Who Is Matt?

I was born in Leicester in 1973 and from a young age showed great promise as a writer. I wrote my first story soon after my family moved to South Wales, which is a place steeped in magic and myth. I decided to write the story in red crayon all over the living room wall. It was warmly received by my mum and dad. In fact I can still remember seeing the tears of joy in the eyes of my mum when she walked into the room and saw what I had done.

I was lucky to live in a household that cherished books and reading. Some of my favourites were the Mr Men books, the Magic Finger by Roald Dahl, Br’er Rabbit, A Christmas Carol, the Selfish Giant and the Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend and many, many others. I also loved comics (and still do), particularly the Beano, the Dandy, Whizzer and Chips and Roy of the Rovers.

Since 1996 I have done a series of ridiculous jobs that have taken me all around the world. I’ve held snakes in the jungle, driven a taxi in Delhi, even woken up sleeping alligators in Africa by pinching their tails (not recommended). For a long time I was a TV presenter and worked on some amazing shows like I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, and Nickelodeon, and Love Island. I worked on some absolute stinkers but perhaps the less said about them the better. I have also been a radio producer and a radio presenter working for stations like Capital, Heart, Radio 1, Magic, and Virgin.

But the one thing that has been constant throughout my life is that I’ve loved writing stories. It was my favourite thing to do in school, then became my favourite thing to do when I left school. Over the years I’ve found that I just can’t stop writing. I just love dreaming of imaginary places, filing them with people and creatures who don’t exist, doing things they’ve never done.

Then, one day, in about 2012, I had an idea to write a story about a boy who accidentally created a time machine. Two years later, Compton Valance: the Most Powerful Boy in the Universe was published. It was the most incredible feeling. To go into a bookshop or library and see one of my stories on the shelves was truly wonderful. Over the next two years three more Compton Valance stories were published.

Then in 2017, I had another idea. I know, two ideas in one lifetime! The idea was, what would happen if a couple of unlikely kids stopped the world from being destroyed by aliens? I wrote this idea into a story and in 2018, the world said ‘hello’ to Aliens Invaded My Talent Show. Two more stories followed in the Dreary Inkling School series that showcases my love of sci-fi and horror stories.

Most recently, Eloise Williams and I created The Mab; a retelling of the ancient stories of the Mabinogi.

My plans for the future involve playing backgammon for Great Britain, training my dogs to bring me snacks, and scoring the winning goal for Manchester United in the FA Cup final.