Ladymol's Review

This book is a gem. If this is an example of Patrick Gale’s work, then he’s got a new fan. I’ll be tracking down his other novels now.

Will is forty, single, gay and having an affair with a married guy. He throws a Birthday party for himself, and his best friend Harriet asks him if this secret lover has been invited. Will says that he has. Who is this man, and why can’t Will share the secret, even with his best friend? As we discover who this man is, we realise that Will’s entire life has been one of secrets and revelations. Suddenly, we are plunging back into Will’s childhood, a time when he was called Julian. Why the identity change? What is the secret that destroyed Julian’s childhood and threatens to destroy Will’s fragile life now?

The story is beautifully balanced between the main participants: Francis, Will’s mother, John his father and Bill his uncle. Although this is predominantly Will’s story, it’s very much theirs too. He’s buffeted between their passions until bruised and angry, he hits back.

Set mainly in a beach house in Cornwall that the family rents when Julian is 8, and then again for the adult Will’s 40^th Birthday, the authenticity of the quintessential English family seaside holiday is captured in all its repressed horrors. You will fall in love with Julian, the perfect little boy whose burgeoning awareness of his own sexuality becomes the catalyst for the terrible events that transpire. You will want Will to find the love and happiness denied to his younger self.

If you want what any Cornishman would call a proper job, then give this exquisite novel a go.