Matthew Reilly
, b. 1974
Matthew John Reilly was born in 1974 in Sydney, Australia, the second son of Ray and Denise Reilly. His father was an employee of the Department of Corrective Services and his mother a maths teacher. He grew up in Willoughby, on the lower North Shore of Sydney. After graduating from St Aloysius’ College, Australia’s highest performing Catholic High School, in 1992, Reilly undertook an undergraduate Law degree at the University of New South Wales. He graduated in 1997, 31st out of 250 students.
At the age of 19, Reilly wrote his first book, Contest. Having been rejected by every major publisher in Australia, he self-published 1000 copies and sold them to several bookshops around Sydney stating, “I knew that publishers checked out bookshops so that’s where I needed my book to be.” In early 1997, Pan Macmillan offered Reilly a two-book deal, the first of which, Ice Station, was released in 1998. An instant hit in Australia, Ice Station, gained Reilly a foothold with major publishers in the UK, US and Germany. He has since produced over a dozen novels and novellas of which 7.5 million copies have been sold, in over 20 different languages. Four of these have been the biggest-selling fiction titles in Australia for the year of their release including: The Tournament (2013); Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves (2011); The Five Greatest Warriors (2009); and Seven Ancient Wonders (2005).
A self-confessed nerd, Reilly is infamous for his collection of movie paraphernalia. He owns and drives a DeLorean DMC-12, the car made famous by the Back to the Future movie franchise, and has a life-sized Han Solo in carbonite hanging from his office wall.
Sources:
Official website (accessed: June 25, 2018).
Facebook profile (accessed: June 25, 2018).
Bio prepared by Nicole Kimball, University of Newcastle, nicole.kimball@uon.edu.au
Records in database:
