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Maggie GeeMaggie Gee
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BiographyNovelist Maggie Gee was born in Poole, Dorset, and educated at state schools and Somerville College, Oxford where she completed two degrees in English. After working in publishing as an editor, she took a research job at Wolverhampton Polytechnic where she completed a PhD. Her first published novel was Dying, in Other Words (1981), an experimental black comedy in which a supposedly dead woman triumphantly rewrites the story of her own death. In 1982 Maggie Gee was selected as one of the original 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' and became Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia.
In 2006 she published a collection of short stories, The Blue, and in 2005, My Cleaner (2005), a comedy about the shifting balance of power between a white writer, Vanessa Henman, and her former cleaner, a black Ugandan, Mary Tendo, who returns to London ten years later as a successful professional, because Vanessa's depressed adult son is asking for her, and revolutionises life in the Henman household.
Maggie Gee is a Fellow and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. She has been a member of the Society of Authors' Committee of Management and the government Public Lending Right committee, and was from 2004-2008 the first female Chair of Council of the Royal Society of Literature. She is Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University and lives in London with her husband, the writer and broadcaster, Nicholas Rankin.
Genres (in alphabetical order)Fiction, Non-fiction
BibliographyDying, In Other Words Harvester, 1981 Anthology of Writing Against War: For Life on Earth (editor) University of East Anglia, 1982 The Burning Book Faber and Faber, 1983 Light Years Faber and Faber, 1985 Grace Heinemann, 1988 Where Are the Snows? Heinemann, 1991 Lost Children Flamingo, 1994 The Burning Book Flamingo, 1994 How May I Speak in My Own Voice? Language and the Forbidden Birkbeck College (The William Matthews Lecture), 1996 The Ice People Richard Cohen Books, 1998 The White Family Saqi Books, 2002 Diaspora City: The London New Writing Anthology (contributor) Arcadia Books, 2003 The Flood Saqi Books, 2004 My Cleaner Saqi Books, 2005 The Blue Telegram Books, 2006 My Driver Telegram Books, 2009 My Animal Life Telegram Books, 2010
Prizes and awards2002 Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The White Family 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (shortlist) The White Family
Critical PerspectiveThe style of Maggie Gee’s writing is often linked to the modernist tradition. She is technically innovative and relishes the craft of writing, and her style is often self-conscious, drawing attention to the process of construction. She has often said that her influences include Woolf, Nabokov and Beckett, but also 19th-century writers such as Dickens and Thackeray. John Cotton comments on Gee’s synchronisation of 18th- and 19th-century styles with modernist techniques: ‘Gee can be seen, in spite of (or perhaps because of) her experimentation, to be in the tradition of Fielding and Dickens where the author is ever-present, ready to comment or intervene’ (Contemporary Novelists, 1991). Yet Gee’s attention to style and form is not, by any means, at the expense of content. Her work is often satirical and always informed by contemporary political and social issues. She combines domestic concerns - of love, resentment and bitterness, loss, reconciliation and the ever-complex web of family relationships - with societal and global issues such as homelessness, poverty, climate change and nuclear weapons.
Gee’s first novel, Dying, in Other Words (1981), is, in her own words, ‘probably the most difficult technically’ (Contemporary Novelists, cited above). Often described as a black comedy, it starts with the apparent suicide of a young writer, Moira Penny. Yet, chillingly, it seems that Moira herself is writing the story - the sound of typing can be heard in her supposedly empty room - and gradually the circular structure takes us back to the time of Moira’s death. Throughout the novel, Moira’s supposed suicide is shown to have a continuous ripple effect on the lives of others, while past, present and future intertwine. The technically innovative style helps to emphasise the depiction of people, events and time itself as a complex interwoven web - John Cotton likens the novel to a Chinese box (Contemporary Novelists, cited above).
The Burning Book (1983) is a variation on the classic family saga, following the lives of two working-class families as they struggle to deal with two world wars and the fear of a third. Gee often intertwines domestic and global issues, and a clear comparison is made between the disharmony and violence within the family and the destruction going on in the wider world, culminating in the threat of nuclear war. Light Years (1985) is a love story with a cosmic theme, suggesting the ‘smallness’ of individuals as the love affair of Lottie and Harold is set within the bigger picture of nature, seasons and the planets. This was followed by Grace (1988), in which Gee returns to the theme of nuclear weapons. Grace is based on the real-life 1980s murder of anti-nuclear campaigner Hilda Murrell and, as such, combines the style of a classic thriller with a contemporary political edge.
Although these first few novels address a variety of different themes, there is a common thread of examining the way in which individuals fit into, and impact on, the wider world of society, nature and the cosmos. The implication is that ‘no man is an island’ and individuals have a responsibility to consider the effects of their behaviour and lifestyle on the world around them. Where Are the Snows? (1991) depicts a couple, Christopher and Alexandra, who attempt to abandon their responsibilities (including Christopher’s teenage children) and live in a solipsistic bubble. Simultaneously, the novel addresses climate change. Lisa O’Kelly compares Gee with Margaret Atwood, for both writers ‘tackle contemporary ideas on a grand as well as a domestic scale’ (The Observer, 21 August 2005). Gee, as discussed above, often demonstrates the way in which intimate domestic issues and broad-scale social problems intertwine - the latter is often an extension of the former, and therefore something each individual must take responsibility for. In Where Are the Snows? the depiction of the couple’s egotistical approach to life not only shows the harm this causes to their own close circle of people, but simultaneously makes a point about the severe ecological damage that is being caused by the self-absorbed Western mind-set, which demands its gratifications at any cost - or, simply, without any awareness of the cost. Thus, the inclusion of impending environmental disaster is not merely a backdrop or an added feature, but rather makes a clear point about our individualistic, consumerist lifestyle, where ‘consuming’ takes place emotionally as well as commercially. Christopher and Alexandra, therefore, are perhaps simply an exaggerated version of ‘Everyman’.
While Where Are the Snows? portends ecological disaster, both The Ice People (1998) and The Flood (2004) are dystopias in which disaster has already happened. The Ice People is set in a new ice age in 2050, in which ice has forced the affluent people of the north to migrate south, where they are met with a hostile reaction. The Flood has a contemporary setting, showing a city struggling to cope with severe flooding. In between these two novels, Gee wrote one of her most critically acclaimed works, The White Family (2002), which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Set in north London, The White Family is extremely controversial in its blunt depiction of racism in contemporary Britain - it focuses predominantly on working-class life, but also explores racism and other forms of prejudice in the middle-classes. Though it addresses its themes head-on, the novel is also complex, interspersing violence and anger with moments of comedy, affection and insight.
The White Family centres on a traditional working-class London family whose head is Alfred White, park-keeper of Albion Park. Alfred, whose impending death has brought the family together (physically, if not emotionally), radiates overt and aggressive intolerance towards ‘coloureds’, ‘pakis’ and anyone who does not conform to his narrow view of traditional British life, even ‘yellow foreign birds’. His wife believes herself to be more liberal, but her own prejudices are just as strong. Of their three children, ironically it is Dirk, the ‘loser’ of whom they are most ashamed, who most deeply embodies his father’s bigoted attitudes, while the upward social mobility of Darren and his sister Shirley brings middle-class characters into the novel and demonstrates that subtle forms of racism are no less acceptable. As the reader learns about Alfred’s past treatment of his family - brutal beatings; forcing Shirley to give away her illegitimate child - the old man’s character begins to mellow, for his approaching death gives him the courage to develop some self-awareness. As in all Gee’s fiction, no character is wholly bad, but nonetheless the novel raises some disturbing questions about violence and prejudice in British society.
My Cleaner (2005) also explores family relationships and cultural conflict, though this time Gee addresses racism in its subtle forms. The novel contrasts white European culture with African culture in the form of two middle-aged women. Vanessa Henman is a white, middle-class writer who is emotionally repressed and suffers from neurotic disorders. When her sensitive 22-year-old son Justin gives up his job and retires to bed with depression, the only person he wants to see is Ugandan Mary Tendo, the family’s former cleaner who cared for him when he was a child and provided him with the love and emotional support that Vanessa was unable or unwilling to give. Mary therefore returns to Britain after 10 years, during which time she has matured from a meek, deferential creature to a mature, confident woman who sweeps in, takes charge of the household and expresses her opinions forthrightly. Thus, while Mary’s presence is a breath of fresh air for Justin, Vanessa is severely challenged by the altered balance of power. Lisa O’Kelly’s review summarises the way in which the depiction of the two women is used to explore class conflict, cultural differences and subtle, patronising forms of racism:
'On the surface, Mary and Vanessa are polar opposites: Vanessa is pale and bony and cooks soft, white, pre-prepared food that clogs everyone’s innards and causes constipation; Mary is dark and voluptuous and steams up the kitchen with vast meals made from huge, earthy vegetables […] Vanessa is mean, self-obsessed, closed-off […] Mary is generous, outgoing, gregarious […] Yet at heart, we realise they are not so very different.'
(The Observer, cited above)
As well as showing the underlying similarities between the two women (and thus between different cultures), Gee’s subtle complexity also ensures that the depiction of Mary is not overly idealised, nor is Vanessa entirely unsympathetic, particularly as we come to learn how Vanessa was damaged in her own childhood. Thus, the veneer of social and cultural power can hide all manner of vulnerabilities and emotional scars.
Gee’s work as a whole combines classic themes, topical social issues and stylistic innovation. She has commented that when she looks back on her novels after writing them, she often realises that she has re-worked classic genres, such as thrillers, family sagas and romances, and created new versions. However, she is not usually aware of this while she is writing: ‘All I am conscious of at the time of writing, though, is a desire to show the truth, in ways I never can in speech, and a desire to make structures as beautiful as I can’ (Contemporary Novelists, cited above).
Elizabeth O’Reilly, 2007
Author statement'I write for the joy of the language and the form, and to pay the mortgage. I also write because life is fascinating, beautiful, and short. I want to record my experience, and my brief attempts at understanding it, for others, while I can.'
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