Haine & Son
Eastbourne
Ceremony Details
The Ceremony for Colin Henry Spencer will be held on:
Monday, 14 August 2023 14:30
Hide Hollow
Eastbourne
BN23 8AE
Committal Details
The Committal for Colin Henry Spencer will be held on:
Monday, 14 August 2023 14:30
Hide Hollow
Eastbourne
BN23 8AE
Reception Details
A private reception is being held.
In memory of
Colin Henry Spencer
Colin Henry Spencer was born in the summer of 1933 in Thornton Heath. Colin was the last in line behind his sisters Thelma and Paddy...finally after these two very cabable girls my grandfather Harry had a son inherit the building business and take up his interest in fishing.
My dad’s childhood up until the outbreak of war was idyllic, he had a dog called Patch on a piece of string, which was everything a lad could wish for in a rescue mutt. Summers were at spent at the family holiday home in Camber Sands and Colin was doated upon by his mother Gypsy and big sisters.
The war came and went, his father Harry was too old and had been wounded in WW1 so was unfit and Colin way too young the only casualties being the house on the beach which was demolished to allow a clear field of fire for the Nazi invasion which never came and Patch who was run over in the black out. After the war he attended Brightion Art School but left before completing his Diploma, after a spell of National Sevice in Hamberg went on to live in Vienna, Lesbos and London.
Colin was something of a polymath, a painter, a novelist, a playwright and food writer. As an artist in the late 1950s his illustrations were featured in The London Magazine, The Transatlantic Review and a series portraits of poets was published in The Times Literary Supplement.
His ‘Generation’ sequence of four novels drew heavily on his family running from the end of WW1 to the swinging sixies. Other novels published around this time were Poppy, Mandragora and the New Sex, and How the Greeks Kidnapped Mrs Nixon as well as Panic and Asylum.
It is in both is plays and his food writing that he has left a formidable legacy. The play Spitting Image confronts the discrination that gay couples faced in the 60s and asks a excellent ‘what if’ question, that is as relevent today as it was when it was written, it ran at the Duke of Yorks in 1968, was recently performed in 2016 at the Red Lion in Islington.
His food writing is probably the area where Colin has had the biggest influence as a vegitarian with an interest in compassion in world farming and a columist in the Guardian he had a platform to prothletise and influence the eating habits of readers, he went on to publish a number of scholarly books, some with Claire Clifton (2nd wife).
He has been married twice and had a number of significent relationships with both women and men, he leaves behind a son, three grandsons and a great grand daughter as well as a number of grieving friends, companions and muses. He lived a complicated live, full of joy and energy.
Please copy and paste the following link into your web browser to view Colin's obituary in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/27/colin-spencer-obituary?CMP=share_btn_
My dad’s childhood up until the outbreak of war was idyllic, he had a dog called Patch on a piece of string, which was everything a lad could wish for in a rescue mutt. Summers were at spent at the family holiday home in Camber Sands and Colin was doated upon by his mother Gypsy and big sisters.
The war came and went, his father Harry was too old and had been wounded in WW1 so was unfit and Colin way too young the only casualties being the house on the beach which was demolished to allow a clear field of fire for the Nazi invasion which never came and Patch who was run over in the black out. After the war he attended Brightion Art School but left before completing his Diploma, after a spell of National Sevice in Hamberg went on to live in Vienna, Lesbos and London.
Colin was something of a polymath, a painter, a novelist, a playwright and food writer. As an artist in the late 1950s his illustrations were featured in The London Magazine, The Transatlantic Review and a series portraits of poets was published in The Times Literary Supplement.
His ‘Generation’ sequence of four novels drew heavily on his family running from the end of WW1 to the swinging sixies. Other novels published around this time were Poppy, Mandragora and the New Sex, and How the Greeks Kidnapped Mrs Nixon as well as Panic and Asylum.
It is in both is plays and his food writing that he has left a formidable legacy. The play Spitting Image confronts the discrination that gay couples faced in the 60s and asks a excellent ‘what if’ question, that is as relevent today as it was when it was written, it ran at the Duke of Yorks in 1968, was recently performed in 2016 at the Red Lion in Islington.
His food writing is probably the area where Colin has had the biggest influence as a vegitarian with an interest in compassion in world farming and a columist in the Guardian he had a platform to prothletise and influence the eating habits of readers, he went on to publish a number of scholarly books, some with Claire Clifton (2nd wife).
He has been married twice and had a number of significent relationships with both women and men, he leaves behind a son, three grandsons and a great grand daughter as well as a number of grieving friends, companions and muses. He lived a complicated live, full of joy and energy.
Please copy and paste the following link into your web browser to view Colin's obituary in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/27/colin-spencer-obituary?CMP=share_btn_
Royal Literary Fund
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Donations
Donations for Colin Henry Spencer £25
Nina Gatwood
Royal Literary Fund
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