About Matilda Webb

Yes, I loved reading as a child and wanted to start writing stories after I met Roald Dahl when I was 7. He came to talk to my class and, being such a bookworm, I ended up being the only one to answer his questions, and to ask him some of my own. I remember how thrilled I was when he chose me to go around the class with an enormous bowl of Maltesers - and how it was almost bigger than I was!

Growing up on the North Yorkshire Moors, I divided my time between galloping recklessly around the countryside on a friend's scruffy pony, digging in Victorian bottle dumps, and fishing for mackerel at Whitby. I was often lost in a book and in my imagination, scribbling down many of my own stories.

I fell in love with archaeology when my parents took me to see the Minoan sites of Crete when I was 14. From then on I wanted to be an archaeologist and went on to study at university. Many adventures on digs around the world followed, highlights including working at the Minoan palace of Knossos, at Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall, and inside Maeshowe Chambered Tomb in Orkney (pictured). I spent a year working in Mongolia, and was happiest once again galloping recklessly around on horseback (pictured) - this time to discover extraordinary Bronze Age sites in the remotest regions of the Steppes.

I spent several years living in Rome where I zipped around the city on my moped - visiting catacombs and sites whilst researching for my first published book, The Churches and Catacombs of Early Christian Rome. After digging in Verona and Tuscany, I returned to the UK, swapping trenches for museum galleries, all the while continuing to write books from a historical perspective. I've written both children's and adult fiction and non-fiction, but I consider the biography of Alfred Wallis my proudest achievement so far (pictured).

Living in a family involved in the art world, I grew up amid talk of the artists who gave the Cornish harbour town of St Ives its extraordinary position in the history of twentieth century art. In 2017 I was captivated with the collection of paintings held at Kettle's Yard by St Ives self-taught artist Alfred Wallis (1855-1942). I wanted to find out more about Wallis's life before he was an artist, to see what had inspired these heartfelt images. Accurate information was scarce so, as a historical researcher with a passion for his paintings, I decided to embark on an eight-year quest to produce an in-depth biography about him.

Combining original archival research, data from previous publications, and invaluable input from descendants of Alfred Wallis's family, I was able to discover much new information about his fascinating life and how it informed his paintings.