Gregory William McGee is a New Zealand writer and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, who also writes crime fiction under the pseudonym Alix Bosco.

Biography

McGee was born in 1950 in the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

town of

Oamaru Oamaru (; ) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast; State Highway 1 (New Zealand), Sta ...

. In his early 20s McGee played rugby as a Junior

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

and became an All Black trialist. He graduated from the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

with a law degree in 1972. In 1980 his first play, '' Foreskin's Lament'', a drama set in

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

changing rooms and at the after-match party, became an immediate success. The play shows the player nicknamed "Foreskin" and his attempt to fit in with university liberals and with rugby-playing conservatives. In New Zealand a rugby player is an everyman, and the game and play present a model of society in the end of the 1970s on the eve of the

1981 Springbok Tour The 1981 South African rugby tour (known in New Zealand as the 1981 Springbok Tour, and in South Africa as the Rebel Tour) polarised opinions and inspired widespread protests across New Zealand. The controversy also extended to the United State ...

. The play has a stylistically unusual ending, with the main character directly addressing the audience with a very long speech — or rather interrogation — questioning their own values: "Whaddarya?". *''Tooth and Claw'', 1983, retained the same microcosm, but used the courtroom as a metaphor. *''Out in the Cold'', 1983, moved the scene to a freezing works, and extended the women's-rights sub-themes of earlier plays. *''Whitemen'', 1986, returned to rugby, tackling the

Cavaliers The term ''Cavalier'' () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of Charles I of England and his son Charles II of England, Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum (England), Int ...

' 1986 tour of South Africa, but was a box-office failure. McGee script-wrote for television, notably two mini-series: '' Erebus: The Aftermath'' (an examination of the inquiry following the crash of

Air New Zealand Flight 901 The Mount Erebus disaster occurred on 28 November 1979 when Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE901) flew into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board. Air New Zealand had been operating scheduled Ant ...

in Antarctica) and ''Fallout'' (a dramatisation of

David Lange David Russell Lange ( ; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. A member of the New Zealand Labour Party, Lange was also the Minister of Education ...

's government and the end of

ANZUS The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS or ANZUS Treaty) is a collective security agreement between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States that was signed in 1951, and from which New Zealand has been partially su ...

). He also produced work for shows such as '' Cover Story'', ''Marlin Bay'', '' Street Legal'' and, more recently, ''

Orange Roughies ''Orange Roughies'' is a New Zealand television drama created by Auckland-based film company Screenworks, the first season of which was screened on TV ONE from May to July 2006. The second season was due to be shown some time between October 2006 ...

''. He co-wrote movie scripts for ''

Crooked Earth ''Crooked Earth'' is a 2001 New Zealand film directed by Sam Pillsbury and starring Temuera Morrison. The film opened to negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office. Plot The film follows Will Bastion (Morrison) as he returns home ...

'', ''

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'' (1998), with Anthony McCarten and the Kiwi Welsh rugby comedy ''

Old Scores ''Old Scores'' is a 1991 television film jointly produced by New Zealand and Wales, about the two countries' mutual national sport of rugby union. It is notable for the appearance of many notable Wales national rugby union team, Welsh and All B ...

'' with Dean Parker. He returned to the theatre with ''This Train I'm On'' in 1999. ''Foreskin's Lament'' is being reprised for the screen as ''Skin and Bone''. McGee became a founder of the Screenworks TV production company, a member of the New Zealand Film Council and a past President of the

New Zealand Writers Guild The New Zealand Writers Guild (NZWG) is a New Zealand trade union which represents writers in the fields of film, television, radio, theatre, video and multi-media. The guild's name in Māori language is Puni Taatuhi o Aotearoa. It provides ser ...

. He admitted in 2011 to being the pseudonymous writer Alix Bosco who has written two highly successful crime novels, one of which won the inaugural

Ngaio Marsh Award The Ngaio Marsh Awards (formerly Ngaio Marsh Award), popularly called the Ngaios, are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand to recognise excellence in crime fiction, mystery fiction, mystery, and thriller writing. The Awards were est ...

for Best Crime in 2010.

Principal work

*'' Foreskin's Lament''. Wellington: Price Milburn, with Victoria University Press, 1981. *''Tooth and Claw''. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1984. First performed March 1983. *''Out in the Cold''. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1984. First performed May 1983. *''Whitemen'', unpublished play, performed 1986. *'' Erebus: The Aftermath''. Script by Greg McGee, produced by

Caterina De Nave Caterina Maria De Nave (23 February 1947 – 17 August 2014) was a New Zealand television and film producer, director, and media executive. She was the first woman to head a department at Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and one of the creators of ...

*''Old Scores'' (film, screenplay written by Greg McGee and Dean Parker), 1991. *''Fallout'', television docudrama, with Tom Scott, 1994. *''Cut and Run'', crime novel, written under the pseudonym Alix Bosco, 2009. *''Slaughter Falls'', crime novel, written under the pseudonym Alix Bosco, 2010. *''

The Brokenwood Mysteries ''The Brokenwood Mysteries'' is a New Zealand television detective drama series that premiered on Prime (now Sky Open) in 2014. Each of the first six series comprises four episodes. From Series 7, seasons were extended to six episodes. The progr ...

'', television police procedural series, with Philip Dalkin and James Griffin, 2014.

Work as Alix Bosco

McGee writes crime fiction under the pseudonym Alix Bosco as he also writes in a variety of other media, and wanted to keep his crime-writing persona separate. In August 2009 Alix Bosco's first thriller novel, ''Cut & Run'', was published in New Zealand by

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

and won the inaugural

Ngaio Marsh Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh ( ; 23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982) was a New Zealand mystery writer, writer. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Marsh is known as one of the Detective fiction#Golden Age detective novel ...

Award for Best Crime Novel in 2010. The novel is the first in a planned series set in Auckland and starring legal researcher Anna Markunas. The second novel ''Slaughter Falls'' is a finalist in the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award.

References

External links

Entry in the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Robinson and Wattie ed., 1998
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McGee, Greg 1950 births 20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights New Zealand screenwriters New Zealand male screenwriters University of Otago alumni Writers from Oamaru Living people 20th-century New Zealand novelists 20th-century New Zealand male writers 21st-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights 21st-century New Zealand novelists 21st-century New Zealand male writers New Zealand male dramatists and playwrights New Zealand crime fiction writers