Simon Garfield

Simon Frank Garfield (born 19 March 1960) is a British journalist and non-fiction author.

Garfield was born in London in 1960. 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. He wrote scripts for BBC radio documentaries in the early 1980s. He also wrote for Time Out magazine, acting as editor from 1988 to 1989. 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. 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.

In 2010 his book Just My Type was published, exploring the history of typographic fonts.

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 the inspiration behind the charity event Letters Live.

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