Simon Knight

SIMON KNIGHT was born in Bishop's Stortford in 1948 and
studied Modern Languages (Italian and French) at Trinity Hall,
Cambridge. His studies included periods in Florence and Monza.
He now lives partly in the UK, partly in Parma, Italy.
After teacher training, he spent seven years as a teacher of
English as a foreign language in Madagascar. On returning to
England in 1981, he started working as a freelance translator,
while maintaining an interest in education as parent, teacher
and trustee of a Christian school, which he founded with a
group of friends in 1989.

As a translator, he has specialised in the media and arts,
developing a special interest in Italian-speaking Switzerland.
He also worked for many years as a public-service interpreter.
His literary translation activities began as a ‘sideline’, when
he was first asked to translate some poems by Fabio Pusterla
in 1999. The project grew and has enjoyed support from the
Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. He now takes a special interest
in writers from Italian-speaking Switzerland and is currently
translating a Ticino ‘classic’: Il fondo del sacco (1970) by Plinio
Martini.

(2012)