Patrick Gale – ‘Mother’s Boy’

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. Laura, an    impoverished Cornish girl, meets her husband when they are both in service in Teignmouth in 1916. They have a baby, Charles, but Laura’s husband returns home from the trenches a damaged man, already ill with the tuberculosis that will soon leave her a widow. In a small, class-obsessed town she raises her boy alone, working as a laundress, and gradually becomes aware that he is some kind of genius. Charles signs up for the navy and his escape from the tight, gossipy confines of Launceston to the colour and violence of war sees him blossom as he experiences not only the possibility of death, but the constant danger of a love that is as clandestine as his work. ‘Mother’s Boy’ is the story of a man being shaped for a long, remarkable and revered life spent hiding in plain sight. But it is equally the story of the dauntless mother who will continue to shield him long after the dangers of war are past.

Patrick Gale spent his infancy at Wandsworth Prison, which his father governed, then grew up in Winchester before going to Oxford University. He now lives on a farm near Land’s End and is one of this country’s best-loved novelists. His most recent works include ‘A Perfectly Good Man’, the Richard and Judy bestseller ‘Notes From An Exhibition’, the Costa  shortlisted ‘A Place Called Winter’ and ‘Take Nothing With You’. His original BBC television drama, ‘Man In An Orange Shirt’, was shown to great acclaim in 2017 as part of the BBC’s Queer Britannia series, leading viewers around the world to discover his novels. Patrick will be in conversation with Jim Causley (who is a relative of Charles Causley)