Simon Edge

Simon John Edge (born 25 December 1964 in Chester, UK) is a British novelist and journalist.

Educated at the King's School, Chester,[1] he went on to receive a master's degree in Philosophy from St Catharine's College, Cambridge[2] and has a master's degree in Creative Writing from City University,[3] where he also taught as a visiting lecturer.

He got his first job in journalism at the Middle East business magazine MEED[4] and went on to be the final editor of Capital Gay. He was on staff at the London Evening Standard and joined the Daily Express in 1999, where he spent many years as a feature writer and theatre critic.[5] He is a former senior contributing editor of Attitude magazine.[6]

He is the author of With Friends Like These,[7] a critique of the Left's record on gay rights.

His first novel The Hopkins Conundrum, based on the life of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, was published by Lightning Books in May 2017.[8] It was described as "a pleasurable literary thriller [in which] Edge wears his Hopkins learning lightly" by The Spectator[9] and "a novel enjoyable on every level" by the Daily Express.[10] It was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award 2017–18.[11] His second novel The Hurtle of Hell, published by Lightning Books in July 2018, was inspired by scientific research into what happens in the brain during a near-death experience.[12] His third, A Right Royal Face-Off (Lightning, 2019) is a comic novel based on the life of the painter Thomas Gainsborough, and has been described by world Gainsborough authority Hugh Belsey as "beguiling" and "beautifully managed and brilliantly resolved".[13] His fourth novel Anyone for Edmund? (Lightning, 2020) imagines the rediscovery of the body of Edmund the Martyr, England's lost patron saint. The i (newspaper) said "Edge’s sharp-edged political comedy is guaranteed to have you laughing out loud".[14]

He was married to Ezio Alessandroni, a former Roman Catholic priest, until the latter's death from cancer in March 2017.[15]