Meet the author

Matt Goodfellow.

Writer · United Kingdom

Matt Goodfellow: the CLiPPA-winning poet behind The Final Year, whose spare free-verse novels are unflinching about hardship and family yet full of heart, and a rare hit with reluctant and confident readers alike.

Matt Goodfellow is a British poet and former primary-school teacher whose verse for children is spare, plain-spoken and quietly devastating. He is best known for The Final Year and its sequel The First Year, following working-class Nate through the upheavals of the last year of primary and the first year of secondary school, and Six Weeks, a summer of grief after a boy's mum dies. All are told in free verse and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, and all deal honestly with hardship, family strain and the anger that comes with feeling powerless, held together by real warmth. His teaching years show in the classroom truth of his writing. A leading voice in children's poetry, he is a strong choice for older readers, reluctant and confident alike, and reads aloud beautifully.