Simon Barnes

Born in Bristol in 1951, Simon Barnes went on to become the multi-award winning Chief Sports Writer for The Times until July 2014. He is the author of over 20 books, including three on wildlife and three novels. His bestselling How to be a Bad Birdwatcher (UK Short Books; USA Pantheon) was been serialised in The Times and read on Radio 4. The sequel, A Bad Birdwatcher's Companion, was published by Short Books in 2006, who also published his acclaimed The Meaning of Sport.

Losing It: A Lifetime in Pursuit of Sporting Excellence was published in 2016 by Bloomsbury.

The Sacred Combe: A Search for Humanity’s Homeland explores the special places of the mind and the world, with special reference to the Luangwa Valley. It was published in the UK in January 2016 by Bloomsbury, followed by the US edition. The Meaning of Birds was also published in 2016 by Head of Zeus.

In 2018 Simon & Schuster published EPIC: In Search of the Soul of Sport and Why It Matters, followed by Rewild Yourself: 23 Spellbinding Ways to Make Nature More Visible.

On The Marsh: A Year Surrounded by Wildness and Wet was published by Simon & Schuster in 2019.

Simon lives in Suffolk with his family.

His new book, The History of the World in 100 Animals, was published by Simon & Schuster on 2 December 2021.