Matthew Loukes has worked in theatres, removals, music venues. tattoo shops and bars. He’s also spent far too much time in offices, wearing a suit to a shine. Aged 48 and married for more than ten years he tries to move around. Mostly he’s in London. He’s the one wearing a hat, wishing he could still smoke and trying to attract the attention of the bar staff.

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Matthew was born in Eastbourne, next to the stony beach, on the South Coast of England where he learned to swim, comb his hair into a quiff and lie still while having his ribcage tattooed. His parents were both actors.

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In 1988, he moved to London and spent ten years living with a Heavy Rock band, a philosophy professor and a collection of transients moving from the seaside to city.

Matthew graduated from the inaugural London University MA creative writing programme in 2005. Before that, he was short-listed for the Sunday Times New Crime Writers award and had some sports journalism published in books, national newspapers and magazines.

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He writes in an office amid the silent calm of empty desks. If you are looking for influences you could find some in Tex Avery, Raymond Chandler or better still, just by walking the streets between Kings Cross and Chancery Lane stations. There you’ll find some old bars, graveyards and the murmured memories of afternoons spent cutting the dust and hiding out. The themes are there, in the cracked flagstones, full ashtrays and broken promises.

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Soul Bay Press have published Matthew’s first two novels ‘Estrella Damn’ (paperback) and ‘Goose Flesh’ (in both hardback and paperback). Matthew has also contributed a Slim Gunter short story ‘Our Lady’ to the SBP compilation ’13’ which was published in October 2013.