| Matt Whyman | |
| Birth Date: | 1969 |
| Birth Place: | Amersham, Buckinghamshire |
| Occupation: | novelist |
| Nationality: | English |
| Period: | 1993–present |
| Genre: | Young adult fiction |
| Notableworks: | Boy Kills Man |
Matt Whyman is a British novelist, also known for his work as an advice columnist for numerous teenage magazines.
Born in 1969, Matt Whyman grew up in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, and has an MA from the UEA Creative Writing course (1992) taught by Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. He has written widely for all ages across a range of subjects in fiction and non-fiction, notably Boy Kills Man (2004), a critically acclaimed story of Colombian child assassins which is published in translation around the world, the bestselling comic memoir Walking With Sausage Dogs (2011) and The Unexpected Genius of Pigs (2018).
In 1995, Whyman became the first male advice columnist for 19 magazine. He went on to hold a 10-year residency as AOL UK's online agony uncle,[1] and for 18 years at Bliss Magazine from 1996 until its closure in 2014. He has created many national health awareness campaigns for BBC Radio 1, CLIC Sargent,[2] Macmillan and Brook Advisory, written widely on teenage issues for the national press, and often appeared on radio and television in this role. In 1997, Whyman co-presented a series of ITV's cult Saturday morning sex and relationships show, Love Bites, and from 2011-2013 served as the resident agony uncle on BBC Radio 1's live advice show, The Surgery.[3]
As well as teaching creative writing across the UK, and for the British Council in Russia, Mexico,[4] Africa[5] and the Middle East,[6] Whyman is an established ghostwriter and collaborative author. In the latter role, he has worked on books with Billy Connolly (Tracks Across America, 2016), Charles Eugster (Age is Just a Number 2017), Matthew Syed (You are Awesome, 2018) and Gareth Southgate (Anything is Possible, 2020) among others. In 2015, he wrote the graphic novel Username: Evie, with the story provided by Joe Sugg, who was credited as the lead author of the work,[7] and with the art provided by Amrit Birdi, as well as two further titles, Username: Regenerated (2016) and Username: Uprising (2017). Whyman is also the author of The Nice & Accurate Good Omens TV Companion (2019) to accompany the series, Good Omens, based upon the novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, and Our Planet, based on the Netflix series, with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough.
Matt Whyman lives in West Sussex. He is married with four children.