Simon lives with his wife, son and very vocal baby daughter, plus, two (close approximations of) dogs in rural North Yorkshire, where both he and his wife grew up, surrounded by friends and family.

A born and bred Yorkshireman with a love of country, Simon admits that he cannot envisage spending his life anywhere else, though his anchor is sometimes tested as the wanderlust hits and the family travel wherever they can find the breathtaking remains of the classical world.

Simon loves travel and history, architecture and writing which interact well enough to keep him almost permanently busy.

Since leaving school and University,Simon tried a great number of careers, including car sales, insurance, software engineering, computer network management, civil service and even painting and decorating sales.

He has lived in four counties and travelled as widely as time and budget allowed and find himself, on the cusp of his fortieth year, back where he began and finally doing something he loves.

Having written a number of unpublished short stories in his early days, Simon decided to try and write a full length novel in 2003.

That was the start of Marius’ Mules.

Being a lover of Roman history, Simon decided to combine his love of writing and classical history.

Marius’ Mules was followed two years later by Interregnum (book 1 of Tales of the Empire series), an attempt to create a new fantasy story still with a heavy flavour of Rome.

Simon claims that “Since then, the success and popularity of both have inflated my head so that I can no longer comfortably fit through doors, and has spawned sequels to each work, with a third in the fantasy series and the fifth Marius’ Mules now complete.”

Simons works to date include:

Marius’ Mules series – 5 books

The Invasion of Gaul, The Belgae, Gallia Invicta, Conspiracy of Eagles, Hades’ Gate

Tales of the Empire series – 3 books

Interregnum, Ironroot, Dark Empress

The Ottoman Cycle series – 1 book

The Thief’s Tale

To get a flavour of Simons work, why not check out the following currently Free book(find it in my Short Stories Bookcase):

Tales of Ancient Rome (vol #1)

A collection of bite-size stories of varying styles all based in the world of ancient Rome. 12 tales of the ancient world, plus a bonus tale to finish

The second edition contains two new tales not told in the 1st. Laugh, cry and shudder at:

Hold The Wall – Hadrian’s wall in the last days of the western empire

Vigil – A comedic tale of firefighting in Rome

*NEW* Rudis – A champion gladiator fights his last fight

*NEW* The Discovery – A Roman trader makes a surprising find in distant China

The man who bought an Empire – The lowest point of Imperial succession

Trackside seats – A slave helps his blind master at the circus

How to run a latifundium – A cautionary tale of estate management

A Reading – What does the future hold in Judea?

Exploratores – Trajan’s scouts on the trail of Dacian warriors

With a pinch of salt – A comedic tale of food in Claudius’ Rome

The Palmyrene Prince – Rome’s eastern border tells grim tales

Temple Trouble – A tale of the early days of Fronto (of the Marius’ Mules series)

Bonus tale: Aftermath in the Ludus – A fun finish.

Find out more and keep up to date with Simon and his books by clicking HERE.