Simon Fenwick is a professional archivist, who has worked on the papers of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Xan Fielding. He is the author of Joan: Beauty, Rebel, Muse - the Remarkable Life of Joan Leigh Fermor (Macmillan, 2017). His next work, The Crichel Boys: Scenes from England’s Last Literary Salon, was published by Little, Brown in 2021.

‘Very entertaining … the preservation of old houses, a cause with which many of the leading characters were involved one way or another, is skilfully used as a running theme in a book that, with a fine balance between nostalgia and clear-sightedness, commemorates a privileged world long since vanished.’ ― The Spectator

‘Highly evocative … a portrait of an enchanted world.’ ― Daily Mail

‘The Crichel boys … left behind merely a memory of charm, kindness and generosity, to which Fenwick pays a tender tribute.’ ― Financial Times

‘A rich, luscious account of a postwar Britain that often gets lost.’ ― Mail on Sunday