Duncan M Simpson

Duncan M Simpson is the author of a history of youth hostels in England and Wales - Open to All, how youth hostels changed the world. He has also written a biography of Richard Schirrmann, the man who invented youth hostels.

He studied journalism at Rhodes University, South Africa. After arriving in England he took a job in a youth hostel for one summer and carried on working in and for youth hostels for more than 30 years.

He was an assistant in Cambridge and the Lake District and ran a small youth hostel in the woods in Devon. He and Caroline, his wife, managed youth hostels together bringing up their two daughters in Essex and Wiltshire, until Duncan moved to work as a regional manager. For ten years he was Head of Corporate Affairs for YHA(England and Wales).

He lives in Derbyshire and shares his middle name Macaulay with GM Trevelyan, the historian and first president of YHA.