Simon Winchester, a British-American journalist, author, and broadcaster "who traded an early career as a geologist exploring East Africa for an even more peripatetic résumé covering stories from Northern Ireland's bloodstained Troubles to Watergate-era Washington, the Falklands war and China," died November 3, the New York Times reported. He was 82.
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| Simon Winchester (photo: Setsuko Winchester) |
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Winchester's books include The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa. His most recent work, The Breath of the Gods, was published in November 2025. In 2006, he was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth.
"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Simon Winchester, an extraordinary writer, historian, and storyteller whose remarkable body of work captivated readers around the world," HarperCollins, his publisher, noted. "With his boundless curiosity, meticulous research, and singular gift for bringing history to life, Simon illuminated the people, places, and events that shaped our world. His writing reflected a profound love of knowledge and an infectious enthusiasm for discovery."
Jonathan Burnham, HarperCollins president & publisher, said, "Simon will be much missed. He was a mesmerizing raconteur, a polymath, a travel writer, an intrepid war correspondent, a prolific journalist and a man of incredible energy and charm and inspired enormous loyalty from his publishing partners. With a life and career spanning the U.K. and the U.S., he has been a HarperCollins author on both continents since 1998 and the publication of his first book, The Professor and the Madman. His legacy will remain through the remarkable list of non-fiction bestsellers which we're so proud to publish."
Arabella Pike, publishing director, William Collins, added: "Simon was a dear friend and an exhilarating writer. His long and adventurous life was driven above all by curiosity and a taste for adventure. Only last week he was full of stories for a memoir--not to mention plans for conquering peaks in Bolivia for a history of silver. Irrepressible, kind and a genius storyteller--he will be so missed by all those privileged to know him and his legions of fans across the world."
Winchester switched from geology to journalism after reading Coronation Everest, a book about the 1953 first ascent of Mount Everest by Jan Morris (then known as James Morris). The New York Times wrote that Winchester "read the book while encamped in Uganda's Rwenzori Mountains and resolved to become a reporter himself, writing to Ms. Morris to seek advice. She replied that, if he wanted to join the ranks of traveling writers, his best course would be to return to England and work on a newspaper. He duly began his own ascent on the profession's heights not in the Himalayas but in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northeast England" by joining the Guardian in 1969.
In 1972, Winchester was posted to Washington D.C., where he published his first book, In Holy Terror, based on his years as a reporter in Northern Ireland. His breakthrough work as an author, however, came in 1998 when he was living in New York, with publication of the bestselling book The Professor and the Madman, which was later adapted into a movie starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn. Winchester went on to write or contribute to about 30 books on themes as varied as the origins of geology and the impact of the wind.