Simon was respected throughout the industry, having spent his whole working life championing books, writers and ideas. He was never happier than when spending time talking about books or just generally shooting the breeze.

He was renowned for his laconic, often sarcastic, sense of humour as well as his somewhat un-PC view of the world. Always stimulating company, he was one of the old publishing guard who hated pomposity of any kind. Under his corporate hat he had an anarchic, fun side to him that was hard to suppress, not that anyone would have wanted to.