| J. David Simons | |
| Birth Name: | Jonathan David Simons |
| Birth Date: | 27 August 1953 |
| Birth Place: | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Nationality: | British |
J. David Simons[1] (born 27 August 1953) is a Scottish novelist and short story writer. He was educated at Hutchesons' Boys Grammar School and graduated with a law degree from Glasgow University in 1973. He has been a partner with an Edinburgh law firm, a cotton farmer on Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov Ichud in Israel, a charity administrator for the Cyrenians in West London, a university lecturer[2] at Keio University, Japan, and a journalist for multi-national publishing house Informa.
Apart from his fiction writing, Simons is also an editor with the Blue Pencil literary agency and a media journalist with the global technology consultancy firm, Omdia (formerly Ovum). Since October 2017, he has lived as a digital nomad [3] – travelling, writing and working around the world. He is currently resident in Javea, Spain.
Simons' first novel, The Credit Draper, was published by Two Ravens Press in May 2008, and was shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize in June 2009.[4] This novel is set primarily within the Glasgow Jewish Community in the early part of the 20th century, and represents the first part of his "Glasgow to Galilee" trilogy. Simons goes on to tackle issues of socialism, feminism and birth control in Glasgow during the 1920s in his second novel in this trilogy, The Liberation of Celia Kahn,[5] which was published by Five Leaves Publications in February 2011, along with a re-print of The Credit Draper. His third novel, An Exquisite Sense of What is Beautiful, set in Japan, was published by Saraband in March 2013, and examines the theme of denial, especially in regard to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States.[6]
In The Land Agent, the third novel in the "Glasgow to Galilee" trilogy, published by Saraband in October 2014, Simons turns his attention to 1920s Palestine and the conflict over a strategic piece of land that does not exist on any map. Simons' fifth novel, A Woman of Integrity, was originally published in March 2017 by Freight,[7] before its rights were acquired by Saraband. The novel deals with the lives of two film actresses from different eras trying to carve out careers for themselves away from the shadows of men. In his sixth novel, The Responsibility of Love published by BackPage Press, [8] Simons explores the theme as to whether a person is forever responsible for those he/she has tamed.
Simons' latest novel is The Interview published by Saraband in August 2024. Ostensibly the story of the demise of a US talk show host from the heights of fame, the essential theme is not only about speaking truth to power but also about speaking truth to oneself.