M. J. Simpson

{{Short description|British journalist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{BLP sources|date=May 2018}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = M.J. Simpson

| birth_name = Mike Simpson

| image = Mike Simpson, 2005.jpg

| caption = Simpson in 2005

| birth_date =

| birth_place = United Kingdom

| death_date =

| death_place =

| genre = Nonfiction, biography, journalism

| language = English

| occupation = Writer, journalist, editor, author, critic

}}

Mike Simpson, professionally known as MJ Simpson, is a British author,{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/mar/16/biography.douglasadams|title=Observer review: Hitchhiker by MJ Simpson|first=Euan|last=Ferguson|date=16 March 2003|website=The Guardian}}{{cite news |last=Taylor |first=D. J. |date=2 March 2003 |title=Review: Hitchhiker, A Biography of Douglas Adams by M J Simpson |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/review-hitchhiker-a-biography-of-douglas-adams-by-m-j-simpson-sfkzkvw2m9m |website=The Times}} journalist, scriptwriter and occasional actor. He was deputy editor of the British science fiction magazine SFX from 1995 to 1998.{{Cite web|last=Cohen|first=Dave|date=23 January 2019|title=Rediscovered: The open spot still remembered 30 years on : Punching Up 2019|url=http://www.chortle.co.uk/punching-ups/2019/01/23/42128/rediscovered:_the_open_spot_still_remembered_30_years_on|access-date=2020-07-02|website=Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide|language=en}} He was for several years an expert on the television writer and novelist Douglas Adams and his work.

Simpson wrote two books about Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide and was involved in running ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, the official Hitchhiker's Guide appreciation society. In 2005, on the release of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie, Simpson closed down his website Planet Magrathea and gave up writing about the subject.

He is now an authority on modern British horror films, a subject on which he has written one book so far as well as a regular column "21st Century Frights" in Scream magazine.

Simpson's website about "Cult movies and the people who make them" has been running continually since January 2002, initially at www.mjsimpson.co.uk (now defunct) and, since 2013, on Blogger.

In 2024 he appeared as a contestant on The 1% Club and reached the 1% question.