Maurice Gee’s children have confirmed that their father, beloved author Maurice Gee, died on Thursday in Nelson at the age of 93.

Gee was a distinguished pillar of New Zealand literature, writing for both adults and children, and beloved by thousands of readers. He wrote over thirty novels, including the much-awarded Plumb, which won the New Zealand Book Awards Fiction Prize in 1979, and Under the Mountain, which won the Gaelyn Gordon Award. Both works are considered iconic in New Zealand’s literary canon, but he won many, many other awards also for his other works.

He was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, and was named an Arts Foundation Icon in 2013.

Every fan will have their favourite of his books. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, The Halfman of O trilogy was a wonder to me, transporting its reader to another world and reminding us that evil doesn’t always triumph, and that colour is a wonderful thing.

His work will continue to be read and loved by New Zealanders around the motu.

Read tributes for Maurice Gee on RNZ. The Spinoff is also inviting readers to submit tributes.

Image copyright Emily Gee, sourced from Wikipedia