Patrick Gale writes about people carrying complicated family histories, with affection, absence and belonging close to the heart of the fiction. A festival conversation is an appealing outing if one of his characters has become someone you want to keep thinking about after the book is closed.
Quick facts
Best known for
Notes from an Exhibition, A Place Called Winter and writing for television
Genre or subject
Literary fiction, family stories and historical fiction
Gale is a novelist and screenwriter whose work includes contemporary fiction, historical novels, shorter fiction and television drama. His BBC drama Man in an Orange Shirt was shown in 2017 and won an International Emmy Award. Readers and viewers can therefore arrive at the same festival through different forms of his storytelling.
Tinder Press published Love Lane in March 2026. It returns to Harry Cane, the character who left England for Canada in an earlier novel, now travelling back in the 1950s. Gale describes the book as standing on its own. The return raises questions about home and family, including what absence has meant to the people left behind.
Those subjects are a strong reason to hear Gale speak: home can be a place someone longs for, a life they have escaped, or a family in which they no longer fit. A novel gives those tensions a set of people to follow, and a conversation lets you spend a little longer with the writing behind them.
You do not need the same reading history as a companion. One of you may have watched his drama while the other has a favourite novel. Choosing an event together can be a way to share the writer and then discover a different part of his work afterwards.
Where to start with their books
Notes from an Exhibition
An artist’s death leaves her husband and children to face her paintings and the secrets and damage within the family. Begin here if a story told through the traces a person leaves behind is what you want from a novel.
A Place Called Winter
Harry Cane leaves England after the discovery of an affair threatens his life there, beginning again in Canada. This is a starting point for readers drawn to historical fiction about identity, loss and the task of making a new home.
Mother’s Boy
Gale’s historical novel draws on the early life of the Cornish poet Charles Causley and the mother who raised him. Choose it if a writer’s developing life and the relationship between a mother and son are the story you want to follow.
Festival appearances
For tickets, use the host festival’s official box office. Confirm the date, venue and access details before paying.
Patrick Gale’s 2026 programme included Patrick Gale & Lisa Ridzén: Before It’s Too Late at Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Where to see them next
No 2027 appearances announced yet. Check the festival guides for programme dates.
Plan your trip
If a book has prompted memories or a lively conversation in your reading group, go with someone who would enjoy carrying that discussion beyond the page. Leave space afterwards for a meal or a walk; a packed timetable may leave little room to enjoy what you heard.
Choose one festival as your base and let the local guide do the practical work. You can build a short break around fiction without trying to follow every stop in an author’s year.
The 2026 programmes featured Patrick Gale at Edinburgh International Book Festival, Oxford Literary Festival, Stratford Literary Festival; follow those guides for event information and practical visit details.
Do I have to read the earlier Harry Cane novel first?
Gale describes the newer novel as standing on its own. Read the earlier story if following the same character across books is part of the pleasure for you; it need not become a barrier to choosing a festival visit.
Does Patrick Gale write for television too?
His professional work includes television drama as well as novels and shorter fiction. That gives viewers another point of connection with a literary conversation, even if they have only just begun discovering the books.
What should I read before hearing him?
Use the festival links on Patrick Gale’s profile for the event’s own ticket and audience guidance.
How can I plan a trip around a Gale event?
Use the festival links on Patrick Gale’s profile for the event’s own ticket and audience guidance.
