In 2000, Simon and his wife Debbie took a major risk, they sold their London flat and moved with a horse and Great Dane to North Devon. Scraping together every penny, they bought 20 acres of land on Exmoor and built a smallholding, where they now enjoy a self-sustaining, virtually self-sufficient life, rearing, growing and foraging for most of their food.

In his time, Simon has been ‘Self-Sufficiency Simon’ on BBC Radio Devon, had a monthly ‘Down on the farm’ spot on Talk Radio Europe and currently presents Book Club every Monday night here on The Voice.

As a journalist, he has written for just about every newspaper and magazine on the shelves, appeared on BBC’s Countryfile, and has cooked on TV with Gary Rhodes and Michael Caines, becoming champions for the South West on the show ‘Local Food Hero’. But it was when he and his wife appeared on Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild that things really went bonkers.

He is the author of six bestselling books including Pigs in Clover, The Boy Without Love and most recently, The Self Sufficiency Bible.