FIVE MINUTES WITH PATRICK GALE
Introducing the first in a new and exclusive ‘Five minutes with‘ Series.
Watch out for weekly Wednesday updates, where we will share sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes information in the run up to our festival.
Every week we will be spending five minutes with an author, delving into the great minds coming to Bath Literature Festival this May!
Five Minutes with Patrick Gale 
We are looking forward to Patrick Gale’s new novel, Love Lane arriving in bookshops tomorrow, Thursday 26 March, giving us time to dive in and read it ahead of Patrick’s appearance at Bath’s beautiful Guildhall on Saturday 16 May.
Here’s the set up for Love Lane, Patrick’s 18th published novel: 1950s Northern England. Three generations of men, two of women. And A Place Called Winter‘s Harry Cane has returned from Canada . . .
Fellow novelist James Cahill said of Love Lane: ‘The shifting perspectives, the small resonant details of time and place, the sharp observations of family life – all these give the novel an emotional force that steals up on you.’
Exclusive Author Q&A
Ahead of Patrick’s event in Bath, when he’ll be chatting to fellow novelist Rachel Joyce (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) we spent a few minutes with one of our favourite contemporary authors to ask him a few questions to get to know him a little better.
Q: What, or who, inspires your work?
A: In this case {his new novel Love Lane} my primary inspiration was my family and its hidden stories.
Q: What does the city of Bath mean to you?
A: I’m old enough to remember day trips to Bath when it was still a hippie hangout full of squats and communes and with stone still black from centuries of coal fires! It will always speak to me of Austen’s Persuasion – a favourite novel – as I love second chance romances – but also of the green booklets in the Cambridge Latin course, when the characters came to Aquae Sulis and met a werewolf…
Q: Is there something about you that isn’t widely known that you would be happy to share?
A: I am a beekeeper.
Q: What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
A: Always remember the writers who helped you start out so that you keep up the generous tradition.
Q: If you could share just one message with our audience, what would it be?
A: Please find space for your grandparents’ letters and diaries and make sure they label every old photograph while they still remember who is who!
About Patrick Gale
He was born on the Isle of Wight, the youngest of four children and son of a prison officer. He now lives on a farm near Land’s End, with his husband, the sculptor-farmer Aidan Hicks. There they raise beef cattle and grow barley. Patrick is obsessed with the garden they have created in what must be one of England’s windiest sites and which includes England’s westernmost walled rose garden. You can book to visit it with a small group most summers. Just search for Trevilley on the NGS website or simply click here for the essential details if the NGS website is not yet live for the coming season.
Learn more about Patrick Gale
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