My name’s Simon Perks and I live in Somerset, UK, with my wife, Natalie, and Molly and Ozzy, my Labrador dogs. Welcome to my home on the web. You’re very welcome, so feel free to grab a cup of tea and make yourself at home.
I write here primarily about questions of political and social philosophy in the world around us. I also write about my ongoing attempt to live a more intentional, thoughtful and balanced life. As well as about other things that interest me. And Labradors.
I try to post a couple of times a week. And I very much welcome comments on my posts, provided they’re civil and constructive. I’m keen to create a bit of a community around my writing and ideas, so please do feel free to share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.
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I’m a political and social philosopher by training (to the extent to which anyone can actually train to be something like that) and worry a lot about the challenges that we face as a society. I’m also a management consultant and public finance specialist, which gives me a practical perspective on things, too.
Natalie and I live in as simple and eco-friendly a way as we can, to reduce our impact on the environment and the climate, and to encourage others to do the same. We don’t live off-grid, or anything like that, but we do grow a lot of our own food, eat a vegetarian diet and try to avoid buying things we don’t need.
I have a small vegetable garden that I call the ‘microfarm’ and that brings me inordinate amounts of joy. My aim is for us to grow as much of our own food as possible. This includes growing fresh fruit and vegetables when we can. And preserving them for when we cannot.
To earn money (and because it’s fun), I run Sockmonkey Consulting, a small management consulting practice working with organisations across the public, not-for-profit and social enterprise sectors. You can find out more about my consulting activities here.
Although my family and I now live in Somerset, I’ve lived and worked in the UK, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. I have degrees in political science and theoretical physics. I speak English, French, German and Russian fluently and can get by in Dutch and Mandarin Chinese.
Before I set up my own business in 2011, I worked for ten years in the public sector practice of a ‘big four’ international audit and consultancy firm. And, thankfully, survived to tell the tale. When I’m not writing or consulting, I like to run, hike, kayak, row, paddleboard, read, grow plants and bake things.
I also drink quite a lot of tea.