Matthew Parker (born 1970)[1] is an English author of historical non-fiction books whose work has covered topics including European colonialism, World War II, and the construction of the Panama Canal.
Parker was born in El Salvador to British parents and spent parts of his childhood in Great Britain, Norway and Barbados.
Of the latter, Publishers Weekly said "Parker details, with the aid of hundreds of survivor interviews and war diaries, the Allied siege of the monastery at Monte Cassino, a mountainous fiefdom massively fortified...With command and ground-level detail that buffs will savor, Parker goes over what seems like every inch of the multinational force's campaign.
John Gimlette reviewed it for The Spectator: "A miniature masterpiece...this is a truly extraordinary tale and, in Parker’s hands, it’s beautifully told.
With great wit and scholarship he reveals — just for a moment — a cruel and curious world, before it vanishes again beneath the trees.