Matt Pritchett
Matthew Pritchett MBE is a British cartoonist who has worked on The Daily Telegraph newspaper under the pen name Matt since 1988.
Early life and education
Pritchett's father Oliver Pritchett was a columnist for The Telegraph for several decades; his paternal grandfather was the writer V. S. Pritchett. The screenwriter Georgia Pritchett is his sister.Pritchett attended a grammar school in south-east London before studying graphics at Saint Martin's School of Art. He started working as a waiter in a pizza restaurant, while drawing cartoons in his spare time. His first cartoon was published in the New Statesman, and he then started drawing cartoons for The Telegraph diary. He had considered becoming a film-cameraman, but gave up after realising he had misunderstood the role.
Career
Following the death of Mark Boxer in 1988, Pritchett was hired by Max Hastings to be The Telegraphs new pocket cartoonist. His first cartoon in this role came the day after the newspaper was printed with a date error, leading them to make a front-page apology; the cartoon caption was, "I hope I have a better Thursday than I did yesterday." His work has also been published in Punch.Honours
Pritchett won the British Press Awards' "Cartoonist of the Year" in 2000, 2008, 2009, and 2019, and has been a nominee many other times. He won "The Journalists' Charity Award" at the 2014 Press Awards.He was appointed an MBE in the 2002 New Year Honours "for services to Journalism", and in 2005, Press Gazette inducted him into their Hall of Fame as one of the 40 most influential journalists of the past four decades.