Simon Mayo Books in Order

If you want the Itch trilogy first: Itch → Itch Rocks → Itchcraft
If you want darker YA: Blame
If you want historical fiction: Mad Blood Stirring
If you want adult suspense: Knife Edge → Tick Tock
If you want film talk and criticism: The Movie Doctors

Simon Mayo was born in London, and he grew up moving around more than once because his father was a headteacher. He has said that childhood left him feeling a little like an outsider at times, which may help explain why he writes so well about bright, slightly awkward people trying to keep up with events. Teaching and broadcasting were both close at hand in his family, and radio was in the background early.

He first imagined a life in radio behind the scenes rather than in front of a microphone. After university and a spell in hospital radio, he joined BBC Radio in 1982, moved to Radio 1 in 1986, and became one of the most familiar voices in British broadcasting through breakfast, drivetime, and his long-running film and book segments.

Then writing nudged its way in.

The story behind Itch is very Simon Mayo. His youngest son came home from school newly obsessed with science, Mayo liked the phrase element hunter, and what began as a short story written for his son grew into a full novel. He checked the chemistry carefully with scientists, which tells you a lot about the kind of writer he is, playful about ideas, but serious about getting the details right.

Itch, and then Itch Rocks and Itchcraft, follow Itchingham Lofte, a Cornish teenager whose love of the periodic table keeps blowing holes in ordinary life. Readers tend to like the mix of real science, family banter, and genuine jeopardy. The books move quickly, but they never feel like empty action scenes. Mayo is interested in curiosity, responsibility, and what happens when clever kids realize adults do not always know best.

He took a darker turn with Blame, a young adult thriller built around a sharp idea: what if children were punished for crimes committed by their parents? That book came from a dream after he had written about a relative killed in the First World War. Later, with Mad Blood Stirring, he moved into historical fiction, using unrest at Dartmoor Prison in 1815 as the basis for a tense novel about captivity, hope, and the mess people make when peace finally seems close.

His adult thrillers, Knife Edge and Tick Tock, show the same liking for pressure-cooker setups. In Knife Edge, a London newsroom is hit by a chain of murders. In Tick Tock, a strange illness turns from school mystery into wider panic. Readers who come to Mayo from radio often find the same thing in the novels that they heard on air: pace, clarity, curiosity, and a knack for making complicated situations easy to follow.

He has also written with film critic Mark Kermode.

The Movie Doctors turns their long-running back-and-forth about cinema into a book, which feels exactly right for someone who has spent years talking to listeners as if they were already in on the joke. These days, Mayo continues to balance broadcasting and books. He hosts drivetime on Greatest Hits Radio and co-hosts Kermode & Mayo's Take, while still writing fiction that moves fast and starts from a simple but strong question. He lives in London, is married, and has three children.