Simon Kernick

Simon Kernick is a British writer who was born in 1966 in Slough, a satellite town of London located about 20 miles west of Charing Cross. Simon spent several years working odd jobs and traveling after leaving school. He spent time as a barman, a stockroom assistant and even a fruit-picker. After traveling to the U.S., Canada and Australia, he came back to the UK and enrolled in Brighton Polytechnic, where he graduated in 1991 with a degree in Humanities. With a recession in full swing, getting permanent employment was difficult after a few other odd jobs and a period on social aid, he became a software salesman, a position he maintained for the rest of his pre-author years. Obviously, software was not where Simon Kernick’s passion laid. He had a keen interest in writing, particularly in the crime/ thriller genre. He wrote during his spare time and completed two crime novels between 1995-96. Despite his best effort these were rejected by every agent they were sent to. Undeterred, Simon persevered and had a breakthrough with The Business of Dying. The novel allowed Simon to get a literary agent and was quickly sold to Transworld Publishing, which remains his publisher today. The novel was hailed as an extraordinary first novel and paved the way to a successful series of novels that are hard to put down. He has matured within his craft and now is a master of the race against time thriller.