Matthew Lewis Engel (born 11 June 1951) is a British writer, journalist and editor.

Early life and education

Engel was born in

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England ...

, son of solicitor Max David Engel (1912-2005) and Betty Ruth (née Lesser). His grandfather had escaped anti-Semitic persecution in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. He was educated at Great Houghton Prep School, Carmel College,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

, and

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

Career

He began his career in 1972 as a staff journalist on ''

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 ...

'' newspaper for nearly 25 years, reporting on a wide range of political and sporting events including a period as Washington correspondent beginning on

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. He later wrote columns in the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' and now contributes to both these papers. Engel edited the 1993–2000 and 2004–2007 editions of ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', with a short break when he worked in the US. He has been a strong critic of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the '' ...

, international cricket's ruling body. Engel was the Visiting Professor of Media at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

for 2011.

Personal life

Engel lives on an old farm in

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouths ...

. In 1990, he married former editorial director at

Pan Books Pan Books is a publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. Pan Books began as an independent publisher, es ...

Hilary, daughter of Laurence Davies. They had a son, Laurie, and adopted a daughter, Victoria (Vika), from Russia. Laurie died of cancer in 2005, aged 13, and Engel set up a successful charity fund in his memory, the Laurie Engel Fund, which has raised more than £1.2m in partnership with the

Teenage Cancer Trust Teenage Cancer Trust is a cancer care and support charity in the UK that exists to improve the cancer experience of young people aged 13–24. Founded in 1990, the charity's key service is providing specialist teenage units in NHS hospitals. I ...

to build a new unit for patients in Birmingham (opened 2010) and for a cancer centre scheduled for 2018. The proceeds of a book he wrote, ''Extracts from the Red Notebooks'' (Macmillan), are donated to this fund. His book, ''That’s The Way It Crumbles: The American Conquest of the English Language'' (Profile Books) was published in June 2017.

Works

*''The Reign - Life in Elizabeth's Britain: Part I: The Way It Was, 1952-79'' (Atlantic Books, 2022) *''That’s The Way It Crumbles: The American Conquest of the English Language'' (Profile Books, 2017) *''Engel's England: thirty-nine counties, one capital and one man'' (Profile Books, 2014) *''Eleven Minutes Late: A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain'' (Macmillan, May 2009) *''Extracts from the Red Notebooks'' (Macmillan, 2007) and hi
''Financial Times'' column
about it *''The Bedside Years: The Best Writing from the Guardian 1951–2000'' (Atlantic, 2001) ASIN B000Y11LQW *''Tickle The Public: One Hundred Years of the Popular Press'' (Orion, 1996) , paperback (Phoenix, 1997) *''Thirty Obituaries from Wisden'' (editor) (Penguin Books Ltd, 1996) *''The History of

Northamptonshire CCC Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Nor ...

(County Cricket History)'' (with Andrew Radd) (Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd, 1993) *''Sports writer's eye: an anthology'' (Queen Anne Press, 1989) *''The Guardian Book of Cricket'' (Pavilion Books, 1986) (Penguin Books, 1987) *''Ashes '85'' Pelham Books, 1985) *''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' (editor) (John Wisden & Co Ltd) **''2007'' , paperback , large print **''2006'' , paperback **''2005'' , paperback **''2004'' , paperback , audio **''2000/The Millennium Edition'' , paperback **''1999'' , paperback **''1998'' , paperback **''1997'' , paperback **''1996'' , paperback **''1995'' , paperback **''1994'' , paperback **''1993'' , paperback *''The Sportspages Almanac: Complete Sporting Factbook'' (with Ian Morrison) (Simon & Schuster Ltd) **''1992'' **''1991'' **''1990''

References

External links

*
Column archive
at

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

Column archive
at

Author profile
at PanMacmillan *
The Laurie Engel Fund
''official website'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Engel, Matthew 1951 births Living people British sportswriters Cricket historians and writers Editors of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack English male journalists The Guardian journalists British people of German-Jewish descent British people of Polish-Jewish descent