About Simon Mccoy
My Story
Simon McCoy was born in Lambeth, the heart of London's east end. An Essex boy before the
Essex girl was invented. Simon joined the merchant navy after being expelled from grammar
school at fifteen. After jumping ship at seventeen in New Orleans, he hitchhiked across hippy
America in the early seventies, the original gap year.
Married at nineteen, he got a mortgage settled down and built a small group of companies in
his twenties. The recession of the eighties unsettled him, and he decided the game was
rigged.
Simon spent most of the next four decades making up for a lost time, having great adventures
making and losing obscene amounts of money and searching for happiness in all the wrong
places. Married twice with two children, he's an ordinary bloke who's led an extraordinary
life. They say history is written by the victors, the ‘Live Outside the Law’ series is his way to
buck the trend. A practising Buddhist, Simon now lives in the tropics
Personal Life
Simon has been married twice and is a father of two. Despite a life filled with
extraordinary experiences, he considers himself an ordinary man who simply chose a
different path.
Now a practising Buddhist, Simon lives a quieter life in the tropics, reflecting on a
journey defined by rebellion, resilience, and the pursuit of something deeper than
success.
Our MissioN
The world is smaller than people think.
I know, I went around it three times in a year. Not a bet. I was moving unofficial goods.
What that taught me, and four decades as a smuggler, is simple:
We are one race, the human race.
Most of us want the same things.
To be safe.
To be free.
To love and be loved.
To be free from pain.
People are great. Governments, not so much.
The differences they get people to focus on, race, borders, background, are real, but they
are not the big story. There is too much division, too much inequality, and too much blindness
to both. It’s all Smoke & Mirrors.
I’ve seen it up close.
I’ve also seen the cost of prohibition, the puritanical attempt to control human behaviour
through force and moral certainty.
It causes more damage than the thing it fails miserably to control.
If these books do anything, I hope they open a window onto that reality.
But that isn’t the main reason I wrote them.
First and foremost, they are true crime memoirs about drug smuggling, prohibition, and
life outside the law, told from the inside behind the lines.
I want you to be carried somewhere else for a few hours. To see places most people never
will, and things they’ll never see. To feel the highs and the lows, the tension and the
release, without leaving your chair.
If, along the way, you see the world a little differently, then that’s worth more to me than
money or accolades ever could be.
Our Core Values
I write true crime memoirs about real breaches of prohibition, drug smuggling and real
people behind them who I loved, worked with, drank and got high with, trusted, and
sometimes shouldn’t have.
No ghosts. No composites. No safe distance.
That was my life.
This is my account of it.
1. Do no harm.
Some names, places and dates are changed. Not to hide the truth, but to protect those who
never asked to be in a book. Some did. Their names are changed anyway.
2. Tell the truth.
If I behaved badly, it’s in here.
If I got it wrong, that’s in here too.
No polishing.
No heroics.
No convenient editing.
And no settling of scores, writing gives you power, and I’m not interested in using it to take
cheap shots at people who can’t answer back.
3. Keep it as it was.
Some of it was funny. So it stays funny.
Some of it was routine. So it stays that way.
Some of it was extreme enough without any help from me.
This isn’t a how-to.
It isn’t a “why not have a go.”
And it’s not a confession written for forgiveness.
It’s a record.
4. Respect the reader.
You’re giving me your time and your money.
That deserves respect.
So the deal is simple:
I tell it properly, with the best editors I can find, or I don’t tell it at all.
A life shaped by risk, rebellion, and relentless adventure—Simon McCoy’s journey goes beyond the ordinary, revealing the raw truth behind freedom, failure, and the pursuit of meaning.
Simon Mccoy
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Need a Speaker for Your Upcoming Event?
Speaking, Podcasts & Book Signings
Simon McCoy, True crime author speaker available for podcasts,literary festivals, book
signings and live events both in person and virtually, from 20th May.
He will be touring across Europe from late July through November, combining book signings
with live appearances and media.
What Simon Brings.
Simon speaks from lived experience, not theory.
He can talk about:
Life inside and outside the law
Prison (outside the UK system)
Travel across South America and Europe
Risk, consequence, and reinvention
He presents in English and Spanish.
Background
In the 2000s, Simon built one of Spain’s largest inland estate agencies and was regularly
featured on British television house-hunting programmes.
He has spoken at sales conferences, delivered motivational talks, and performed live
comedy, including appearances at The Bill Murray.
He’s not polished—and he’s not trying to be.
He is direct, engaging, and naturally funny.
He holds a room.
What to Expect
No script.
No performance.
No clichés.
Just a man who has lived it, and can tell it from the inside.
Book Simon If you’re looking for something safe, there are plenty of options.
If you want a speaker your audience will actually remember, get in touch.
Podcasts | Festivals | Book Signings | Events
[Insert Contact Email
Europe (July–November)
Available worldwide (virtual)
