Simon Inglis

Simon Inglis
Born Birmingham
Nationality British
Occupation Author, Historian

Simon Inglis is a British sports historian,[1] architectural historian, writer and broadcaster, most notably about football and stadiums.

Inglis was born in Sparkhill, Birmingham in 1955. He read History and the History of Architecture at University College London, later training as a teacher in Leeds and teaching history at a comprehensive in Walthalmstow, North London.[2] Inglis is currently editor of the Played in Britain series on sporting heritage, published by Historic England. He describes himself as a now mainly 'arms length' Aston Villa fan.

In December 2005 he was described as an "iconoclastic historian" and "a national treasure who must be encouraged at all costs".[3] His illustrated biography of the Scottish football ground designer Archibald Leitch, Engineering Archie,[4] was runner up in the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2005.

Inglis summarised Leitch's career for FourFourTwo Magazine in 2015.[5]

Great Lengths, the historic indoor swimming pools of Britain, which Inglis co-authored with Dr Ian Gordon, received wide praise in the national press.[6][7]

Inglis' book Played in London, charting the heritage of a city at play, was published in September 2014 to great acclaim. It was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2014, selected as Book of the Year by both the Londonist website and the London Historians [8] and described by the Mail Online as a "remarkable book" and a "cracking good read" by The Times. Signed copies are available from Played in Britain

In August 2014 Inglis was chosen as a Listed Londoner for BBC London's Robert Elms radio programme. [9]

In 2015, inspired by the £1,000 free bet he received as a result of Played in London being shortlisted by William Hill, Inglis set out to discover whether he could earn more from betting cautiously with bookies than by putting the money into a building society. He ended up making 18.5 percent on his year's betting before donating the proceeds to charity. [10]

In addition to his writing, Inglis has given lectures at a wide range of institutions (including De Montfort University, Birkbeck College and the London College of Communications); societies (Victorian Society and the Twentieth Century Society); local history societies, sporting bodies and at both literary and history festivals. He also conducts tours of London football sites for visiting US colleges.

His photography has appeared in numerous books and publications. In mid 2016 his archive of football ground images is to be made available via the When Saturday Comes photography gallery.[11]

Personal life

Inglis is married to the former TV presenter Jackie Spreckley.[12]

Selected bibliography

References

  1. ↑ "Played in Britain - Authors - Simon Inglis". Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  2. ↑ http://www.playedinbritain.co.uk/author-simon-inglis.php
  3. ↑ Baker, Andrew. "Winner's 'sensual' football so much better than it sounds". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  4. ↑ Whitehead, Richard (18 April 2005). "Man who built his place in history". The Times.
  5. ↑ http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/meet-archibald-leitch-man-who-invented-football-stadium
  6. ↑ Leith, Sam (18 March 2009) Come on in, the water's lovely!
  7. ↑ Played in Britain
  8. ↑ https://londonhistorians.wordpress.com/2014/12/
  9. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0252537
  10. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/14/man-beat-bookies-banks-sports-betting-savings
  11. ↑ http://photos.wsc.co.uk/
  12. ↑ Etoe, Catherine (26 April 2012). "Feature: Old hands at the Games". Camden New Journal. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
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