Harold Hall was for a number of years the editor of Model Engineers' Workshop magazine and through its pages, he established himself as a mentor to tyro model engineers worldwide. He is the author of seven books in the indispensable Workshop Practice Series and lives in the Hertfordshire countryside. Harold Hall commenced an industrial apprenticeship in 1950 at the age of sixteen and worked as an electrical control systems engineer for thirty-five years before becoming editor of Model Engineer's Workshop magazine in 1991. Following retirement in 1995, he has continued to contribute metalworking articles to almost every issue of the magazine published since then. His crafting hobbies extend beyond model engineering to cabinet making, modelling, marquetry and pencil sketching.