John Skelton was Eric Gill's nephew and worked with him as an apprentice shortly before Gill's death. Skelton comments on his work, "I believe that too much detail is quite often a distraction - rather I prefer to put into the work what the memory retains, that is to say, the important features... The volume, its shape and weight and balance are what matter and, most important, the juxtaposition of one form to another. The abiding worth of a work therefore is in its composition." (J. Skelton, John Skelton: a sculptor's work, 1950 - 1975, Wellingborough, Northlants: C. Skelton, 1977, p.18.)