Matthew Engel

Matthew Lewis Engel (born 11 June 1951)[1] is a British writer, journalist and editor.

Early life and education

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Engel was born in Northampton, son of solicitor Max David Engel (1912-2005) and Betty Ruth (née Lesser).[2][3] His grandfather had escaped anti-Semitic persecution in Poland.[4]

He was educated at Great Houghton Prep School, Carmel College, Oxfordshire, and Manchester University.[5]

Career

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He began his career in 1972 as a staff journalist on The Guardian 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. He later wrote columns in the Financial Times and now contributes to both these papers. Engel edited the 1993–2000 and 2004–2007 editions of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, with a short break when he worked in the US. He has been a strong critic of the International Cricket Council, international cricket's ruling body.

Engel was the visiting professor of media at the University of Oxford for 2011.[6]

He was elected as a councillor for Herefordshire in October 2023 in a by-election for Golden Valley South ward.[7][8]

Personal life

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Engel lives on an old farm in Herefordshire. In 1990, he married former editorial director at Pan Books Hilary, daughter of Laurence Davies.[9] They had a son, Laurie, and adopted a daughter, Victoria (Vika), from Russia.[10][11] 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 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

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References

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  1. ^ Berry, Scyld, ed. (2009). "Births and Deaths – Other Cricketing Notables". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (146th ed.). John Wisden & Co. p. 407. ISBN 978-1-905625-16-1.
  2. ^ Debrett's People of Today, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2006, p. 507
  3. ^ "About us | Max Engel Solicitors".
  4. ^ "My daughter's Big Brother (Part 1)". TheGuardian.com. 29 May 1999.
  5. ^ "Matthew Engel » Biography".
  6. ^ Visiting Professor of Media Archived 2012-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, University of Oxford
  7. ^ "Local Elections Archive Project — By-elections 2023-10-26". www.andrewteale.me.uk. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  8. ^ "Herefordshire poll win for writer as railway station reopening tops issues". Hereford Times. 2023-10-28. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  9. ^ Debrett's People of Today, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2006, p. 507
  10. ^ "My daughter's Big Brother (Part 1)". TheGuardian.com. 29 May 1999.
  11. ^ "The day the sky fell in". TheGuardian.com. 3 December 2005.
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