Helen Simpson's sixth short-story collection, Cockfosters, follows Four Bare Legs in a Bed (1990), Dear George (1995), Hey Yeah Right Get a Life (2000), Constitutional (2005) and In-Flight Entertainment (2010). A Bunch of Fives: Selected Stories (2012) includes five stories from each of her first five collections. She has received the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Hawthornden Prize and the E.M.Forster Award. She lives in London.

"Of all contemporary writers, Simpson has the most honest, the most authentic voice" The Times "Biting wit...has me laughing aloud" Pat Barker "Simpson's wit defies formulaic feminism or, indeed, any other -ism... Very, very funny" Evening Standard "Full of good jokes, wonderfully alert to irony and the possibilities of language" Jonathan Coe "Effortless charm, wit and vivid sexual detail" Time Out