author
Thomas T. Matthews
A Scottish missionary and writer, best known for Thirty Years in Madagascar, spent decades observing life, faith, and change on the island firsthand. His work blends memoir, travel writing, and mission history in a way that still feels vivid and immediate.
1 Audiobook
Thirty years in Madagascar
by Thomas T. Matthews
About the author
Born in Aberdeen, Thomas Trotter Matthews became a missionary in Madagascar with the London Missionary Society. Accounts of his life describe him as being shaped by the 1859 revival movement, and his long service in Madagascar gave him deep familiarity with the people, places, and religious life he wrote about.
He is best known for Thirty Years in Madagascar, published in 1904, a substantial firsthand record of missionary work and everyday life on the island. The book stands out for its combination of personal experience, historical reflection, and close observation gathered over many years.
Matthews also wrote Notes of Mission Work in Madagascar. While detailed biographical information about him is not easy to confirm from widely available sources, his writing remains valuable as a window into Madagascar and Protestant mission history at the turn of the twentieth century.