Maurice Gee
Maurice Gee has written scripts that have inspired books, and books that have inspired scripts. In 2015 biographer Rachel Barrowman summarised his extensive output — "17 adult novels, 13 [now 14] novels for children, a short story collection, and screenplays for television and film, written over more than 50 years". Gee's stories often touch on dysfunctional families and the complicated, sometimes violent price of trying to do the right thing. Whether describing a hobo hiding on the side of Tinakori Hill or aliens lurking under Rangitoto, his books 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 whose tools proved useful in constructing the boats in which Maurice paddled down the local creek to Waitematā Harbour. Henderson has resurfaced many times in Gee's work, from his breakthrough Plumb trilogy, to In My Father's Den, and The Champion.
Gee began writing as a teen. His first short story appeared in Landfall in 1955, by which time he'd completed a Master of Arts in English at Auckland University, and begun working as a teacher. His debut novel The Big Season (1962) — written after a short stint in England — was based partly on his experiences playing rugby. In 1975 he made the risky call to become a full-time writer, got busy on the multi award-winning Plumb — based partly on his extraordinary grandfather — and released short story collection A Glorious Morning, Comrade.
The first screen adaptation of Gee's work was a "terribly grim" 1976 TV adaptation of horseracing 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 New Zealand story has inspired two different screen adaptations: a half-hour version in 1982 (directed by John McKay), and a 2009 short film by Adam Luxton.
To make a living from writing, Gee needed to diversify. He did this by better-paid work writing for children, and for television. After approaching the producers of soap Close to Home, he ended up writing dialogue for around 11 episodes, earning $225 a pop. "I could turn an episode around in about three days . . . that's how I lived, writing dialogue for television." Gee also wrote for Barbara Ewing drama Rachel, Country GP, short-lived rural drama Both Sides of the Fence, and small-town police show Mortimer's Patch.
Though fiction engages him the most, Gee found satisfaction in the "team-writing" aspect of television, which saw him working closely with a producer and a script editor. Gee especially enjoyed working on Mortimer; he wrote four of the six episodes in the first season, and two for each of the two seasons that followed. Arguably the best was the 'Fighting Johnny Fuller' (1981). This story of a fading ex-boxer who might be a murderer topped the ratings when it screened in April 1981.
Gee's work on Mortimer's Patch led to little-seen spin-off Trespasses (1984). Mortimer's producer Tom Finlayson had pitched him the idea of a movie about the "vanities and conceits" of a small community. Gee came up with the character of an obsessive, repressed preacher. When Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner) was cast in the role, he tried to get Gee to change the character to a raving Roman Catholic. Directed by TV veteran Peter Sharp, who would work on later Gee projects, Trespasses involves a young woman (Brit Emma Piper) caught between McGoohan's character and a commune leader (Frank Whitten).
Gee's first book aimed at children was (finally) published in 1979. Under the Mountain was a tale of good and evil, involving aliens with links to Auckland's volcanoes. As biographer Rachel Barrowman has written, it won glowing reviews and "became by far his biggest-selling title", remaining in print for decades. It was soon adapted by Ken Catran for a beloved 1981 TV series which spurred further sales. Twenty-eight years later, it became a feature film directed by Jonathan King (Black Sheep), with effects supplied by Weta Workshop.
Two later kidult novels began as projects that Gee had originally started for television. As he reveals here, The Fire-Raiser was inspired by research into a Nelson primary school. Two real-life figures — an arsonist who burned down the school, and inspirational headmaster Frederick Gibbs — were reimagined for this WWI-era tale of children facing off against a small-town arsonist. The Fire-Raiser won GOFTA awards for Gee's script, Best Drama Series, Children's Programme, and Peter Sharp's direction.
The five-part series sold well overseas, where it was reedited into TV movie Undercover Gang. Gee also wrote a companion novel, after making sure his contract for the TV show allowed it. The book sold well, and was published in the United Kingdom and the United States. Gee's adult novel Prowlers also has some links to The Fire-Raiser, including its setting.
In 1988, Fire-Raiser producer Ginette McDonald invited Gee to write a follow-up of his own choosing. Drawing on his war-period memories of growing up in Henderson, he wrote The Champion, the story of a black American GI billeted with a Kiwi family during WWII. Director Peter Sharp writes here about why the show slipped into obscurity — and how Gee's script offered up "a wonderful amalgam of light and darkness .... its purpose was family entertainment, but there was a darkness in the way it confronted serious issues, particularly racism." The show's autobiographical elements are explored here.
Gee wrote most of his novel Crime Story in a small room in the French Riviera, while he was 1992's Katherine Mansfield Fellow. It involves two Wellington families linked together by a crime. After a decade in development, and the collapse of the production company who made it, Gee's characters were finally on the big screen. Directed and adapted by Larry Parr, the movie premiered in April 2004 under the title Fracture. Reviews crossed the gamut, though The Press found it "competent, confident and complex". Gee cameoed in a courtroom scene, and later praised Parr's script as "skilful, balanced and intelligent".
Arguably the most acclaimed adaptation of Gee's work to date is In My Father's Den, which debuted three months after Fracture. Gee's 1972 novel revolves around the death of a teen, and the teacher suspected of her murder. Writer/director Brad McGann made some big changes — including turning the teacher into a war photographer, and relocating from the Henderson-like town of Wadesville to Central Otago.
In late 2004 Gee got an excited email from McGann, informing 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, "but the film is Brad's." The Toronto award was the first of a 19-strong awards haul, including NZ Screen Awards for Best Film, and for McGann's direction and script. For Gee, it meant "the first real pay day of my life": $160,000. A tie-in edition of his novel got five reprints over the next 18 months.
Gee's acclaimed novel Going West inspired the most unusual film yet based on his work: a handcut, animated short which became a breakout YouTube hit. Gee's pages literally come to life as the tale is told.
Rachel Barrowman's 2015 book Maurice Gee: Life and Work is the definitive source for information on Gee's various screen encounters. It details many projects which never eventuated, including a movie based on the Erebus disaster, a TV series set in a boarding house, an adaptation of Plumb starring Denis Lill, and multiple attempts to adapt controversial children's novel The Fat Man and the O fantasy trilogy.
In 2003 Gee hired a suit and headed to Wellington, after the Arts Foundation of New Zealand gave him their highest honour. His 20+ awards include the 2004 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement, and the Gaelyn Gordon Award, marking Under the Mountain being a "long-standing favourite with New Zealand children". But no ONZM — Gee was not interested in being added to the shortlist.
Profile written by Ian Pryor; updated on 31 January 2025
Sources include
Maurice Gee, Creeks and Kitchens - A Childhood Memoir (Wellington, Bridget Williams Books, 2013)
Maurice Gee, Memory Pieces (Wellington, Victoria University Press, 2018)
Maurice Gee, 'Memories of Menton' Arts Foundation website. Loaded 11 June 2020. Accessed 31 January 2025
Rachel Barrowman, Maurice Gee - Life and Work (Wellington, Victoria University Press, 2015)
James Croot, Review of Fracture - The Press, 11 September 2004
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
Toby Manhire, 'Maurice Gee reveals memoir plan at Auckland writers festival finale' - The Listener, 12 May 2012
Robyn McLean and NZPA, 'Novelist Gee hails film prize' (Interview) - The Dominion Post, 21 September 2004, page A4
Rebekah Palmer, 'Storyteller' (Interview) - Salient, 26 April 1988, page 7
Unknown writer, 'Gee, Maurice' (Profile). Read NZ Te Pou Muramura website. Accessed 31 January 2025
Unknown writer, 'Maurice Gee' (Profile). Arts Foundation website. Accessed 31 January 2025