Piecing together his own tale

Just when it seemed that one of New Zealand’s best-loved authors had signed off on an illustrious career, Maurice Gee is back with one more chapter – his memoir.

At the launch of Memory Pieces at Founders Heritage Park on Friday, it was clear by the turnout that the Nelson-based author’s work is highly regarded. Fans, readers and supporters packed the space to hear Gee talk about his latest release and share some excerpts.

Gee’s appearances have been few and far between in recent years. He said that about 17 years ago, when he was 70, he shied away from the public attention as ‘‘a present to myself’’.

‘‘I’ve got a talent for making myself invisible.’’’

But he couldn’t stay in the shadows for this latest release – ‘‘because it’s almost certainly my last book’’.

Gee’s career spans decades and dozens of books, notably Plumb, Under the Mountain and Ellie and the Shadow Man.

At 87, he said he felt ‘‘emptied out’’ of any more storytelling. Memory Pieces didn’t even start out as something to be published. ‘‘The book has had a curious genesis.’’

It’s in three parts. The first tells a story of his parents’ lives; the second tells the story of his childhood and adolescence; and the third is an ode to his wife, Margareta, and her younger years.

He said he wrote the first part, Double Unit, about seven years ago, when he gave up writing adult fiction.

‘‘I thought I wouldn’t write any more, so I decided to make a record of my parents for the rest of the family. It wasn’t for publication, so I had it lying there for a long time and I thought, ‘Maybe it is worth publishing’.’’

In the Gee family, writing is a talent that has spanned four generations.

‘‘Mum was a writer of some

‘‘I decided to make a record of my parents for the rest of the family.’’

Maurice Gee

talent. She published a lot of short stories and things like that. Her father published a couple of books himself.’’

Gee’s daughter, Emily, is also a prolific writer, publishing fantasy as Emily Gee and romance as Emily Larkin.

Emily’s brother, Nigel, said he didn’t inherit the wordsmith gene but was one of his dad’s biggest fans.

Gee has won multiple awards for his children’s books, adult fiction and young adult fiction but remains modest about his work.

Nigel said his dad had won ‘‘so many awards, they just go straight over the top of his head’’.

‘‘He’s not a great lover of recognition.’’

Two women at the book launch had fond recollections of reading Gee’s books.

Liivi James said she read Plumb not long after it came out and before she moved from Canada to New Zealand. ‘‘I even brought my copy of Plumb here – it’s pretty tattered.’’

Another book she remembered with delight was Under the Mountain. ‘‘When I had children, I immediately bought that. My oldest absolutely, passionately loved it.’’

James’s friend Ebeth McKendry said three generations of her family had read the novel.