Simon Winchester (born September 28, 1944) is a British author and scholar. He has written several notable books including Krakatoa, The Map that Changed the World, The Meaning of Everything, and The Surgeon of Crowthorne. The latter work was published in America under the title The Professor and the Madman, and as such became a New York Times bestseller.

Winchester studied geology at Oxford University before working in Africa and on offshore oil rigs. He then spent a twenty-year career as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian, winning several awards. He has more recently written for such publications as Condé Nast Traveler , the Smithsonian, and National Geographic. He currently lives on a small farm in Massachusetts, as well as in the Western Isles of Scotland.

See also

• Oxford English Dictionary
• William Chester Minor
• Krakatoa