Maurice Gee

The work of author Maurice Gee ranges from children's classics Under the Mountain and The Halfmen of O, to a run of award-winning books for adults, including Plumb, Live Bodies and Blindsight. His books often touch on dysfunctional families, and the complicated (and sometimes violent) price of trying to do the right thing. All, whether following a hobo squatting on the side of Tinakori Hill or aliens lurking under Rangitoto, are known for their keen sense of place. 

Gee was born in Whakatane, but grew up in Henderson — then a country town, now part of Auckland city. His father was a carpenter, and his tools proved useful in constructing the boats in which Maurice paddled down the creek to Waitemata Harbour. Henderson has resurfaced in many guises in Gee's work, including in third novel In My Father's Den and the breakthrough Plumb trilogy.

Gee completed an MA in English at Auckland University in 1954. He spent time as a school teacher and had already started to write, his first short story appearing in Landfall in 1955.

Debut novel The Big Season was published in 1962, based partly on his experiences playing rugby. Gee became a full-time writer in the mid 70s, as he got busy on Plumb — based partly on his extraordinary grandfather — and released his first short story collection, A Glorious Morning, Comrade (1975). The first screen adaptation of Gee's work was a 1976 TV adaptation of horseracing short story The Losers. The title story from the Glorious Morning collection - the tale of an old man escaping his daughter's home - marks a rare time that a local short story has inspired two short film adaptations, one in 1982, and another in 2009.

By now Gee was balancing his adult novels with better-paid work, writing for children and television. After approaching the producers of soap Close to Home, he ended up writing dialogue for around 11 episodes. Gee also contributed to Country GP and popular police drama Mortimer's Patch starring Terence Cooper.

Gee especially enjoyed writing for Mortimer, "and was very disappointed when they stopped it after two series" (the show was renewed three years later for a third and final season). Among his contributions was the high-rating, award-winning 1981 episode 'Fighting Johnny Fuller', the story of a fading ex-boxer who may be a murderer. 

Gee's work on Mortimer's Patch led to 1984 spin-off movie Trespasses, which he co-wrote with producer Tom Finlayson. Helmed by veteran TV talent Peter Sharp, who has filmed much of Gee's work, Trespasses incorporates a number of Mortimer's Patch characters into the story of a young woman (Brit actor Emma Piper) caught between a fundamentalist father (Patrick McGoohan) and the leader of a commune (Frank Whitten). 

Gee's first book aimed at children was 1979 classic Under the Mountain, a science fiction adventure of good and evil, involving aliens with links to Auckland's volcanoes. The bestseller was adapted by Ken Catran for a much-loved TVNZ series in 1981, and in 2009 became a Jonathan King-directed feature film. 

Two later kidult novels began as projects which Gee originally created for television. The Fire-Raiser's inspiration lay in Gee's research into a Nelson primary school. Two real-life figures — an arsonist who burned down the school, and an inspirational headmaster — were reimagined for this WWI-era tale of school-children, facing off against a small-town arsonist. Gee writes about the show's birth here.

The Fire-Raiser won GOFTA awards for Gee's script, Best Drama Series, Best Children's Programme, and Peter Sharp's direction. The five-part series sold well overseas, where it was reconfigured into tele-movie Undercover Gang. Gee also authored a novel of the same title, which later won American publication.  

In 1988, Fire-Raiser producer Ginette McDonald enlisted Gee to write a follow-up. Gee drew upon his war-period memories of growing up in Henderson for The Champion, the story of a black American GI billeted with a Kiwi family during WWII. Director Peter Sharp remembers the show proudly, but argues that it "slipped into obscurity through bad timing, no publicity, and the lack of awards that year".

Gee's novel Crime Story — written in France, while he was 1992 Katherine Mansfield Fellow — was adapted for a 2004 feature by Larry Parr. Delayed by the collapse of Parr's production company and ultimately released as Fracture, the drama was praised by The Press (Christchurch) as "competent, confident and complex". The storyline involves two families linked together by a crime.

The most acclaimed adaptation of Gee's work to date is In My Father's Den, also released in 2004. The original 1972 novel revolves around the death of a teenager, and the teacher suspected of her murder. Director Brad McGann's script relocates the story from the Henderson-like Wadesville to central Otago, and changes central character Paul Prior from a teacher to a successful international photo-journalist.

In September 2004 Gee received an excited email from McGann, telling him that Father's Den had won the International Critics' Prize at the Toronto Film Festival. "It gives me a lot of pleasure that I'm responsible for a small part of it," said Gee at the time, "but the film is Brad's."

The Toronto award was the first of an eventual 19-strong awards haul, including NZ Screen Awards for McGann's direction and script, plus best film.  

Gee's acclaimed 1992 novel Going West has inspired perhaps the most unusual film yet based on his work: a two-minute animated piece for the New Zealand Book Council, that became a breakout YouTube hit. In it which Gee's pages and words literally come to life as the tale is told.

Gee continues to write from his home in Ngaio, Wellington.

Sources include
Trisha Dunleavy, Ourselves in Primetime: A History of New Zealand Television Drama (Auckland University Press, 2005)
Andrew Johnston, 'Maurice Gee - Our superb storyteller' (Interview) - The Evening Post, 3 July 1993, Page 13
Robyn McLean and NZPA, 'Novelist Gee hails film prize' - Dominion Post, 21 September 2004, Page A4
Nelson Wattie, 'Gee, Maurice' (Profile). New Zealand Book Council website. Accessed 31 May 2011
'Maurice Gee'(Profile). Arts Foundation website. Accessed 31 May 2011