After a year spent teaching in a girls' finishing school in
Switzerland, Matthew worked as a copywriter in various London advertising agencies including
JWT, before becoming a full-time writer in 1970. His books include
Diary of a Somebody,
Loosely Engaged,
The Long-Haired Boy (adapted for TV as
A Perfect Hero, starring
Nigel Havers), an annotated edition with
Benny Green of
Three Men in a Boat,
The Junket Man,
How to Survive Middle Age,
Family Matters,
The Amber Room,
A Nightingale Sang in Fernhurst Road,
Now We Are Sixty,
Knocking On,
Now We Are Sixty (and a Bit),
Summoned by Balls,
When We Were Fifty,
The Man Who Dropped the Le Creuset on His Toe and Other Bourgeois Mishaps, and
Dog Treats: An Assortment of Mutts, Mongrels, Puppies and Pooches. As a journalist, he has been a travel writer for
The Sunday Times, a restaurant critic for
Vogue, a property correspondent for
Punch, and a television and book reviewer for the
Daily Mail. He has written short stories for
BBC Radio 4 and his radio plays include
A Portrait of Richard Hillary, ''Madonna's Plumber
, and A Nightingale Sang in Fernhurst Road''. He contributed scripts to the
ITV series,
The Good Guys with
Nigel Havers and
Keith Barron, and a stage play,
Summoned by Betjeman, starring
Robert Daws, was performed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, the Royal Theatre, Northampton, and Clwyd Theatr Cymru. In 1983 Matthew,
Tim Rice and
Benny Green recreated
Jerome K. Jerome's classic Thames journey in
Three More Men in a Boat for BBC Television. He has appeared many times over the years on
BBC Radio 4 – among other things as chairman of
The Travelling Show, presenter of
Something to Declare,
Points of Departure and
Plain Tales from the Rhododendrons, and panellist on
Quote Unquote. For several years he worked with
Alan Coren on
Freedom Pass (nominated for a
Sony Award), and with
Des Lynam on
Touchline Tales. In 2012 he recorded a special
Freedom Pass episode with
Terry Waite, and in 2013 he and
Martin Jarvis journeyed back to their childhood homes in
Grey Shorts and Sandals. Most recently he presented a three-hour celebration of the life of
Alan Coren –
The Sage of Cricklewood – for Pier Productions on
BBC Radio 4 Extra. ==Personal life==