Sixteen years have passed since Pearl from Company and Hari from Blood Burrow defeated the tyrant Ottmar. Now their children, Xantee and Lo, face an even more dangerous foe. Hari lies dangerously ill with a fragment of a strange creature wrapped around his throat, draining his life. The beast is called Gool, meaning Unbelonger. It is one of many, destroying the mountains and jungles of the world. Somewhere a hidden mother nourishes her Gool brood - the children must find and destroy her to save Hari and the world they know. Tealeaf the Dweller tells them of a thousand-year-old legend in which a similar beast is vanquished. The place where they might learn the legend's missing knowledge is in the library in the ruined city of Belong. There is only one person who can guide them there: Tarl, the Dog King, Hari's father. Xantee and Lo, accompanied by Duro, a brave and practical youth who is also a 'speaker', set out on a dangerous mission that takes them through the jungle and over mountains to the ruined city, and on to Ceebeedee, where a terrifying clash with the cruel rival leaders and lurking Gool awaits them.

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* Award was presented at the Qantas Film and Television Craft Awards on Friday 12 September 2008 at Auckland’s Civic Theatre.

One of New Zealand major literary figures, Maurice Gee's work writing for the small screen is often forgotten when his literary history is discussed, as nearly all his work on Close to Home and Mortimer's Patch is tragically confined to the TVNZ archives. Some of his novels have been adapted for TV, including Under The Mountain, The Fire-Raiser, and The Champion.

In an interview with Andrew Johnston he briefly discussed his TV writing:

“Children's fiction began partly as a deliberate attempt to widen my writing base, and also because I had young children and wanted to write something for them, but certainly it was an attempt to make more money. That's why I went to TV, too—I simply wrote to the people who produced Close to Home . . . I wrote about 11 episodes of that. When I say I wrote them, I did the dialogue for them.

 “I could turn an episode around in about three days and get $200 or $300 for it, which was great money in those days .  . . that's how I lived, writing dialogue for television. Mortimer's Patch followed—I really enjoyed Mortimer's Patch and was very disappointed when they stopped it after two series.”

Portrait care of the Manuscripts and Pictorial Collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Novels

The Big Season (1962)
A Special Flower (1965)
In My Father's Den (1972)
A Glorious Morning Comrade (1975)
Games of Choice (1976)
Under the Mountain (1979)
The World Around the Corner (1980)
Plumb (1978)
Meg (1981)
The Halfmen of O (1982)
Sole Survivor (1983)
The Priests of Ferris (1984)
Motherstone (1985)
Fire-Raiser (1986)
Collected Stories (1986)
Prowlers (1987)
Champion, the (1989)
The Burning Boy (1990)
Going West (1992)
Crime Story (1994)
The Fat Man (1995)
Plumb Trilogy, the (1995)
Loving Ways (1996)
Live Bodies (1998)
Orchard Street (1998)
Hostel Girl (1999)
Ellie and the Shadow Man (2001)
The Scornful Moon (2003)
Blindsight (2005)
Salt (2007)
Gool (2008)
Access Road (2009)
The Limping Man (2010)

A panel of women (Beauty) answer viewers problems. Host by Selwyn (The Beast) Toogood