Tony Simpson published his first book, the award winning oral history of the thirties depression The Sugarbag Years in 1974 and has since published fourteen works dealing with New Zealand's social, political and cultural history, most recently A Distant Feast which is a social history of New Zealand's European cuisine (reissued 2008). 

He has held a number of fellowships and writing awards including the Arts Council Non Fiction Award (1995) and a grant from the Fulbright Foundation in 1983 to undertake research in the United States. He is a graduate in history and politics from the University of Canterbury. He has served as writer representative on the then Literature Committee of the Arts Council, was for ten years a member of the Board of the Stout Centre for the Study of New Zealand Culture at Victoria University, and was president of PEN in 1983 when the organisation celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. 

Simpson writes commentary and regularly reviews for NZ Books and has been both a judge and judge convenor of the Montana Awards. He is a past president of the Public Service Association and is chair of the gay and lesbian lobby group Rainbow Wellington. In 2005 he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his contribution to historical research.