Welcome to the official site of Matthew Parker, author of Monte Cassino and Panama Fever - a new book about the construction of the Panama Canal.

To build a canal linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans was a heroic dream that spanned four centuries. The human cost was immense: in appalling working conditions, tens of thousands perished fighting the jungle, swamps and mountains of Panama.

It is a story of imperialism, technology, politics, finance, press manipulation, scandal and intrigue, populated by a dazzling cast of idealists and bullies, heroes and conmen. Panama Fever also tells the stories of the ordinary men and women who worked on the canal, evoking everyday life on the construction and depicting the battle on the ground deep in ‘Hell’s Gorge’. Using diaries, memoirs, contemporary newspapers and previously unseen private letters, the book paints a vivid picture of the heart-breaking struggle on the Isthmus, in particular that of the British West Indians who made up the majority of the canal workforce.