Matthew Wright

Matthew Wright is London-based journalist and novelist. He has written about the arts, education and cycling for a wide range of newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, and London Cyclist.

He was an English teacher before writing full-time, and before that an academic researcher. He believes passionately in the cultural importance of literature and the arts, and in the public value of their discussion.

English schools and universities have a glorious history as seminaries of writers and intellectuals who were able to share their love and understanding of interesting writing in a compelling way, with a wide audience. He yearns for the days when teachers and academics were both focused on inspiring a love of and interest in literary debate. He is bewildered by the fact that school teachers of literature now appear more interested in administration, and university teachers in private discussion with one another.

He has just finished his first novel. Charlie Porker, a would-be jazz musician is forced into a life of petty crime before his musical career has a chance to take off. After years of misery as an unsuccessful sidekick, he manoeuvres his career back towards music by outwitting the gangsters. But has he re-discovered the idealism of his youth, or is he indelibly tainted by the psychological violence of the gang scene he had to overcome?