Simon Garfield

Simon Garfield was born in London in 1960. He won the Guardian/National Union of Students "Student Journalist of the Year" award In 1981, and the same year became a sub-editor at the Radio Times (a UK guide to what's on TV and radio). He wrote scripts for BBC radio documentaries in the early 1980s, and wrote for Time Out magazine (where he was acting editor from 1988-1989). He has written for newspapers such as The Independent on Sunday and The Observer. He was named Mind Journalist of the Year in 2005. The award celebrates exceptional writing on mental health issues in the local, national, trade and consumer press. He is the author of a dozen books of nonfiction including Just My Type, published in 2010 in the UK and 2011 in the USA. His also recently wrote On The Map (2012) and his forthcoming book is To The Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World (2013).