Matthew Baylis (born 1971), also known as Matt Baylis and M. H. Baylis, is a British novelist, screenwriter and journalist.

Early life

Baylis was born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. He was educated at

Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby ("Small things grow in harmony" - Sallust) , established = , closed = , type = Public SchoolIndependent school; Day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Head Master , head = Mr Deiniol Willi ...

, and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, and spent most of his early years in

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

, Merseyside.

Career

A former storyliner on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

's flagship

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

'', he adapted

Catrin Collier Karen Watkins (née Jones, born 1948), writing as Catrin Collier, is a Welsh novelist known for her historical works, especially those in the ''Hearts of Gold'' series, set in her home town of Pontypridd between 1930 and 1950, the first of whic ...

's novel ''Hearts of Gold'', set in the 1930s, for the screen, and this was broadcast as a two-parter on BBC One in July 2003. He subsequently went with former ''EastEnders'' executive producer Matthew Robinson to

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, where he co-created, co-storylined and trained a team of local writers for a six-part drama pilot. Robinson later invited him to

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

, to do the same on ''

Taste of Life ''Taste of Life'' () is a Taiwanese Hokkien television drama that began airing on SET Taiwan in Taiwan on 28 July 2015, from Mondays to Fridays. Synopsis Chu-Tsai, Chao and his wife have five children. Devoted all his life into developing soy s ...

'', a major Cambodian drama series funded by the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

Trust and the

Department for International Development , type = Department , logo = DfID.svg , logo_width = 180px , logo_caption = , picture = File:Admiralty Screen (411824276).jpg , picture_width = 180px , picture_caption = Department for International Development (London office) (far right ...

. Continuing his involvement in Cambodia, Baylis scripted ''Palace of Dreams'', a BBCWST-funded romantic comedy film, aimed at younger audiences; '' Vanished'' – a film-noir thriller made by Robinson's company

Khmer Mekong Films Khmer Mekong Films (KMF) is a major Cambodian film and television production company based in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. Founded by Matthew Robinson, a former director and executive producer of the BBC television series ''Byker Gro ...

, which showed to great acclaim across Cambodia in 2009, and has been shown at the

Pyongyang International Film Festival The Pyongyang International Film Festival is a biennial cultural exhibition held in Pyongyang, North Korea. Until 2002, the film festival was reserved to "non-aligned and other developing countries". History The event originated in 1987 as the Py ...

; and he co-created, and wrote scripts for ''AirWaves'', a contemporary drama series funded by the U.S. government, which is currently showing on Cambodia's TV channel CTN. The author of two comic novels, ''Stranger than Fulham'' and ''The Last Ealing Comedy'' he has been the television critic for the ''Daily Express'' since September 2005 – where he writes as Matt Baylis – and also written on television and other subjects for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', ''

Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' and ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

''. His third novel ''A Death at the Palace'' is a crime thriller set in Tottenham - the first in the Rex Tracey series - and it was published by Old Street on 13 March 2013. The 2013 book ''Man Belong Mrs Queen'' gives an account of his time on

Tanna Island Tanna (sometimes misspelled ''Tana'') is an island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu. Name The name ''Tanna'', first cited by James Cook, is derived from the word ''tana'' in the Kwamera language, meaning "earth". Etymologically, ''Tanna'' goes bac ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

, researching the Prince Philip Movement . In December 2013 and January 2014 the book was

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's ''

Book of the Week ''Book of the Week'' is a BBC Radio 4 series that is broadcast daily on week days. Each week, extracts from the selected book, usually a non-fiction work, are read over five episodes; each fifteen-minute episode is broadcast in the morning (9:45a ...

''. His fourth novel, and the second in the Rex Tracey series of

Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of ...

-set crime thrillers, is ''The Tottenham Outrage'' published on 15 July 2014 by Old Street. As well as a contemporary mystery on the streets of North London, this book presents a fact-based, but fictionalized re-imagining of the real

Tottenham Outrage The Tottenham Outrage of 23 January 1909 was an armed robbery in Tottenham, North London, that resulted in a two-hour chase between the police and armed criminals over a distance of , with an estimated 400 rounds of ammunition fired by the thie ...

, a bungled robbery attempt by Russian anarchists in January 1909..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baylis, Matthew 1971 births Living people British male journalists British male novelists British male screenwriters British male television writers People from Nottingham