Patrick Gale -Biography

Patrick Gale was born on the Isle of Wightin 1962, where his father was prison governor at Camp Hill prison.

Later the family moved to London. He boarded at The Pilgrim's School, where he was a chorister, then went to Winchester College before reading English at Oxford University. He did a series of odd jobs to support his writing before becoming a full-time novelist, moving to Cornwall in 1987. He is the author of several novels, and also writes short stories and novellas. He has written one book of non-fiction, on the American novelist Armistead Maupin.

His first two novels, Ease and The Aerodynamics of Pork, were published on the same day in 1986. The Facts of Life (1995) tells the story of Edward Pepper, an exile saved from Nazi Germany in the Kindertransport, and Tree Surgery for Beginners (1998) is about Laurence Frost, an inarticulate tree surgeon. A Sweet Obscurity (2003) is told from the alternating viewpoints of some four separate characters. Friendly Fire (2003) draws on the author's own personal experience of a late 1970s adolescence, and his latest novel, Notes from an Exhibition (2007) is set in Cornwall, exploring the effects of mental illness on artist Rachel Kelly and her family.

Patrick Gale's book of short stories, Dangerous Pleasures (1996) contains his first published short story, 'Borneo', shortlisted for the Whitbread Short Story Award in 1985, and 'Wig', which has since been produced on stage as a touring live literature performance.

In 2002, Rough Music (2000) was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and in 2008, Notes from an Exhibition. was shortlisted for the British Book Awards: Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year, and won the Booksellers Association Independent Booksellers' Book Prize.

The Whole Day Through (2009), a love story about a couple who are reunited after a 20-year interval.

Gentleman's Relish (2010) -Love (and loathing) within families is dissected – a father makes an unexpected discovery about his son which is too hard for him to cope with.

A son wreaks revenge through the power of cookery. Three generations of the same family gain freedom through the years in a once-despised caravan.

A bored wife finds happiness when an old lag teaches her the art of angling. A dog-training lesson with a puppy who hasn’t grasped the meaning of ‘obedience’ leads to the discovery of a murder.