Patrick Gale

Patrick Gale, 'Notes From an Exhibition'.

The topic of conversation at our group on 25th February will be "Notes From An Exhibition" by Patrick Gale (selected by Betty Evans). All are welcome to come along to the book group. This group takes special care to ensure that everybody gets an equal opportunity to speak and be listened to. Members come together to share our diverse views and appreciate our differences in a spirit of curiosity and respect. The group has a relaxed and easy-going atmosphere and newcomers are always most welcome to come along to any session. Please do try to read the book before the meeting if you're planning to come along. It would also aid discussion if you pick out favourite quotes or passages to share. This is an open group which has been running monthly since 2003. Regular members of the group take turns in choosing books so we read a wide variety of material. (monastico)… (more)

Patrick Gale reads from The Whole Day Through.

Boekhandel Vrolijk in Amsterdam is pleased to present the renowned author Patrick Gale. On 11 July Patrick is available for a Reading, a chat with you and to sign your book(s). Location: Boekhandel Vrolijk, Paleisstraat 135, Amsterdam Time: Saturday 11 July 2009, 17.00-18.30 pm. Patrick Gale The Whole Day Through paperback, juni 2009, 208p. Euro. 10,95 The new novel from bestselling author Patrick Gale Gale’s thirteenth novel is a brief, even terse, love story, in which a man and woman are reunited after a twenty year interval and have a short taste of delight. Are they brave enough to take this second chance at the lasting happiness which fate has offered them? However it’s also a novel about obligation. Both Laura and Ben have turned their lives upside down in order to care for relatives, she for her cranky, brilliant mother, he, for his gay younger brother who has Mosaic Down’s Syndrome. But the implication is that, while the caring is genuine, it is also ever so slightly an excuse for failures elsewhere in their lives… Once again Patrick is exploring memory and its tricks. Although we live through a day with the characters, we also journey back into their shared and separate pasts through their memories and see the different ways they’ve chosen to interpret the same events. We also see another favourite Gale theme emerge: the way they’ve been shaped by their childhoods. The Whole Day Through is vintage Gale, displaying the same combination of wit, tenderness and acute psychological observation as his bestseller Notes From an Exhibition and Rough Music. ‘The Whole Day Through is a wry, clever, faultlessly crafted mini-soap threaded with sadness. It is beautifully written, precisely nuanced and assured, a gay twist thrown in.... Gale is an empathetic writer with an impressive knowledge of how minds and relationships work.’ The Guardian ‘Patrick Gale’s novels grip tightly, like swaddling clothes, stunning the reader into a state of lolling, contented absorption. How does he do it?’ Times Literary Supplement ‘I wait for Patrick Gale’s novels the way some people wait for springtime’ Armistead Maupin Biography: Patrick was born in 1962 on the Isle of Wight, where his father was prison governor at Camp Hill. The family moved to London, where his father ran Wandsworth Prison, then to Winchester. He finished his formal education with an English degree from New College, Oxford in 1983. He now lives in the far west, on a farm near Land’s End with his lover, Aidan Hicks. There they raise beef cattle and grow barley. Patrick's current ambition is to perfect the art of reversing a tractor and trailer around a corner. For additional press information, photo’s and interviews contact: Vincent van der Kaap, vincent@vrolijk.nu Boekhandel Vrolijk 020-6235142 Bibliography: The Aerodynamics of Pork (‘86), Ease: An Adventure Story (‘86), Kansas in August (‘87) Driehoeksspel (‘98), Facing the Tank (‘88), Little Bits of Baby (‘89), The Cat Sanctuary (‘90), Caesar’s Wife (‘91) (in Secret Lives: three novellas with Francis King and Tom Wakelfield), The Facts of Life (‘95), Dangerous Pleasures: a decade of stories (1996), Tree Surgery for Beginners (1998), The Scarlet Boy (‘98) (with Tom Wakefield), Outlines: Armistead Maupin (‘99), Rough Music (2000) Liefde en Kabaal (‘06), A Sweet Obscurity (‘03) In de Luwte (‘04), Friendly Fire (‘05), Notes from an Exhibition (‘07) Bijschriften (‘08,) Gentleman's Relish: a collection of stories (‘09) The Whole Day Through (‘09). (vincentvrolijk)… (more)

Patrick Gale discusses The Whole Day Through.; William Fiennes discusses The Music Room.

Tickets £10 The male and female protagonists at the centre of Patrick Gale's new novel The Whole Day Through are torn between sacrificing romance due to the needs of dependant relatives and grasping personal happiness.William Fiennes' The Music Room revolves around the contrasts between his charmed upbringing in a 700 year-old moated castle and the impact on his life of a disabled brother. Both are meditations on home, family and the meaning of love. Patrick Gale's previous novel was the best selling Notes from an Exhibition;William Fiennes is the author of The Snow Geese. (DeadGoodBooks)… (more)