I’m a New Zealand writer with over thirty years hands-on professional experience as a published author and in publishing. My main interests are in the sciences – physics, particularly, though I’m deeply curious about a lot of stuff, especially the human condition. I have qualifications in writing, music and anthropology among other fields, and hold multiple post-graduate degrees in history. I’m also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society at University College, London. However, I don’t define myself as a historian and prefer not to be labelled as one. History is but one of the things I do. What’s more important to me is understanding people, whose story is told by history and by science, sociology and philosophy – aspects of which I learned post-grad under a former student of both Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Did I mention I also like science fiction? And fantasy? I’m a huge Tolkien fan. I write a lot – fiction (mostly fantasy and science-fiction) and non-fiction (well, yes, it’s mostly history, but I’ve done science and engineering too). My published writing, sold on merit, includes over 550 articles, academic papers, reviews, novellas and short stories, and over 50 books on topics ranging from travel guides to biography, engineering, military and social history. I’ve been published principally by Penguin Random House.
This week’s obscure English word is lagan. It is a sixteenth century legal term meaning wreckage, including trade goods, sitting at the bottom of the sea. Your challenge? Write a sentence (or two) in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2018 Advertisements
Eighteen months on, the Juno mission to probe the otherwise little-known poles of Jupiter is producing incredible dividends. Check this out. This is just so cool on so many levels. One of the things that NASA and JPL have done is to publish the raw Juno-Cam images sent back by the probe, for everyday people … More By Jove, Jupiter’s impressive!
Back when I was a kid at intermediate school (‘junior high’ in US parlance) there was an incident involving a trestle table at the back of the class, on which had been placed a lot of craft works. Adjacent to the trestle was a large cupboard in which all the coats and bags were stored, … More The dangers of being a good Samaritan when society is dysfunctional
This week marks the 101st anniversary of Passchendaele, the New Zealand part in the Third Battle for Ypres – and the day of New Zealand most lethal human catastrophe of all time. On that dark day, 12 October 1917, some 843 New Zealanders were killed – either outright, or left dying on the battlefield. And … More Remembering Passchendaele, 101 years on
In December 1941, after months of rising tensions over an oil and steel embargo, Japan attacked both the United States and the British Empire. New Zealand had long felt it was in the firing line – even 35 years earlier when Japan was an ally of Britain. And the effects of the ‘Japanese blitzkrieg’ swiftly … More This week’s feature book cover
This week’s obscure English word is jejune. It’s an adjective derived from the Latin word for fasting, and means simplistic; or – in the case of writing – dull. Your challenge? Write a sentence (or two) in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2018
I am always intrigued by the way that, every so often, western society is seized with a ‘social panic’ in which some recent and usually small-scale event becomes evidence of a supposedly deep-seated problem that is going to bring society crashing down in ruin. The archetype, for me, is New Zealand’s Elbe Milk Bar scandal … More Social panics – when the stupid becomes the normal
