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Ernest Rutherford and the birth of modern physics

Discover the history of modern physics. Join Ernest Rutherford in a journey to the heart of the atom.

Available from November 2025 worldwide.

Inform. Excite. Inspire

“Wright is a fantastic writer… in my opinion the best New Zealand historian writing today”
– ‘The Library’ 3 February 2015.

Books in print

Matthew Wright’s in-print books are available from any good bookstore, Amazon and online.

Out of print books

Limited stocks available by direct order for some titles. Get them before they’re gone.

Professional services

Professional writing, editorial and publishing services. Corporate work and rates only.

Latest book

The History of Hawke’s Bay – third edition

This third edition of Matthew Wright’s history of Hawke’s Bay is fully updated and for the first time available in full colour. Includes previously unseen colour photos.

Latest feature article

Thought-provoking analysis.

Matthew Wright’s latest feature article is the third in a series covering the politics behind Admiral Sir John Fisher’s battlecruisers. Published by the Navy General Board website.

Buy Matthew Wright’s books

“Wright has profound knowledge of his subject and uses lucid prose to convey it”

Fritz Logan, Timaru Herald

About

A professional career

Matthew Wright is an internationally published and multi-award-winning New Zealand author He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society at University College in London, and holds qualifications in music, anthropology and history. He studied post-graduate under Professor Peter Munz.

Wright has more than 40 years professional experience as an author and editor. His publications include 65 books and more than 650 academic papers, feature articles and literary reviews. His books have been used as university texts, notably his scholarly historiographical analysis of the Treaty of Waitangi and its social place in New Zealand.

Other highlights of Wright’s work include his mammoth one-volume history of New Zealand, which has been in print since 2004, and books covering the science and history of New Zealand’s earthquakes. Between 2019-2024 Wright was employed full time to write the definitive history of the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps. He has been primarily published by Penguin Random House, Oratia Books and Bateman Books.


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