MattRees.net

He was a raging psycho, an uncontrollably lustful homosexual, and a bit of a bitch. Somehow he also managed to produce some of the most sensitive and innovative art ever painted, much of it clearly based on a sophisticated understanding of theology and optical science. For many art historians and almost all creative artists writing [...]

I hope you all like the headline. I think it ought to rate well on search engines. See how technological I’ve become? The coming week will see the unveiling of my new podcast. I’ll be podcasting as The Man of Twists and Turns, which is the title of my own blog (and the identifier Homer [...]

I’m in between drafts of a novel, so I thought I’d look for something to clear my head. Inspired by a BBC broadcast last week in honor of the 80th birthday of Broadway lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim, I’ve been working on a musical version of my Palestinian crime novels. (Only in the shower, so [...]

I was invited to appear on a BBC World Service programme last weekend. If you’ve ever wondered how radio producers feed their on-air people interesting information about their guests (thus enabling them to create a breezy “chemistry” and to relate the day’s news stories to the knowledge or experience of the guest), here’s the questionnaire [...]

I was on the BBC World Service’s The World Today chatting about my Palestinian crime novels today. Because of the nature of the show, I also was asked my opinions on Cairo’s muezzins, Ethiopian distance running and the value of Michael Jackson’s rhinestone-encrusted white glove (you remember, the one he wore at the Motown Awards [...]

I was a guest on the BBC World Service’s The World Today programme this morning. It’s an eclectic news show which ranges from Somali pirates, to the Sri Lankan government’s bloody new assault on the Tamil Tigers, and the taste of capybara meat (a clandestine delicacy in Venezuela apparently, although the BBC’s reporter sampled it [...]

The first of my Omar Yussef Palestinian mystery novels has already been picked as one of the best of the year by the BBC and The Guardian in the UK and by Booklist and Publisher’s Weekly in the US. Now the blog AustCrimeFiction, which usually focuses on Australian and New Zealand mysteries, names The Bethlehem [...]

Yesterday I noted that BBC Radio had made my novel The Bethlehem Murders a Christmas reading pick. Here’s a little of what Jeff Park most generously said about the first of my Palestinian detective novels on the BBC’s Front Row programme: “Matt Rees has given us an incredible tapestry…It’s a wonderful, wonderful book. A fantastically [...]

BBC Radio’s Arts programme picked The Bethlehem Murders (the UK title for the first Omar Yussef Mystery) as one of the best crime novels to read or give as a gift over Christmas. Pretty good going for a Muslim detective. Here’s the BBC’s full list:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/festivepicks.shtml

BBC journalist Alan Johnston is free, but the truth behind his five months as a hostage in Gaza remains murky. If you only read the newspapers, that is. Journalists won’t be telling you who really kidnapped the 45-year-old Scottish reporter, or why he was released now. So I’ll tell you: powerful figures inside the Palestinian [...]