Simon Frank Garfield (born 19 March 1960[1]) is a British journalist and non-fiction author.
Simon Frank Garfield (born 19 March 1960[1]) is a British journalist and non-fiction author.
Garfield was born in London in 1960.[2] He was educated at the independent University College School in Hampstead, London, and the London School of Economics, where he was executive editor of The Beaver. He won the Guardian/NUS 'Student Journalist of the Year' award in 1981, and the same year he became a sub-editor at the Radio Times.[1] He wrote scripts for BBC radio documentaries in the early 1980s.[1] He also wrote for Time Out magazine, acting as editor from 1988 to 1989.[1] He has written for newspapers such as The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, and The Observer, and was named Mind Journalist of the Year in 2005.[1] He was among the clients of Pat Kavanagh at United Agents.
He is the author of several books including Expensive Habits: The Dark Side of the Industry, the Somerset Maugham Prize-winning The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS, The Wrestling, The Nation's Favourite: The True Adventures of Radio 1, and Mauve.[2]
In 2010 his book Just My Type was published, exploring the history of typographic fonts.[3][4]
Garfield appeared on 25 February 2013 episode of The Colbert Report to discuss why he wrote On the Map.
Garfield's book To the Letter: A Curious History of Correspondence is one of the inspirations behind the charity event Letters Live.[5]
