GRAHAM Short, the royal engraver and micro artist took time out from his busy schedule to speak to the Ledbury and District U3A.

Graham is probably best known, most recently, for his 'invisible' portrait of the Novelist Jane Austen on four new £5 notes, which were first issued on September 13, 2016 and which are said to attract a value of £50,000 each.

Birmingham born and bred, and proud of it, Graham left school at 14, without any qualifications, and was apprenticed as an engraver in Birmingham's jewellery quarter, earning £2 17s 6d/week. He feels he owes his work ethic to his English teacher – Mr Jennings, whose sound advice was – to do well in life, do things differently. Jasper Carrot was one of his class mates, as well as two members of Black Sabbath, so all in all a very successful year group.

During his apprenticeship Graham mixed with and learned from many skilled craftsmen in the precious metal industry. He learned how to harden and temper pins over a naked flame to reduce their size so that he could use them to carry out his micro-engraving. This process could take up to three days. but once it was perfected, they would last for nine to 10 months. To ensure his work was accurate he invested in a microscope which he purchased on ebay for £60.

He works in the middle of the night when external vibration from traffic is at a minimum, and takes medication to slow his heart-rate to 20 beats a minute, so that with the help of a stethoscope, he can engrave between heart-beats; with further medical intervention around his eyes to prevent them from blinking.

One of Graham's most challenging achievements has been to engrave the words 'nothing is impossible' on the cutting edge of a Wilkinson Sword razor blade; which is, incidentally, the motto of Saatchi and Saatchi, and appears on the front entrance above the steps of their main London Office in Charlotte Street.

Graham makes the dyes for the letterhead of the green portcullis on the House of Commons headed paper, the letter headed paper for the royal palaces, the royal wedding invitations and the royal box at Wimbledon.

The illustrated presentation was concluded with the story of Graham once being told by a BBC producer that the BBC was running a story on him, at the end of that evening's news bulletin. Graham rushed back from his art exhibition, only to find he had been usurped by Prince Charles reading the weather forecast!