Matthew Parker

Born in Central America in 1970, Matthew Parker spent part of his childhood in the West Indies, acquiring a life-long fascination with the history of the region. Since graduating from Oxford, he has worked as an editorial adviser, a commissioning editor, a consultant on history television projects and has written a number of bestselling narrative histories. He has appeared on television documentaries and featured on a number of radio programmes, including the Diane Rehm Show in the United States. Matthew has written for a number of newspapers and magazines and lectured at the Royal Geographical Society in London, the Explorers' Club in New York, Northwestern University in Chicago and the Treasury Executive Institute and the Society of the Americas in Washington DC. His previous book was Panama Fever, published in the UK in paperback as Hell's Gorge. His new history of the rise and fall of the West Indian sugar empire, The Sugar Barons, is published in the UK in April and in the US in August 2011. He currently lives in east London with his family and annoying dog. More at www.matthewparker.co.uk