Creeks and Kitchens

Widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s greatest fiction writers, Maurice Gee has written virtually no non-fiction. The exceptions are the two exquisite childhood reminiscences combined here into a memoir in this BWB Text.

In this little known work, Gee describes in fascinating detail his boyhood and family life in West Auckland and offers illuminating insights into some of the creative forces which have driven some of his fiction: the creek with its dangers – where, he writes, he glimpsed ‘sex and death’ – the kitchen with his mother preparing dinner in the gathering dark, and his elderly uncle, later the model for the magnificent Plumb.

• By Maurice Gee
• Paperback 

BWB Texts are short books on big subjects by great New Zealand writers. Spanning contemporary issues, history and memoir, new BWB Texts are released regularly, and the series now amounts to well over fifty works.

Maurice Gee is widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s greatest authors, for both adults and children. He has received numerous awards, nominations and grants for his adult fiction, including the Wattie Award and the Montana Award, and also for his young adult and children’s books.

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