Biography
Having left school at 15 without a qualification to his name, Simon dipped in and out of several jobs including a postman, a private investigator, an industrial chemist and a spell abroad selling time-share, before giving it all up to become an estate agent.
His love of books and writing didn't start early. In fact he didn't read his first book until he was 21 - a terrible admission. But as he sat reading that first novel (James Herriot, ironically), something happened and he had an, 'I get it!' moment.
From that moment on he became a voracious reader, often having 5 or 6 books on the go at any one time.
Inevitably at some point he thought, maybe I could do this, and wrote some appalling novels with titles such as Too Old to Die, and the rom-com It happened in wellies, all of which have long ago been deleted and nobody is crying over that.
Submitting articles to magazines was a little more successful. With a few sexy fiction stories published in For Women magazine (don't judge, they paid really well), he went on to write regularly for Devon Life, County Smallholding and a weekly lifestyle column in The North Devon Journal.
Securing representation from, frankly, the best literary agent in the country, books followed, starting with The Self Sufficiency Bible, then Pigs in Clover and his latest The Sty's the Limit.
He now writes for national newspapers and magazines, and states his hobby as 'going on the radio'.
Simon has been married to Debbie for 24 years, and together they have doted on 5 Great Dane dogs, Baloo, Deacon, Darcy, Brodie and Solomon.
Oh, and together they have a smallholding.
Having left school at 15 without a qualification to his name, Simon dipped in and out of several jobs including a postman, a private investigator, an industrial chemist and a spell abroad selling time-share, before giving it all up to become an estate agent.
His love of books and writing didn't start early. In fact he didn't read his first book until he was 21 - a terrible admission. But as he sat reading that first novel (James Herriot, ironically), something happened and he had an, 'I get it!' moment.
From that moment on he became a voracious reader, often having 5 or 6 books on the go at any one time.
Inevitably at some point he thought, maybe I could do this, and wrote some appalling novels with titles such as Too Old to Die, and the rom-com It happened in wellies, all of which have long ago been deleted and nobody is crying over that.
Submitting articles to magazines was a little more successful. With a few sexy fiction stories published in For Women magazine (don't judge, they paid really well), he went on to write regularly for Devon Life, County Smallholding and a weekly lifestyle column in The North Devon Journal.
Securing representation from, frankly, the best literary agent in the country, books followed, starting with The Self Sufficiency Bible, then Pigs in Clover and his latest The Sty's the Limit.
He now writes for national newspapers and magazines, and states his hobby as 'going on the radio'.
Simon has been married to Debbie for 24 years, and together they have doted on 5 Great Dane dogs, Baloo, Deacon, Darcy, Brodie and Solomon.
Oh, and together they have a smallholding.
