Colin Holcombe

Colin Holcombe, was born and raised in Bristol, but has lived in Winterbourne for thirty years

A former Antique Restorer, he has also been a Cabaret Entertainer, Adult Education Tutor and Kitchen Designer.

He has tried his hand at various sports, including, gliding, tennis, badminton and golf, and has written several reference books.

He has now published his first work of fiction, “First Time Hard.”

Colin said,"I served an apprenticeship under an Italian restorer called, Carlo Perona, and was lucky to survive nine years with him. We used to solder items, using silver solder, and the normal gas supply to the workshop. We had a gas gun with feeds for both gas and air; the air being supplied via a large pair of foot bellows, operated by yours truly.

Hoping to reduce the operation to a single handed process, we substituted the bellows for an old cylinder vacuum cleaner that could blow, as well as suck. The idea was simple, Carlo would turn on and light the gas; then switch on the vacuum cleaner which produced a beautiful blue flame for soldering. One fateful day however, Carlo's lighter let him down and he called over to me, for some matches with which to light the gas. It took me some minutes to locate the required matches, during which time the gas was not just coming out of the end of the gun, but was feeding its way down the air line and filling up the vacuum cleaner. The resulting explosion when it was switched on, had to be experienced to be believed!