Ever since I was a little boy I experienced feelings of wonder, love and even ecstasy sometimes, when I watched a bird, an animal or a beautiful boy or girl – this is what I longed to share with people.

David Wynne has created more public sculptures in London than any other twentieth century artist. His work has been collected by patrons around the world and even now, in his eighties, the sculptor continues to gain important commissions. Wynne is currently creating a life-size statue of the Beatles to be sited at Stowe, where a permanent collection of his work will be housed in the school. From the iconic Boy with a Dolphin on London’s Embankment, to the centrepiece of The Queen Mother Gate in Hyde Park; his three-quarter life size statue of Fred Perry outside the Centre Court at Wimbledon to his awe-inspiring Christ on the west front of Wells cathedral, his work is evidence of his fierce, overwhelming desire to create beautiful sculpture that pays no heed to convention.

Wynne never attended an art school, has never used a gallery to obtain his commissions, nor had any regard for fashionable aesthetic conventions. For the past four years he has collaborated with David Elliott to tell the story of his remarkable life. More anecdotal and event-based than artistic critique, Boy with a Dolphin seeks to be a rounded portrait of a man who has sought to render his love of life and his wonder at the beauty of all things into a body of work which stands as testament to a unique creative vision.

David Elliott is a publisher. He has written six books, including accounts of Van Gogh’s house in Arles, Monet’s garden at Givenchy, Leonardo’s studio in Florence and a celebration of the Royal Windsor Horse Show, All The Queen’s Horses.