Author: Ian Bowden

Ian Bowden

Ever since he took the family car apart aged 11, Ian has been fascinated by every type of machinery. (He got the car working again.) A Cornishman, he has an OND in Agriculture and was a farm manager from 1987-2000, spending his spare evenings mending 4-cylinder air-cooled light aircraft engines. In 2002 he became a HETAS and OFTEC service engineer, plumber and central heating specialist, and now – in addition to running a 25-acre smallholding – is forging a new career in landscape gardening, following a lifelong fascination with diggers. Alongside stacks of technical manuals, his home bristles with mechanical toy tanks, remote- controlled flying machines, home-made musical instruments and bewildered cats. Outside in the yard, boats, canoes, and piles of agricultural machines await repair. Any smaller domestic machines that dare malfunction are swiftly pulled apart and mended using his extensive workshop, crammed to the rafters with the spares, nuts and bolts he has been collecting for the last 40 years. Ian is also unusually gifted at lambing sheep, dancing, and housework.