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. I write a lot. 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.
I have not blogged much in the past couple of years. Why? Many reasons, including workload. There’s also the inescapable social fact that written long-form blogs are well past their heyday. But more crucially the problem has been what Cory Doctorow calls the ‘enshittification’ of internet services. Let me go through all those, starting with … More The future of blogging – and the world
My next major book, Those Who Have the Courage, the history of the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps and predecessor forces, is being released on 3 April by my publishers, Oratia Books. At 648 pages and 350,000-odd words backed by 3,320 endnotes it’s the largest book I have written. It is also my 64th book. … More Those who have the courage
I visited my home town of Napier a few weeks back and was stunned by the obvious poverty now evident across the place – this in the past twelve months, since a disastrous cyclone. This much poverty hasn’t generated that quickly, but it’s as if the cyclone made it visible. There are homeless people trying … More A visit to art deco central – and its poverty
This week’s obscure English word is gazump. It’s generically used to mean an action by one person that defeats the action of another, usually in business. It has a particular meaning, though, from real estate practises. Specifically, it describes the act of cheating a buyer after an agreed price has been reached, usually by accepting … More The obscure word of the week is gazump
This week’s obscure English word is gelastic. It’s got an origin in Greek and means something that causes laughter. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2024
The Treaty of Waitangi was signed 184 years ago and remains a key founding document of New Zealand, establishing a legal basis for the state and contractually defining race relations between a colonial power and the people who had been colonised. It is a vital document, an important document, and a necessary document for New … More The Treaty of Waitangi and the backlash brigade
There is no doubt that 2024 will be a watershed year for world democracy. The United States appears to be well on track to voting an end to the great democratic experiment begun 250 years ago by Messrs Jefferson & co. There’s been a ‘lurch to the right’ elsewhere: the Netherlands, for instance, are organising … More 2024: a watershed year for world democracy
This week’s obscure English word is caducitory. It means something temporary or transitory. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2024
I’ve put a lifetime into writing. It’s an ongoing learning process, as all skills must be. And the financial returns are minimal when set against the scale of work required to write a book, still less the scale of the process required to obtain the skills to do so. Lest there be any doubt, wanting … More Kindle piracy and paraphrase-bots
This week’s obscure English word is shivoo. It’s Australian slang meaning a fairly energetic party, though I’ve never actually heard it used by any Australians I know. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2024
Matthew Wright 
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