Colin Malcolm Macrae Simpson (14 July 1931 – 31 October 2017) was a war correspondent and investigative journalist for ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

''. He also wrote a number of non-fiction books. After an accident, he became a keen gardener and started the business Simpson's Seeds. Simpson's 1972 book on the

sinking of the RMS Lusitania was a British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War on 7 May 1915, about off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. The attack took place in the declared maritime war-zone around t ...

popularised the

conspiracy theory A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

that

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

was responsible for the sinking of the ship. It has been strongly criticised by historians for factual errors and outright fabrications, with some claiming it should not be described as nonfiction.

Selected publications

* ''Sir Francis Chichester: Voyage of the Century''. Sphere, London, 1967. (With Christopher Angeloglou) * ''The Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia''. Nelson, London, 1969. (With

Phillip Knightley Phillip George Knightley (23 January 1929 – 7 December 2016) was an Australian journalist, critic, and non-fiction author. He became a visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Lincoln, England, and was a media commentator o ...

) * ''The Ship That Hunted Itself''. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1971. * ''Lusitania''. Little, Brown and Company, 1972. * ''The Cleveland Street Affair''. Little Brown, 1976. (With Lewis Chester & David Leitch) * ''Mugabe: A Biography''. Sphere, London, 1981. (With David Smith) * ''Emma: The Life of Lady Hamilton''. Bodley Head, London, 1983. * ''The Partnership: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen''. Bodley Head, London, 1987.

References

1931 births 2017 deaths University of Helsinki alumni People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire English biographers English journalists British investigative journalists English horticulturists English non-fiction writers Royal Scots Fusiliers officers Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst {{UK-journalist-stub