the 1970s. Beautiful to look at, inspiring to read, the book’s themes are nostalgia, patriotism, love, and the English countryside. In 2014 it won the EA Biography and Memoir Award.

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'This is a tremendous book. A generous story of making, looking, travelling and growing up... 'Edmund de Waal

'A hidden gem ... A good deal more than a memoir. I imagine its being rediscovered with delight in some dusty book case a century hence and hailed as a classic' Spectator

'Just as delicate and golden as his famous pieces - a heartfelt celebration of creativity, craftsmanship and love' Harper's Bazaar

'Magical' Elle

'A memoir plus, brilliantly describing how lived experience is translated by craftsmanship into art' Spectator Books of the Year

'A wonderful book...a hymn to the pleasure of making things. The message...should be proclaimed in every school' The Times

'Wonderfully readable…it has that rare quality which makes you desperate to keep reading on' Absolutely South East

'One of the best pieces of writing on art and craftsmanship I have ever read' Ian Bates, Plough Quarterly