Matthew Spencer

Matthew Spencer was a journalist at The Australian for twenty years, with long stints running the Foreign News desk and as Opinion Editor. He has written for newspapers and magazines in Uganda and Kenya and been published in The Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Matthew has an Honours degree in English Literature from the University of Sydney. Black River is his first novel.

He was born in Parramatta. The son of teachers, he lived with his sister Kate on the 320-acre campus of a boys’ boarding school. Long summers on the largely deserted property while exploring the remnant bush with its tributary of the Parramatta River inspired the book.

Black River is published by Allen and Unwin and is out now.

Matthew lives in Sydney with his wife, Ritu Gupta, and their three children.