After graduation, he travelled extensively in Asia, before beginning work as a travel writer for Rough Guides publishing.
His first novel, Go, a thriller about backpackers, was written in a village in the Himalayas.
His second novel, Bad Traffic, is a crime thriller about people smugglers.
It has been translated into Swedish, German, Italian, French, Japanese and Turkish.
Simon was selected as one of 21 "writers to watch" at the 2008 the Guardian Hay Festival.