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’.
