[6] Simpson was educated at Lancing House in Lowestoft, Oakham School and The Queen's College, Oxford on a closed scholarship, where he took a First in Law, the best first of his year.
As a result of National Service with the Nigeria Regiment, he retained an interest in Africa, and was Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana in 1968–69.
[8] According to Simpson, the idea for this approach came to him in 1979 when he was lying in a bath and realized that Rylands v Fletcher, the case which developed strict liability, was the result of a serious reservoir failure.
The book sold well and was reprinted by Penguin, though its impact on academic law was limited because he did not explicitly articulate a theory linked to the narrative.
Toward the end of his career, he turned his attention toward the history of human rights in the twentieth century, though he had no special training in international law.
In 1996, he became involved in a debate with Ronald Coase over the latter's handling of Victorian case law, particularly Sturges v Bridgman, in his seminal article "The Problem of Social Cost".