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.
I am occasionally confronted with the idea that writing history is somehow easy. I mean, all it involves is copying ‘facts’ – er – doesn’t it? I mean, how hard can history be? History is one of the few fields where it’s possible for, say, somebody trained as a horse dentist or perhaps as an … More When fringe thinkers re-write history
A while back I found a file with all my old high school reports – which, apart from their wonderfully silly judgements of my nature – reminded me of the adventures I had in high school English. In the first term of my sixth form year at Napier’s Tamatea High School I had a great … More Ironic adventures with my high school English teacher, part 483,586
This week’s obscure English word is exedra. It’s the name of an arcade or portico with seats where people can talk, and was derived from Greek, via Latin, in the seventeenth century. Your challenge? Write a sentence (or two) in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2018
One of the things that always irritates me about Christmas is the incredible commercialisation that goes with it. The frenzy starts around October these days and has got to the point where the major retail chains are advertising their Boxing Day sales weeks ahead of Christmas itself. Apparently the act of giving away avalanches of … More That ‘ol Christmas shopping zombie thing again
On 8 December 1941, Japan raided Singapore from the air. Their bombers were engaged by the new British battleship Prince of Wales and the elderly battlecruiser Repulse, which were in the naval base at Sembawang on the northern side of the island. What isn’t usually realised is that this basically happened at the same time … More Where to find out about the loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse
It’s the anniversary once again of the 1941 Japanese attack on the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor – and of their simultaneous assault on the Malayan peninsula. So began the rather inaptly named Pacific War – an oxymoron, for the fighting spread from the central Pacific to India, from China to northern Australia. And … More A memorial to the United States Marine Corps in New Zealand
This week’s obscure English word is gnathonic. It’s a literary term that means ‘deceitfully flattering’, though to originate from the behaviour along these lines of Gnathō, a character in a comic play by the Roman playwright Terence. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2018
