I’m Matt, an author and journalist. I write creative non-fiction books exploring our connection with environment and place.
For the best part of the past 20 years, I have written for a living. After having my psyche turned around by Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and completing an MA in Aesthetics (specialising in exploring how we appreciate nature) I trained as a journalist. Following time on news desks at weekly and daily titles, I left newsrooms to pursue a freelance career, spend more time with my family and write about ways to become more engaged in the environment.
Published in 2018, my first book, The Pull of the River, was an account of my travels with a friend around the waterways of the UK in a homemade canoe. My second, Under the Stars; A Journey into Light was described as “a beautiful and luminous love letter to the night sky” by Julian Hoffman and “lyrical, warm and suffused with the magic of the night” by the Guardian’s Patrick Barkham.
My latest book, In All Weathers, was published in 2024, and was described by the Observer magazine as a “glorious ode to the inclement”. All of my books have been published by Elliott & Thompson.
I continue to write journalism and my writing has been published in (among others): the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Independent, i paper, and Countryfile magazine.
As well as writing, I teach part time at a state secondary school and also teach creative writing for adults in workshops and online courses, including the National Writing Centre.
Reviews and readers:
‘In All Weathers pulls off the trick of shining a fresh light on our much-maligned climate, and Gaw’s contention that we should force ourselves to go outside in all types of weather is a persuasive one.’ Mail on Sunday
‘In his glorious ode to the inclement, author and teacher Matt Gaw reveals how all weathers transform our relationship with the natural world – the secret is to open your senses and immerse yourself’ The Observer magazine
‘Matt Gaw’s descriptions of walking through rain, fog, ice and snow and wind … buffet the reader along in exhilaration … a more than usually cheerful book about weather’ Country Life
‘Elegant, learned and thoughtful, this book vindicates our obsession with the weather.’ Katherine May, author of Enchantment
Matt Gaw 