nationality | klaut

Publishing • Production • Communications

Showreel

Books

Unleashed

Sex, rackets & vigilantes in

New Zealand's most corrupted community.

He wrote about vigilantes during the Covid lockdowns.

What could possibly go wrong?

How a clique used their council and police connections to try to silence an investigative writer through a series of stitch ups. This Kafkaesque farce delves into a community often at the centre of many New Zealand corruption scandals.

Matakana War Memorial heritage application

Fix Hill Street Now: TVNZ Gutsful episode

Fix Hill Street Now: Visit the campaign website

Matakana War Memorial heritage application

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Welcome to Klaut.

Klaut is the publishing, production, and communications company of Grant McLachlan – a New Zealand-based writer. Grant is a prolific investigative writer of fiction and non-fiction for newspapers, books, and screen.

A former hearings commissioner, barrister, and solicitor*, Grant has worked in the public and private sectors, ranging from a Parliamentary researcher and campaign director to a planner and infrastructure specialist. His columns in New Zealand newspapers and his pro-bono work has assisted many people involved in disputes with central and local government authorities.

On this site you will find links to his current and past work. There are several projects in development so please watch this space.

Sparrow

A Chronicle of Defiance

An epic account of The Sparrows

- Battle of Britain gunners who defended Timor as part of Sparrow Force in 1942.

It is the story of Charlie McLachlan's war: a triumph of stubborn Scottish defiance and laconic Aussie genius over the relentless violence of man and nature. Charlie survives and bears witness to some of the landmark days of World War II.

Media Coverage

Is New Zealand really the most beautiful country in the world?

We sell the world a postcard and then punish anyone who turns it over. The published record — and our own talent — tells a harder story.

PERSONA NON GRATA

Grant McLachlan - Column

5 days ago4 min read

Is the Crown really the villain of this story?

Liam Ratana aims his King’s Birthday anger squarely at the monarch. The historical record keeps pointing somewhere closer to home.

PERSONA NON GRATA

Grant McLachlan - Column

Jun 16 min read

A generation of ambition lost?

New Zealand's brain drain has been measured to exhaustion. What the academics keep missing is that the country is not just losing people — it is losing the kind of people who refuse to play in-house.

Column

Grant McLachlan

May 36 min read

The silent 'H': How academic vanity rewrote the sound of New Zealand

For more than a century, New Zealanders — Maori and Pakeha alike — said "Wangaray". Then academics decided it was "Fongaray". Now media have been instructed to say "Fongaaray". The recordings beg to differ.

Grant McLachlan

Apr 49 min read

New Zealand’s entrenched culture of corruption

Australia was settled by convicts. New Zealand was settled by conmen. While Australia convicts corruption, New Zealand condones it because it never knew any better.

Feature

Grant McLachlan

Mar 2743 min read

Thomas Bracken: Not Understood

Thomas Bracken wrote NZ's national anthem and coined 'God's Own Country.' He died in poverty, buried in a pauper's grave. His satire was so perfect that 126 years later, we still don't realize we're singing a protest song. The ultimate 'Not Understood.'

Column

Grant McLachlan

Feb 1611 min read