Matthew Pritchett MBE (born 14 July 1964) is a British cartoonist who has worked on The Daily Telegraph newspaper under the pen name Matt since 1988.
Pritchett's father Oliver Pritchett, who was a columnist for The Telegraph for all decades,[1] is the son of the writer V. S. Pritchett.[2] Matt's sister is screenwriter Georgia Pritchett.[3]
At young age, Pritchett attended a grammar school in southeast London before studying graphics at Saint Martin's School of Art. He started working as a waiter in a pizza restaurant, and started drawing cartoons in his spare time. His first cartoon was published in the New Statesman, and he soon started drawing more cartoons for The Telegraph diary.[2] He had considered becoming a film-cameraman, but gave up after realising he had misunderstood the role.[4]
Following the death of Mark Boxer in 1988, Pritchett was hired by Max Hastings to be The Telegraph's new cartoonist.[2] His first cartoon in this role came the day after the newspaper was printed with the date error, leading them to make a front-page apology accompanied by a cartoon saying "I hope I have a better Thursday than I did yesterday".[4]
He was appointed an MBE in the 2002 New Year Honours "for services to Journalism",[5] 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.[6]
He has won the British Press Awards' "Cartoonist of the Year" multiple times, and has been a nominee many other times.[7][8] His work has also been published in Punch.[9]
Pritchett is married to Pascale Smets, a Belgian former fashion designer. They met whilst studying at Saint Martin's, and have three daughters and a son together, including The Guardian cartoonist Edith Pritchett.[10] His wife's sister, Benedicte, is married to Martin Newland, a former editor of The Telegraph.[2][11]