Simon Daryl Wood was born in England, and in 2000 had the honour of being elected Mayor of Newtown, in Powys, Mid-Wales. He has since become a resident of Southern California. Primarily a writer of non-fiction history, with a number of articles on the 1888 Whitechapel murders published in specialist journals, he is currently working on a book about the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion. Simon's finely-tuned appreciation of the absurd led to the writing of Fairy Story, a fantasy adventure for children and grown-ups inspired by events on Wall Street and the ensuing culture of greed which appears to be characterizing the 21st Century.