Duncan hamilton ice sculpture biography of william

Mr Hamilton was a chef working at London's crème de la crème when he discovered a talent that would shape the rest of his life: the all but extinct world of ice sculpting.

‘People get very uptight about being cold,’ muses Duncan Hamilton of Hamilton Ice Sculptors, who’s sitting in an ice chair as we speak, ‘but, if you relax about it, the cold is all right.’

Mr Hamilton set up his company more than 40 years ago, reviving a practice that had all but disappeared in Western Europe.

In another life, he was a chef at high-class London restaurants such as Mirabelle and Le Caprice, but it was when he was working at The Dorchester that he was first asked to sculpt ice for a party.

The craftsman began slowly, creating a few pieces here and there – he specialises in classic forms, such as swans and fish – but demand quickly grew and