Matthew Branton (born 1968) is a British novelist and author. He is noted for interrupting a successful career by publishing his fifth novel as a free download during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Life and career
Branton grew up in
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the tradition ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and was educated at
Sheffield City Polytechnic
Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegia ...
where as an undergraduate he was taught by the
Montserratian poet, playwright, and novelist
E A Markham, and as a postgraduate by the British novelist
Lesley Glaister. His first novel ''The Love Parade'' was published in 1997; ''The House of Whacks'' in 1999; ''Coast'' in 2000; ''The Hired Gun'' in 2001. Non-fiction includes ''Write a Bestselling Thriller'' published in 2012.
Branton published his fifth novel ''The Tie and the Crest'' as a free download in April 2003, to protest UK involvement in the invasion of Iraq. His novels, though commercially successful, are understood to belong to the outsider-art and politically-radical creative traditions, as does his work since 2003, usually published unsigned and unpublicized, frequently via social media.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Branton, Matthew
1968 births
Outsider artists
20th-century English novelists
21st-century English novelists
Living people
People from Sevenoaks
British male novelists
20th-century English male writers
21st-century English male writers