Geoffrey Leslie Simons (23 November 1939 – 31 August 2011), best known as Geoff L. Simons was a British freelance writer. In the 1980s, he was chief editor at the National Computing Centre in Manchester. A prolific author of non-fiction, he wrote books about sex, computers and politics, particularly the history of the Middle East.
Geoff Simons | |
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Born | 1939 |
Died | 31 August 2011 (aged 71–72) |
Geoff Simons was born in Stockport, and lived in or around Greater Manchester throughout his life. He worked as an Information Officer at several companies, as well as working as a technical author and editor.[1] He wrote hardware and software manuals at Ferranti and ICL. As Chief Editor at the NCC, he established Computer Journal Abstracts and wrote summaries for over 20,000 computer articles.[2]
Simons was a critic of US foreign policy, regarding sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s as genocide,[3] and the United States as "a plutocracy that shapes foreign policy in the cynical calculation of elitist commercial advantage".[4] In later life he was a frequent correspondent to newspapers, seeing his letters published in The Times,[5] the Sunday Times,[6] The Independent,[7] The Guardian,[8] the New Statesman,[9] and the Morning Star.[10] He died on 31 August 2011. He was survived by his widow, Christine, children, grandchildren and great-granddaughter.[11]
Simons was an atheist and skeptic. He was a member of Greater Manchester Humanists. In his book Is God a Programmer?, he defended atheism and criticized the argument from design.