About Simon Potter

I was born in St Helier, Jersey in the Channel Islands. My father and uncle were owners of Jersey Potteries.

When we moved to London, I went to Warwick House Prep in Hampstead and then, as a boarder, to Beaumont Jesuit College, Old Windsor, Berks, where my interests included acting, debating and rowing. I went on to Leeds University to read English and History, played drums in a band and joined the Territorial Army. I was lucky to meet my future wife at the Catholic chaplaincy.

After teaching for two years at a private high school in Kent, where I built a recording studio for the pupils, and doing studio session drumming and co-writing songs (including the cult “When Christine Comes Around” – see YouTube), I went to London University Goldsmith’s College to do a PGCE.

I was taken on at Wimbledon College without a job interview (The Jesuit Head Master asked me how I got on with women, and informed me that the College and its sister girls’ convent school were to produce “Oliver!” and needed a director). This started an endless cycle of directing, producing musicals, and adapting and writing plays for teenagers from joint schools (I produced the final one of these in 2022). I was also Head of English at the college for 22 years.

I began writing, using my trans-continental motorcycling trips and travels to Russia, America, Canada and Europe, as inspiration. I continued collecting die-cast model railways from the 1940s-60s and writing about them. I performed in rock revival and jazz groups throughout this period. I was asked to work on studies of Shakespeare and on poetry for SmartPass Ltd, producing seven projects with them. One of these won the Spoken Word Bronze award in 2004. I received an MBE for my work in education, especially youth drama, in 2016.