Simon Frank Garfield (born 19 March 1960) is a British journalist and non-fiction author. He has written for publications such asTime Out,The Independent, andThe Observer. His early work focused on the music industry, but his books have increasingly delved into niche topics, fromBritish wrestling and the invention ofmauve to thehistory of encyclopedias andtypefaces. Garfield is based inLondon.
Simon Frank Garfield was born inLondon on 19 March 1960 to Herbert Sidney and Hella Helene (née Meyer) Garfield.[1] He grew up in a comfortable middle-class family inHampstead Garden Suburb. His father was born inHamburg, Germany, but left for London in 1934, changed his name from Garfunkel to Garfield and became a successful city solicitor. Garfield's father died when he was 13, his brother when he was 18 and his mother when he was 19.[2]
Garfield attendedUniversity College School.[1] He went on to study at theLondon School of Economics, where he focused more on writing forThe Beaver, the understaffed student newspaper, than his studies, and became joint editor. Garfield later recalled that it was "the best fun you could have apart from student riots," but the staff realized "we'd never have so much journalistic control again". He was awardedStudent Journalist of the Year byThe Guardian in 1981, which led him to get employed briefly at theRadio Times assubeditor of theBBC Radio 3 listings.[3][4]
In 1981 and 1982, Garfield worked as a scriptwriter forBBCradio documentaries. He moved on toTime Out, where he served as editor in 1988 and 1989.[1] Garfield often expanded his well-researched articles into books.[2] His first two were on exploitation in the music industry.Money for Nothing: Greed and Exploitation in the Music Industry (1986) was praised byBooklist's Peter L. Robinson as an "insider's account" which had "all the ingredients that produce a juicy public spectacle."[1]Expensive Habits: The Dark Side of the Music Industry (1986) was based on an article Garfield wrote forTime Out aboutGeorge Michael'slegal action against his record label.[2] In his review forThe Listener, Dave Rimmer described Garfield as "one of the few writers in Britain dealing regularly, intelligently and entertainingly with the business of music."[1]
Garfield was afeature writer forThe Independent from 1990 to 1996.[1] He wroteThe End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS (1994) when he found that there was no book on the history ofAIDS in the United Kingdom while researching an article about the drugAZT. It won theSomerset Maugham Award.[2] In theLondon Review of Books, Peter Campbell considered the book to be a successful treatment of its subject which was "objective about difficult issues."[1]
Garfield started writing books on more niche topics: including inside views on British wrestling inThe Wrestling (1996) andBBC Radio 1DJs inThe Nation's Favourite: The True Adventures of Radio One (1998); and whatThe New York Times Book Review called a "straightforward and clear" chronicle ofWilliam Henry Perkin's life and legacy inMauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World (2006).[1][2]
Garfield wrote features forThe Observer in 2001 and 2002.[1] He wrote a 2004 piece for the paper, "Unhappy Anniversary", which followed the legacy of tranquillisers such asValium and ledMind to honour him as Journalist of the Year in 2005.[5] In a three-volume anthology —Our Hidden Lives (2004),We Are at War (2005) andPrivate Battles (2006) — Garfield edited diaries from the archives ofMass-Observation,[2] established in the 1930s to preserve the daily experiences of "ordinary people".[6] He is now a trustee of the archives.[2]
To cope with amidlife crisis and the breakdown of his first marriage, Garfield wrote a memoir about his personal life and passion forstamp collecting. He rediscovered philately in his 40s, spending thousands of pounds on his collection, but was reluctant to talk about the obsession. Garfield had been married to the playwrightDiane Samuels since 1987, with whom he had two sons, but had anaffair. Though it did not sell well, writingThe Error World: An Affair With Stamps (2008), Garfield toldThe Guardian's Stuart Jeffries, "enabled me to look back, and it enabled me to grow up a bit." He let go of philately and sold his collection for £42,500, purchasing a place inSt Ives, Cornwall.[2]
In 2010 his bookJust My Type was published, exploring the history of typographic fonts.[7][8]
Garfield appeared on 25 February 2013 episode ofThe Colbert Report to discuss why he wroteOn the Map.
Garfield's bookTo the Letter: A Curious History of Correspondence is one of the inspirations behind the charity eventLetters Live.[9]
In 2023, Garfield published a trilogy of books calledThe ABC of Fonts, featuring the following slim volumes:
In 2024 it was announced Canongate had signed Garfield to write a "lively, idiosyncratic and global history" of the pen, to be calledThe Pen.[11]
Garfield lives inHampstead, London,[2] with his wife Justine, a chef.[12] He was previously married to the playwrightDiane Samuels.
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