Going West

This is what eight months of work with a 10A scalpel blade looks like.

– Comment on Going West, Booooooom Animation blog, 1 December 2009

By train, from Loomis Station, the track ran straight for several miles, with straggly town on one side. Ah Lap's grocery where you could by Chinese ginger in jars; the Scout Hall, the Anglican Church, the jam factory — and vineyards and farms on the other. Then the line began to curve and the impression one had was a "worming" into Auckland...

– The opening lines, taken from Maurice Gee's 1992 novel Going West

The idea that lies at the centre of this project is that reading is an activity that surprises, delights, challenges and ignites the imagination. We wanted to grab people’s attention for just one moment in the hurly burly world of modern media and direct them to the adventure that can be had in one’s own head at the flick of a page. Colenso and the Andersen M Studios created something that achieved that and more by literally bringing the book itself to life.

– NZ Book Council Chief Executive Noel Murphy on the brief behind this short film, Scoop website, 4 December 2009

Everything is made by hand. The piece is a result of plenty of scalpel blades, paper and a lot of preparation and patience . . .  having done so much research we are both very intrigued by New Zealand, so hopefully we will pay a visit soon.

– Andersen M Studios co-founder Martin Andersen, on making Going West, Scoop, 4 December 2009

Gee deserves to be regarded as one of the finest writers at work, not only in New Zealand . . . but in the English speaking world.

– Reviewer Andro Linklater reviews Maurice Gee's Going West, The Sunday Times (London), 1993

I have never seen a novel sell quite like this!

– Penguin Books NZ boss Geoff Walker to Maurice Gee, on the success of Going West, as quoted in Rachel Barrowman's 2015 book Maurice Gee: Life and Work