'Give me three years and we'll be millionaires, ' Nick challenged his long-suffering family in 1980, when cash was king. 'I've got an idea that's going to take us to the top.'
Tinkering with alchemy in an old stable he shared with a Shire horse, Nick discovered how to create the most convincing antique replicas ever made. He started by selling a few of his netsukes on a market stall at the Birmingham Rag Market and met extraordinary and eccentric...