At 18, I passed my exams to study English in Oxford. However, when I left school I could not start university immediately. Until the mid-1950s, boys did two years of military service before starting University. As the draft system was coming to an end, I was among the first that did not have go into the army. But the Oxford college that had accepted me was used to students being two years older, and they did not want me right away. They said: we’ll split the difference, go do something else for a year. So in 1955 my parents had to think of something to keep me occupied.

As my father had very friendly relationships with Jan van Krimpen and the Enschedé printing company, it was arranged that I would spend that year in Haarlem in the Netherlands as an unpaid trainee. As you know, Enschedé was a very interesting company; they did all the security printing such as passports, stamps and stock certificates, as well as book printing, high quality color work and so on. But there was also the Enschedé type foundry, which was the department where I happened to start my year. The idea was that I would work around all the different departments, but I got so interested that I spent virtually the whole year in the type foundry.

Matthew Carter.