Having grown up wanting to be an architect, Simon studied art and architectural history at Warwick University, which included a compulsory term living in Venice, from which he is still recovering! For 19 years until 2010, he worked at the great treasure house of Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, in a variety of roles, starting with a summer job cleaning lavatories and car parking, and ending as Head of Communications. In that time he lectured extensively about Chatsworth, the Devonshire Collection and associated topics, throughout the UK and on several US tours, and he continues to lecture on a growing range of cultural topics. Since then he has fulfilled another passion by training as a Life Coach, working with people one-to-one to support their life and career choices, and he also works part time for John Ruskin’s charity the Guild of St George. For more than 30 years he has lived with his family in the heart of Derbyshire's beautiful Peak District.