Simon Winchester facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Simon Winchester OBE
Winchester in 2013
Born	(1944-09-28) 28 September 1944 (age 80) London, England
Occupation	Journalist, author
Education	University of Oxford
Spouse	Catherine Evans (div.) Setsuko Winchester

Simon Winchester OBE was born on September 28, 1944. He is a British-American author and journalist. He worked for The Guardian newspaper, where he reported on important events like Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. Simon Winchester has written more than 30 popular nonfiction books, one novel, and articles for magazines such as Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, and National Geographic.

Early Life and Education

Simon Winchester was born in London, England. He went to several boarding schools in Dorset. After school, he spent a year traveling across the United States by hitchhiking.

Studying Geology at Oxford

In 1963, he started studying geology at St Catherine's College, Oxford University. He finished his studies in 1966. After graduating, he got a job with a Canadian mining company called Falconbridge of Africa. His first job was to look for copper in Uganda.

A Career in Journalism and Writing

While working in Uganda, Simon Winchester found a book called Coronation Everest by Jan Morris. This book was about the first successful climb of Mount Everest in 1953. Reading it made him want to become a writer. He wrote to Jan Morris for advice. Morris told him to quit his geology job right away and become a newspaper writer.

Reporting for The Guardian

In 1969, Winchester joined The Guardian newspaper. He first worked as a reporter in Newcastle upon Tyne. Later, he became their reporter in Northern Ireland. During his time there, he covered many events of a difficult period known as The Troubles. This included Bloody Sunday and the "Hour of Terror" in Belfast.

After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Winchester briefly worked in Calcutta. Then, he became The Guardian's reporter in Washington, D.C. He covered news from the end of Richard Nixon's time as president to the start of Jimmy Carter's presidency.

Working as a Foreign Correspondent

In 1982, Simon Winchester was the chief foreign feature writer for The Sunday Times. He was reporting from the Falkland Islands when Argentine forces invaded. He was thought to be a spy and was held as a prisoner for three months in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. He wrote about this experience in his book Prison Diary (1983). He also wrote about it in Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire (1985) and Atlantic: A Vast Ocean of a Million Stories (2010). In the Atlantic book, he shares how he met one of his jailers many years later.

In 1985, he started working as a freelance writer. He traveled to Hong Kong. When Signature magazine became Condé Nast Traveler, Winchester became its Asia-Pacific Editor. For the next fifteen years, he wrote for many travel magazines. These included Traveler, National Geographic, and Smithsonian magazine.

Writing Best-Selling Books

Winchester's first book, In Holy Terror, was published in 1975. It was based on his experiences during the troubles in Northern Ireland. In 1976, he published his second book, American Heartbeat, about his travels in the American Midwest.

His first truly successful book was The Professor and the Madman (1998). It was called The Surgeon of Crowthorne in the UK. This book tells the story of how the Oxford English Dictionary was created. It became a New York Times Best Seller.

Simon Winchester still writes travel books. He also writes many popular nonfiction books that tell true stories. The Map that Changed the World (2001) is about the geologist William Smith. This was his second New York Times best seller. In 2003, he published The Meaning of Everything, which is also about the Oxford English Dictionary. That same year, he released the best-selling book Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded.

He then published A Crack in the Edge of the World (2005), a book about San Francisco's 1906 earthquake. The Man Who Loved China (2008) tells the life story of the scholar Joseph Needham. In 2011, he published The Alice Behind Wonderland. This book explores the life of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll, and his friendship with Alice Liddell.

Winchester's book about the Pacific Ocean, titled Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers, came out in 2015. This was his second book about the Pacific region. His first was Pacific Rising: The Emergence of a New World Culture (1991). In the mid-1980s, Winchester managed to visit the secret island of Diego Garcia. He pretended his boat had problems near the island and stayed in the bay for about two days. He briefly stepped ashore before being asked to leave by British authorities.

Personal Life

On July 4, 2011, Simon Winchester became an American citizen. The ceremony took place on the USS Constitution. He lives in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. He also started a local newspaper called the Sandisfield Times. It focuses on news in the small town of Sandisfield.

Honors and Awards

Simon Winchester has received several honors for his work:

• In 2006, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This was for his contributions to journalism and literature.
• In October 2009, he was named an honorary fellow at St Catherine's College, Oxford, where he studied.
• In October 2010, he received an honorary degree from Dalhousie University.
• In November 2016, he received the Lawrence J. Burpee Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He was also chosen as a Fellow of the RCGS.

Books by Simon Winchester