Simon Leyland is a British author, historian, and professional collector of gloriously useless facts. A former City trader who exchanged financial markets for archives, libraries, and obscure footnotes, he writes narrative history with the firm belief that the past is far too entertaining to be left solely to academics.

He is the author of The Men Who Stare at Hens, A Curious Guide to London, and several other works exploring the stranger corners of history, language, and culture. His writing combines meticulous research with dry English humour, examining the peculiar habits, improbable beliefs, and magnificent absurdities that have shaped human civilisation.

Simon lives in the depths of the Norfolk countryside, where he spends an unhealthy amount of time pursuing obscure historical anecdotes, reading books that sensible people abandoned centuries ago, and convincing himself that "just one more source" is a perfectly reasonable way to spend an afternoon.