Simon Marsden

Sir Simon Neville Llewelyn Marsden, 4th Baronet (1 December 1948 – 22 January 2012) was an English photographer and author. He is known best for his uncommon black-and-white photographs of allegedly haunted houses and places throughout Europe. He succeeded his brother as baronet of Grimsby in Lincolnshire in 1997.

Life and work Simon Neville Llewelyn Marsden was the younger son of Sir John Denton Marsden, 2nd Bt, and his wife Hope (née Llewelyn). The baronetcy was created in 1924 for a previous John Marsden, owner of a substantial fishing fleet in Grimsby. Marsden attended Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, as well as the University of Sorbonne.

In 2003 Simon Marsden collaborated with director Jason Figgis on The Twilight Hour – Visions of Ireland's Haunted Past. The documentary was written and presented by Marsden and featured narration by Sir John Hurt. It was nominated for two Irish Film and TV Academy Awards, was screened on Ireland's national broadcaster RTE as part of their Arts Lives series and ran for three years on Discovery Civilisations across 100 countries. It was later released on DVD.

Following Marsden's death, Figgis wrote and directed a documentary about Simon's life and work entitled Simon Marsden: A Life in Pictures. It received its world premiere at the BFI in London on 16 August 2018. The documentary is due to be released on DVD in October 2021.

Personal life Simon Marsden succeeded in the baronetcy in 1997 upon the death of his elder brother, Nigel.

He married firstly, in 1970, to Catherine Thérèsa Windsor-Lewis. The marriage was dissolved in 1978. He married secondly, in 1984, to Cassie Stanton, with whom he had a son and a daughter. Simon Marsden died on 22 January 2012, aged 63, from heart failure.

Work (selection) In Ruins, 1980 The Haunted Realm, 1986 Visions of Poe, 1988 Phantoms of the Isles, 1990 The Journal of a Ghosthunter, 1994 Beyond the Wall, 1999 Venice: City of Haunting Dreams, 2001 The Twilight Hour: Celtic Visions from the Past, 2002 This Spectred Isle: A Journey through Haunted England, 2005 Ghosthunter: A Journey Through Haunted France, 2006 Memento Mori: Churches and Churchyards of England, 2007

Permanent collections J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu) Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris) Victoria and Albert Museum (London) Arts Council England Saatchi Gallery (London)