One of New Zealand’s most distinguished novelists, born in Whakatane, passed much of his childhood in the country town of Henderson (now contained by Auckland’s urban sprawl), and this background plays a major role in his fiction. Again and again his plots are set in Henderson, usually under another name, or other small towns. Even in the most recent, where Wellington and Auckland play a major part, it is their subdivisions—Wadestown, Karori or present-day Henderson—which dominate. He completed BA and MA degrees at the University of Auckland, which subsequently recognised him with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998, and an honorary Doctor of Literature in 2004. He is currently married and has three children, one of whom is also a writer, Emily Gee. He is an Honorary Associate of the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists.