Dr Lida Cardozo Kindersley MBE

Dr Lida Cardozo Kindersley is a Resident Honorary Fellow at Magdalene.

Dr Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley MBE, Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College and member of Clare Hall, is dedicated to the increase of good lettering in the world. She cuts letters into stone and other materials by hand, and is passionate about handing on knowledge to future generations through apprenticeships, lectures and the many publications which she has written or co-authored.

Lida studied graphic design at the Royal Academy in the Hague before joining lettercutter, typographer and sculptor David Kindersley in 1976 as an apprentice in his renowned Cambridge workshop. She and David married and worked together until his death in 1995.

Since then, the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop has continued to provide inscriptions worldwide, first under her sole proprietorship; then in partnership with her second husband Graham Beck; and now additionally her son Vincent and his wife Roxanne, to whom she passed the role of senior partner in 2023. Nowadays, she simply enjoys cutting letters in stone.

Brother of the Artworkers Guild, Honoured Fellow of the Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society and former Chair of the Wynkyn de Worde Society, in 2015, Lida was appointed MBE. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters (Hon.) Litt.D. by the University of Cambridge in 2023