Author(s): Matthew Wright

NZ Fiction

What if Maori had never discovered New Zealand? What if the moa had survived into modern times? What if Sir Francis Drake had reached New Zealand? What if Homo erectus, so-called Java Man, had survived in remote Southland? What if the wording of the Treaty of Waitangi had been very different? What if New Zealand had joined Australia in the early twentieth century? What if there'd been full Prohibition imposed in 1919? What if an Auckland volcano had erupted? What if the Napier earthquake had never happened? What if the Japanese had invaded New Zealand in World War II? What if New Zealand troops had failed to break out of the German encirclement in the Western Desert in 1942? What if protesters had died during the Springbok Tour in 1981? In this fascinating New Zealand version of the well-known counter-factual books currently popular overseas, historian Matthew Wright ponders on the intriguing possibilities behind what might have been. He takes a wide-ranging and tongue-in-cheek approach to how life in New Zealand could have turned out.