The Surgeon of Crowthorne

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Simon Winchester is a writer and regular contributor to magazines and newspapers including Condé Nast Traveler and National Geographic. He is the author of several books, including works of travel writing, history and acclaimed biography, including The Surgeon of Crowthorne (1998).

The Map That Changed the World (2001), is the story of William Smith, the 19th-century engineer and father of modern geology; and Krakatoa – The Day the World Exploded: 27 August 1883 (2003), explores the drama surrounding the 19th-century eruption of the Javan volcano. The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary (2003), was shortlisted for the 2003 British Book Awards History Book of the Year, and A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 was published in 2005. Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China (2008) – is the story of the pre-eminent China scholar, and was published in 2008. His most recent book is The Alice Behind Wonderland, an exploration of Lewis Carroll’s creation of the Lewis Carroll classic.

Simon Winchester was awarded an OBE in 2006, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, in 2009, and continues to publish widely on geological subjects.