I get up usually about 7am, have a cup of tea and an orange juice, freshly squeezed preferably, but it depends on the time of year: oranges are good now but in summer they're awful.
I have two offices. The main one is in the country, at my house near Newbury, Berkshire. There I have my personal assistant, a couple of designers, my furniture factory employing about 40 people and a garden growing vegetables and herbs, which are sent up to my restaurants. I can still deal with these huge piles of paper that coagulate on the desk, but it's much more peaceful than here in London, where I have an office and a bedroom next door. In London it's meetings end to end, working with the designers and the restaurateurs. Apart from designing I write a lot of books. I have just published The Ultimate House Book and I'm also doing one on bathrooms.
I'm here two or three days a week, the other four or five I'm in the country. I really do work seven days a week, that's how I relax. I don't play golf but I watch a lot of rugby. I expect everyone in England watches rugby now but I've been doing it all my life. My father played for England and was keen for me to play. I played wing forward for a time.
I have my first coffee and cigar when I'm in the office, at about 8.30. I like my cigars. Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No. 2. Cuban. I've heard people say I wear only blue shirts because they do not show the dirt or ash as much. But I just love the colour. Always have. My wife buys me blue shirts for birthdays. I do have a white shirt but I rarely wear it. GQ magazine once asked me who the best- and worst-dressed men were. Best is my son Jasper, who is extremely interested in his appearance and dresses accordingly. Worst is me. I'm not interested. I like frayed shirts and slightly baggy trousers. I'm scruffy, though I think it's rather chic. Some people think a man who deals in aesthetics would dress better but what I am really interested in is easy living. My business and life philosophy is about lack of pretension. I like beautiful things, clean, simple, calm.
I believe intelligently designed things can improve life: there are so many frustrations caused by things that don't work. When life gets me down I take time out, get a good bottle of wine, a cigar, and sit and think. Often I have a bath; the Japanese know how to let tension drip away like that.
Work can be stressful. When I arrive I get my marching orders, written down, telling me what to do every half hour. People say I am anti-technology. I'm not, but I choose not to have a mobile phone, I try not to over-communicate. My children use them, and if they want to, fine. I don't. It's like fox hunting or smoking, if you want to do it, fine. Let people make their own decisions. For the record, I hate fox hunting.
I am also busy being a restaurateur and architect and, of course, helping the Design Museum in London, which I founded in 1989, and which is devoted to mass-produced objects. As a student, I could not see any contemporary design in Britain. We had to get books from America or Italy because our museums were full of antiquities, so I thought when I made some money I'd show Britain the world of design. It's the fastest-growing museum in Britain and I'm extremely proud of it. It is my legacy.
