Maurice Gee received a standing ovation from the festival audience. Photo / Steven McNicholl
In his first public appearance for 10 years - since he promised himself "never again" on his 70th birthday - Maurice Gee delighted as the festival's first Honoured New Zealand Writer.
In discussion with publisher Geoff Walker, Gee said of his more elderly characters: "Old people have a kind of
fullness that young people don't have," not necessarily wisdom, but experience and an awareness of death.
"They haven't stopped living, but can be living intensely at the same time."
The hour - and with it, the entire festival - ended on a poignant note with Gee saying he can no longer write fiction; his words are "just not coming alive".
But after 30 novels, he is "absolutely at ease" with this: "I have a sense of completion."
