Geoff Simons

Geoffrey Leslie Simons (23 November 1939 – 31 August 2011), best known as Geoff L. Simons was a British freelance writer. In the 1980s, he was chief editor at the National Computing Centre in Manchester. A prolific author of non-fiction, he wrote books about sex, computers and politics, particularly the history of the Middle East.
Career.
Geoff Simons was born in Stockport, and lived in or around Greater Manchester throughout his life. He worked as an Information Officer at several companies, as well as working as a technical author and editor. He wrote hardware and software manuals at Ferranti and ICL. As Chief Editor at the NCC, he established "Computer Journal Abstracts" and wrote summaries for over 20,000 computer articles.
Simons was a critic of US foreign policy, regarding sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s as genocide, and the United States as "a plutocracy that shapes foreign policy in the cynical calculation of elitist commercial advantage". In later life he was a frequent correspondent to newspapers, seeing his letters published in "The Times", the "Sunday Times", "The Independent", "The Guardian", the "New Statesman", and the "Morning Star". He died on 31 August 2011. He was survived by his widow, Christine, children, grandchildren and great-granddaughter.
Skepticism.
Simons was an atheist and skeptic. He was a member of Greater Manchester Humanists. In his book "Is God a Programmer?", he defended atheism and criticized the argument from design.