Bernard Pearson

Bernard Stanley Pearson (born 13 September 1946)^[1]

A British potter and sculptor who in 1981 set up a pottery called Clare Craft in the Suffolk town of Clare. Here Bernard and his team produced a range of fantasy and often amusing figurines with great popular appeal. This led to a meeting with Terry Pratchett in 1990 and Clare Craft went on to design a range of figurines based on characters from Terry’s Discworld novels.

In 1997 at Terry’s suggestion Bernard embarked upon ‘The Unreal Estate’ a series of highly detailed architectural models based on Discworld locations, most notably the Unseen University. Also, during this time, he and his wife, Isobel created a wide range of studio pottery based on landscape and fantasy under the back stamp of ‘Bernard Pearson Ceramics’.

In 2000 he moved to the town of Wincanton, in Somerset, England where he established a Discworld centre and retail outlet called ‘The Cunning Artificer’ the name bestowed upon him by his friend Terry Pratchett. Here, he and Isobel launched more Discworld merchandise including the now almost famous ‘Discworld Stamps’ This latter collaboration with Terry Pratchett resulted in the creation of many thousands of ‘Cinderella’ stamps that are held in collections from the British Library to private collectors the world over. He also co-authored ‘The Complete Discworld Almanack with Terry in 2004.

‘The Cunning Artificer’ became the ‘The Discworld Emporium’ in 2011 when Ian Mitchell and Reb Voyce joined the partnership and set up a successful online business shipping books and Discworld artifacts all over the world. Following the death of his friend Terry in 2015, Bernard took a back seat in the design and running of the Emporium. And since then the seat has been shoved so far back it now rests in a large, comfortable shed at the bottom of his garden, behind the premises. He occasionally wanders into the shop to greet Discworld fans and, when requested, will tell them to leave in his usual rich and fruity language.

In 2018 Bernard published his first novel ‘Dovetail’. It was well-received so that’s what he does now. Mostly write. Bernard is known for his wit and skills as a raconteur; he has embarked upon several podcasts and occasionally posts on a blog. Otherwise, age has not unduly withered, nor the years condemned beyond the need for suitable alcoholic refreshment and good pipe tobacco. He considers himself, all things considered, a very lucky man.