Beautifully written and deeply compassionate, Rough Music is a novel of one family at two defining points in time. Seamlessly alternating between the present day and a summer thirty years past, its twin stories unfold at a cottage along the eastern coast of England.Will Pagett receives an unexpected gift on his fortieth birthday, two weeks at a perfect beach house in Cornwall. Seeking some distance from the married man with whom he's having an affair, he invites his aging mother an...

At an elite English boarding school in the late 1970s, an orphaned fourteen-year-old girl falls in love with two boys—one of them gay—in this coming-of-age novelThe town orphanage has been Sophie Cullen's only home since she was five years old. She knows not whether her parents are living or dead, and has no memory of her life before Wakefield House. No one is more surprised than Sophie when she wins the last scholarship to an exclusive boarding school. Tatham's wa...

A young man returns to London from a monastery to become a godfather—and gets a second chance at love—in this "blithe, original, engaging satire" ( The New York Times).Robin has not gone outside for five years. When he first arrived at the remote island monastery, he had attacks so violent that the brothers thought he might do himself harm, so his room was stripped of all but the bed. Robin seemed to like it that way. But now, after years of penance for som...

THREE DECADES OF STORIES is a unique collection in one volume of Patrick Gale's two editions of dark, moving, often witty and eccentric stories, GENTLEMAN'S RELISH and DANGEROUS PLEASURES. It also includes the acclaimed long story, CAESAR'S WIFE.Ranging from a lonely prisoner governor's wife, to a housewife desperate for a makeover; a father's trip to his former school to a long-term mistress offered an unexpected marriage, this is a volume that hi...

Gentle, witty and sometimes disturbing, DANGEROUS PLEASURES is Patrick Gale's first collection of much loved short stories'Nattily subversive, sexually ambiguous, intelligent and disturbing. The prose sizzles with acidic observation' Sunday TimesA funeral party ends in an unexpected manner; parents are faced with difficult decisions about their daughter; a housewife transforms her personality with a simple touch-up; a father's trip...

'Tender, evocative' TLS 'Richly engaging' Spectator A Radio 4 Serial Fiction Book of the Week'A characteristically tender novel about a young man growing up in the shadow of one war and the whispers of the next' Observer'A wonderful novel about relationships, particularly between a mother and son. A compelling read, beautifully crafted and sensitively writ...

The bestselling British novel about love, marriage, family, secrets, and how the power of faith can transform lives even in the midst of inconsolable lossAfter being paralyzed in a rugby accident, twenty-year-old, wheelchair-bound Lenny Barnes feels he has nothing left to live for and is putting his affairs in order before committing suicide. As lively Mazey Day celebrations take place in the Cornish town of Penzance, Lenny summons a parish priest to his home. Fath...

"Patrick Gale has written a book which manages to be both tender and epic, and carries the unmistakable tang of a true story. I loved it." -- Jojo MoyesA privileged elder son, and stammeringly shy, Harry Cane has followed convention at every step. Even the beginnings of an illicit, dangerous affair do little to shake the foundations of his muted existence - until the shock of discovery and the threat of arrest cost him everything.Forced to abandon his wife and child, Harry si...

'Absolutely one of his best - a wonderful, wonderful read' Stephen Fry'Funny and heartfelt' S***pectator***From the bestselling author of A PLACE CALLED WINTER comes a compassionate, compelling new novel of boyhood, coming of age, and the confusions of desire and reality.'An incredibly beautiful story told with compassion. Nothing i...

From the bestselling author of A PLACE CALLED WINTER comes MOTHER'S BOY, a superb historical novel of Cornwall, class, desire and two world wars.'One of the joys of Gale's writing is how even the smallest of characters can appear fully formed, due to a charming wickedness alongside deeper observations' Irish TimesLaura, an impoverished Cornish girl, meets her husband when they are both in service in Teignmouth in 1916. They have a ...

Four siblings discover truths about their late mother, a troubled artist—and themselves—in this "uplifting, immensely empathetic novel" ( The Guardian).Gifted painter Rachel Kelly lived a life of manic highs and suicidal lows. Her husband, a gentle, devout Quaker, gave her a safe haven where she could create and be herself, but her mental illness still took its toll on her family. Now, after a fatal heart attack, a retrospective of Rachel's work attracts a...

Three generations of a British family struggle through war, intolerance, infidelity, and illness in this "extraordinary blockbuster" ( Time Out London).In the Roundel, an odd, secluded, eight-sided house in the English countryside, Edward Pepper and Sally Banks build a life. Hoping they've left hardship behind—they met when Sally, a doctor, treated Edward for tuberculosis after he escaped from Nazi Germany to England—they raise a family together. The German...