Jacqueline Simpson (born 1930) is a prolific, award-winning British researcher and author on folklore.
[1] Simpson studied English Literature and Medieval Icelandic at Bedford College, University of London.
She has a particular interest in local legends (as opposed to international fairy tales), and has published collections of this genre from Iceland, Scandinavia in general, and England (the latter in collaboration with the late Jennifer Westwood).
Pratchett, who was then researching his novel Carpe Jugulum, was asking everyone in the queue how many "magpie" rhymes they knew; and while most people gave one answer – the theme from the TV series Magpie – Simpson was able to supply considerably more.
According to Pratchett's version of their conversation, there were "about nineteen", but she suspects this is creative embroidery.