Philip Matthews

Christchurch

Senior Journalist at The Press (New Zealand)

Journalist in Christchurch, NZ. Senior writer with The Press newspaper. Reviewer of the year (Voyager Media Awards 2022). Author of The Quiet Hero (2023).

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Articles

A Christchurch writer remembers the city’s post-quake weirdness

Aug 9, 2024 | thepress.co.nz | Philip Matthews

A stripped-out house on Avonside Drive, in Christchurch’s residential red zone, photographed in 2018. Iain McGregor / The PressIt was a time of shipping containers and road cones, bureaucratic complaints and housing repairs. How do you remember it? Do you even want to remember it? Those who were in Christchurch for the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes and the following half a decade of demolition, stagnation and some green shoots of recovery and rebuilding will recall a time that felt like no other.
Stuff

Aug 2, 2024 | stuff.co.nz | Philip Matthews
The conman and the artist

Apr 8, 2024 | thepress.co.nz | Philip Matthews

Arthur Bentley Worthington, bigamist, conman and Temple of Truth Founder. The Weekly Press Photograph, Bishop Collection, Canterbury MuseumIt began innocently enough. Readers of The Press might have noticed a small ad on the front page of their paper on the morning of Tuesday, February 18, 1890. It was sandwiched between an ad for a family of touring Scottish singers and one for the Canterbury Trotting Club. The ad was for a free lecture at the Oddfellows Hall on Lichfield St in Christchurch.
Our crumbling cemeteries

Feb 2, 2024 | thepress.co.nz | Philip Matthews

Damaged headstones at the Lyttelton Catholic and Public Cemetery. CHRIS SKELTON / The PressWho looks after the dead? They lie in tidy rows, organised according to religion or grouped as families. Sometimes their plots are maintained and kept neat, and kind visitors leave flowers or toys or even bottles of beer. But sometimes they are as good as forgotten, long abandoned under shattered concrete or covered in weeds and vines, without even a headstone.
How Ngāi Tahu had to push the University of Canterbury into a bicultural relationship

Dec 8, 2023 | thepress.co.nz | Philip Matthews

Tā Tipene O’Regan was a central figure in Ngāi Tahu’s developing relationship with the University of Canterbury. A likeness of him, and other notable figures, was installed on the university campus for its 150th anniversary. Peter Meecham / The PressREVIEW: Cast your mind back 50 years, if you can, and think about the kind of city Christchurch was then. White was the dominant colour. Culture still largely came from abroad.
Taking stock of a life’s work

Dec 1, 2023 | thepress.co.nz | Philip Matthews

He usually comes in once or twice a week as a consultant and has a few other projects on the go. “I don’t know what the word retirement means,” he says and laughs. “I don’t think I’ve become a nuisance here. I try not to be.”That would be hard to imagine. Sheppard is a bright, friendly figure and besides, his surname is still on the door, next to that of his friend and the firm’s co-founder, Jonty Rout. Rout died in 2003 but his name comes up often and fondly during our conversation.
Art in a cold climate: There’s more to Antarctica than penguins and scientists

Nov 10, 2023 | thepress.co.nz | Philip Matthews

Vince's Cross (2006) by Grahame Sydney. SuppliedThere was a hilarious and poignant moment in Werner Herzog’s Antarctica documentary Encounters at the End of the World. The scene has Herzog and a scientist tracking the movements of a small group of penguins across the vastness of the ice. The group of waddling birds had split into factions, with most heading to the sea. That left one penguin isolated and slowly making its way towards the interior of the continent and certain death.
Anna Smaill's ‘Bird Life’ explores grief and magic in Tokyo

Nov 3, 2023 | thepost.co.nz | Philip Matthews

Living in Tokyo made a deep impression on Anna Smaill, who explores the alluring city in her second novel Bird Life. SuppliedAfter “a very, long slow gestation”, Wellington author Anna Smaill has followed up her acclaimed debut The Chimes with her second novel, moving from dystopian London to the allure of Tokyo. Tokyo is beautiful, unusual and ever so slightly ominous in Wellington writer Anna Smaill’s second novel, Bird Life.
Anna Smaill's ‘Bird Life’ explores grief and magic in Tokyo

Nov 3, 2023 | thepress.co.nz | Philip Matthews

Living in Tokyo made a deep impression on Anna Smaill, who explores the alluring city in her second novel Bird Life. SuppliedAfter “a very, long slow gestation”, Wellington author Anna Smaill has followed up her acclaimed debut The Chimes with her second novel, moving from dystopian London to the allure of Tokyo. Tokyo is beautiful, unusual and ever so slightly ominous in Wellington writer Anna Smaill’s second novel, Bird Life.
Stories from the harbour: New book tells lost stories from Christchurch’s backyard

Oct 13, 2023 | thepress.co.nz | Philip Matthews

Author Jane Robertson on the new jetty at Governors Bay. ALDEN WILLIAMS / ALDEN WILLIAMSThe bays around Lyttelton Harbour are Christchurch’s backyard but there is a way in which they are also secretive and mysterious places. Those bays and their stories have been Jane Robertson’s project for more than a decade. Without necessarily setting out to do so, Robertson has become the unofficial historian of the harbour.