Mother's Boy by Patrick Gale - Review

You might know that I absolutely love Patrick Gale. I've read quite a few of his books and my favourite is Notes From An Exhibition. That might actually my favourite book of all time, if I had to choose (although I might choose Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, which I think Patrick would also approve of). I've read a few over the years. I picked this one up in Rhyme & Reason books in Sheffield on Good Friday. I went in to pick up something they had ordered for me and came out with three books alongside that one!

This one is a fictionalisation of the life of the poet Charles Causley. I had only vaguely heard of him so went into this pretty blind. I liked knowing that parts of it were true, and liked the bits that I later read were fictional, but with Patrick's explanation of why. I am willing to believe the entirety of it! I tweeted when I started this book that starting any Patrick Gale novel is always a comfort. It's like he wraps you in a blanket and says "Okay, now I'll begin". I read thirty pages straight off because I was already invested. The book did take me nearly a week to finish, but that's because I was on holiday!

The book starts with Laura, who is working in service in Teignmouth in the ealry 1910s. She likes her job but finds it exhausting. She meets Charlie by chance one day, and the two start a courtship and eventually get married. Charlie is away at war when his son, Charles, is born, and when he comes back he is ill from the war and dies of TB when Charles is just five years old. Laura and her son live in Launceston, where Laura works as a washer woman, taking in laundry from others in the neighbourhood, including that of the local brothel, which is run by her friend Agnes, who is really her only friend. Laura does this job for the rest of her working life. 

Charles, meanwhile, is a quiet, bookish type. He is bullied by the butcher's son, Joe, but then the two become friends. He also has a friend called Ginger, who, when they are around seventeen, introduces him to cruising with other men at a local lido. Charles joins the navy when World War Two breaks out, and becomes a coder, a new role that involves decoding and giving messages on board ships. The book actually starts with an explosion on a boat nearby, where Charles learns that some of his friends have been killed. These friends include Cushty, with whom Charles has a physical relationship.

Charles never married and often spoke about how "it was all there in the poems", which Patrick explains at the end of the book. I will say that reading some of the poems I can see how the argument could be made that he was gay; I think it is drawn very well and in a very real way for the time period. I loved how Charles' foreign service was included with his private life. 

Patrick also says that he was worried about what Laura would be doing during the war - there seems to be little historical record, unlike Charles' diaries, which Patrick made us of - but then read about what was happening in Launceston at the time and gave Laura storylines here. I loved these parts - Laura is an intriguing woman, and I do love to read about what "ordinary" people were doing in times of war. 

I'm giving this five out of five as I really liked it, I am lending it to my friend Sarah too! 

Tree Surgery for Beginners by Parick Gale - Review

I picked this book up after I'd been to see Patrick in Sheffield as I wanted to read more of his stuff. I've loved the books of his I've read before, but this one didn't wow me on the same level. It took me nearly a week to read it, which is so slow for me especially as it's not even three hundred pages long.

So, the book is about a man called Lawrence. Somewhat of a loner as a kid, he has grown up to be a tree surgeon. He is the only child of a widowed mother, Dora. They live in Gloucestershire, although Dora is American. She came over when he was small, and then her brother Darius followed and is a father figure for Lawrence.

Lawrence is married to Bonnie, the daughter of a client of his. She is kind of way out of his league, but the two of them seem to have an okay marriage. They have a little girl, Lucy, who is three or four.

Lawrence and Bonnie have a fight after Lawrence accuses her of having an affair with an architect friend of hers, Craig. Bonnie falls and bangs her head. She then takes off with Lucy and her faqther, who has never liked Lawrence, registers her as a missing person. A body is then found in nearby woods, and Lawrence comes under suspicion.

Okay, so the book seemed to be going one way, only then the body isn't Bonnie, and Lawrence is released. He then ends up accompanying Darius on a cruise on the SS Paulina. Darius is a bridge expert and is there to teach others how to play. On the cruise, the two f them get close to brother and sister Reuben and Bee. Lawrence begins to enjoy himself despite himself, but makes plans to leave the cruise in Miami to go to Chicago to see Lucy. He also starts an affair with the ship's singer, Lala.

Things go awry for, like, the next two hundred pages. There's all kinds of weird happenings and coincidences and nothing ends up like you think. The narrative swaps places a few times which I found strange. I'm giving this four out of five but really it's more of a three and a half. Odd. Odd book.

Patrick Gale at Off the Shelf Festival

You might not know that I am a huge fan of Patrick Gale, because I've never reviewed any of his books on here, but over the years I've read a few of them. Plus he wrote my favourite book of all time, Notes From An Exhibition. It's about an artist, Rachel Kelly, who is found dead in her studio, witha series of unfinished paintings around her. It's told through those paintings, and through them the reader learns all about Rachel's husband and four children, as well as her past and life. It's brilliantly done, and I love Rachel and the family. I first read the book over ten years ago, when my friend Amy, who is an artist herself, pushed it into my hands.

It's about madness, and family, and family madness, all of which are things I love in a book. I think it's so cleverly done, and I also really like how there are queer characters who are just incidentally queer - their relationships aren't pulled apart for the reader. I would really recommend it if you've never read it. My original copy went missing a few years ago but if I ever see it in a charity shop I always buy it because I like to have spare copies to hand to give away to friends.

I saw a few weeks ago that Patrick was appearing at Sheffield's Off the Shelf Festival so I asked my friend Sarah if she would come with me. She also really loves Notes From An Exhibition. We both read it before we knew each other, so bonded over it! Sarah agreed, so we bought tickets and then made plans to get together during the day before the evening event.

The whole day was just ridiculous. On the way to Sarah's, my car started overheating and I limped to hers, then phoned my breakdown people. The rain was awful and the breakdown people were later than they thought they would be. Then the garage the car was taken to couldn't help me, so I had to drive very carefully back to Sarah's where I just abandoned the car. The rain was apocalyptic and it was so dark, so we got Sarah's husband Tom to take us into town for the event. We made it! It was stressful, but we made it!

Patrick was in conversation with a lady asking him questions. He's very eloquent and talked at length about his books, about his most recent book Take Nothing With You, about surviving the Aids crisis, about his screenplays, about his characters, about his early life. I could've listened to him talk for ages, because it was really lovely. Apparently there's going to be a film of Notes From An Exhibition which excites me very much!

I bought a copy of Take Nothing With You and then we joined the signing queue. It didn't take long to get to us. I had six books with me and Patrick signed each one and I told him how much Notes means to me. He was really kind and gracious and it more than made up for the disastrous day!

Here's some photos:

There were quite a few people there

Firth Hall was a really lovely venue

And here are all my signed copies! I really want to read them all immediately!