Researching Malcolm Evans

Up until September 2014, when his work could no longer be tolerated, Evans' cartoons appeared daily in three major New Zealand newspapers, The Manawatu Standard, The Timaru Herald and The Christchurch Press. Evans still produces political cartoons for the Northland Age and still produces his Edna character, the ubiquitous farmer's wife, which has been running fortnightly since 1976 in New Zealand's largest farming newspaper Rural News. Evan's has a focus on Israel, its government and citizens, and regularly publishes anti-Zionism and anti-Israel cartoons. Some of these cartoons are also antisemitic and meet the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. Evans also produces cartoons fortnightly for New Zealand Dairy News and Dairy News Australia, personal cartoon caricature commissions, and also sculpts and paints.

Having first worked for The New Zealand Herald in the 1970s, when he succeeded Sir Gordon Minhinnick, Evans was again its cartoonist for six years from 1997 until 2003 when those opposed to his anti-Zionist and sometimes antisemitic cartoons, put pressure on the paper and, following Evans' subsequent refusal to stop drawing cartoon comments on the Israeli treatment of Palestinians, he was subsequently fired. During his time at the New Zealand Herald he was twice judged New Zealand Cartoonist of the Year, a title he held at the time of his firing, along with that of President of the NZCIA - the New Zealand Cartoonists and Illustrators Association.

He and his twin brother, Rod, were born in Romford, but his family soon moved to Portsmouth. He has a B.Sc. in electronics from Portsmouth Polytechnic and joined Marconi, where he worked on high-powered projects, such as satellite technology. Then in the mid-1970s he moved to work for Smiths Aviation, where he designed hardware to implement computer control systems for jet engines.

In 1979 he moved again, to Sperry Gyroscope in Bristol, where he joined its micro-processor applications group. There he found himself using Zilog Z80 and Intel 8088 machine code language for small applications of a classified nature for the Ministry of Defence. The Bristol factory was closed in 1981 but by then Malcolm had received a ZX81 from his wife, Linda, for his thirty-seventh birthday in April 1981. Malcolm developed 3D Monster Maze to test what the computer was capable of, and completed it by November.

In the spring of 1982, Evans founded his own company, New Generation Software, which continued to produce games for the ZX Spectrum and pioneer the 3D gaming industry.

As of 2016 Evans was no longer writing games, but he is the author of a travelogue about New Zealand.

His research interests include the law of the sea and the international protection of human rights, with particular focus on the freedom of religion and the prevention of torture.

He studied law at Regent's Park College, Oxford (1979–82 and 1983–87). He was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Bristol in 1988 and in 1999 was appointed Professor of Public International Law. He was Head of the School of Law 2003-05 before becoming Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law.

He is a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Advisory Panel on Freedom of Religion and Belief; the International Law Association Human Rights Law and Practice Committee; and the Board of Management of the Association for the Prevention of Torture.

In 2015 Evans was appointed as a member of the reconstituted panel of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to torture prevention and religious freedom.