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Secret Lives
Book by Gale, Patrick, King, Frances, Wakefield, Tom
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published July 1, 1994
61 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Gale
43 books711 followersPatrick was born on 31 January 1962 on the Isle of Wight, where his father was prison governor at Camp Hill, as his grandfather had been at nearby Parkhurst. He was the youngest of four; one sister, two brothers, spread over ten years. The family moved to London, where his father ran Wandsworth Prison, then to Winchester. At eight Patrick began boarding as a Winchester College Quirister at the cathedral choir school, Pilgrim's. At thirteen he went on to Winchester College. He finished his formal education with an English degree from New College, Oxford in 1983.
He has never had a grown-up job. For three years he lived at a succession of addresses, from a Notting Hill bedsit to a crumbling French chateau. While working on his first novels he eked out his slender income with odd jobs; as a typist, a singing waiter, a designer's secretary, a ghost-writer for an encyclopedia of the musical and, increasingly, as a book reviewer.
His first two novels, The Aerodynamics of Pork and Ease were published by Abacus on the same day in June 1986. The following year he moved to Camelford near the north coast of Cornwall and began a love affair with the county that has fed his work ever since.
He now lives in the far west, on a farm near Land's End with his husband, 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 deeply resents the time his writing makes him spend away from working in it. As well as gardening, he plays both the modern and baroque cello. His chief extravagance in life is opera tickets.
He has never had a grown-up job. For three years he lived at a succession of addresses, from a Notting Hill bedsit to a crumbling French chateau. While working on his first novels he eked out his slender income with odd jobs; as a typist, a singing waiter, a designer's secretary, a ghost-writer for an encyclopedia of the musical and, increasingly, as a book reviewer.
His first two novels, The Aerodynamics of Pork and Ease were published by Abacus on the same day in June 1986. The following year he moved to Camelford near the north coast of Cornwall and began a love affair with the county that has fed his work ever since.
He now lives in the far west, on a farm near Land's End with his husband, 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 deeply resents the time his writing makes him spend away from working in it. As well as gardening, he plays both the modern and baroque cello. His chief extravagance in life is opera tickets.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 19, 2026
Gale Project #7 from 1991.
I had already read the Francis King offering in this volume of three novellas back two years ago when I did a Deep-Dive into all HIS works - so this time just read the Gale piece. It's a fun, but rather slight bauble, only 65 pages, which I read in less than 2 hours. It details the machinations of a longtime mistress when her paramour's wife dies, and he wants to make their relationship 'legit' by marrying her - but she wants to keep the status quo.
Gale is very accomplished in writing from a woman's POV, but my fave character here was Josh, the son of her lover - a gay, acerbic wheelchair user (one of the last Thalidomide casualties) - as he has shown several times before, Gale is terrific at writing people with disabilities with none of the cloying cliches usually attributed to them. Bravo!
I had already read the Francis King offering in this volume of three novellas back two years ago when I did a Deep-Dive into all HIS works - so this time just read the Gale piece. It's a fun, but rather slight bauble, only 65 pages, which I read in less than 2 hours. It details the machinations of a longtime mistress when her paramour's wife dies, and he wants to make their relationship 'legit' by marrying her - but she wants to keep the status quo.
Gale is very accomplished in writing from a woman's POV, but my fave character here was Josh, the son of her lover - a gay, acerbic wheelchair user (one of the last Thalidomide casualties) - as he has shown several times before, Gale is terrific at writing people with disabilities with none of the cloying cliches usually attributed to them. Bravo!
June 3, 2024
Personajes que no se olvidan. Las tres novelas son fabulosas pero la de Francis King es una joya.
January 2, 2025
"Three novelists, each from a separate generation and with a substantial following of his own, have contributed a novella to this volume. 'Secret Lives' is at once a testament to their friendship and their sharply contrasting talents. All three works concentrate on the shadowy sides to their central characters' lives.
"Tom Wakefield's Brenda, heroine of 'The Other Way', hides a private agony beneath her cheerful bulk and gaudy clothes...(on) a trip to Tunisia...she strikes up an enriching, unexpected friendship with a fellow refugee from love's battlefield.
"In 'Ceaser's Wife', Patrick Gale's Mary is perceived as a 'bachelor girl'...In secret, however, she is the mistress of a millionaire who maintains here in discreet luxury...With the death of (his) wife, Mary's secret life is threatened, but she conspires with his son in a fiendish plot to preserve it.
"Francis King's novella...'Secret Lives', concerns Osamu, an impoverished Japanese artist who (be)comes the secret life of Brian, a QC...(whose) death leaves Ossie distraught and...at the funeral, Brian's secret life is laid bare to assembled friends." From the flyleaf of the 1991 edition from Constable publishers, London.
A really superb collection if writing from three of the UK's finest writers. I believe the book was conceived, in part by Messer's King and Gale, with the intention and hope of giving publicity to Tom Wakefield's writing which had never enjoyed their success. Unfortunately I don't think this volume had that result and since Mr. Wakefield's death in 1996 he is even more forgotten, totally unjustifiably. Even sadder despite Mr. Wakefield being the lead 'author' he is totally absent from the GR listing. I find this rather ironic because I have been told innumerable times by GR librarians that books have to be listed under the author(s) names given on the book when published even if this cause confusion with authors being listed in different ways on different books.
But to concentrate on this anthology - most of the characters in the novellas are older and this is a superb collection examining growing old, being old, sickness, death, memory. Although very carefully not described in anyway as to suggest it was a 'gay' anthology there are plenty of gay relationships and older gay relationships. Perhaps in 1991, when it was published, it was too soon. All three novellas touch on death, and what it means for the survivors, and again all three are exceptionally fine. It is a very wonderful collection of stories and is definitely one of my best reads for 2023. If you do not know the writing of any of the three authors this is an excellent entry into their work and I would be amazed if it did not lead you to read further. Patrick is still writing and still in print and though Francis King is now dead many of works have been republished and many that haven't are available and very reasonably priced at second hand. The same goes for Tom Wakefield's work but I believe it is only second hand, nothing is in print. I can't think of authors more deserving of rediscovery then Wakefield and King; Patrick Gale fortunately doesn't require rediscovery but he is still worth reading!
"Tom Wakefield's Brenda, heroine of 'The Other Way', hides a private agony beneath her cheerful bulk and gaudy clothes...(on) a trip to Tunisia...she strikes up an enriching, unexpected friendship with a fellow refugee from love's battlefield.
"In 'Ceaser's Wife', Patrick Gale's Mary is perceived as a 'bachelor girl'...In secret, however, she is the mistress of a millionaire who maintains here in discreet luxury...With the death of (his) wife, Mary's secret life is threatened, but she conspires with his son in a fiendish plot to preserve it.
"Francis King's novella...'Secret Lives', concerns Osamu, an impoverished Japanese artist who (be)comes the secret life of Brian, a QC...(whose) death leaves Ossie distraught and...at the funeral, Brian's secret life is laid bare to assembled friends." From the flyleaf of the 1991 edition from Constable publishers, London.
A really superb collection if writing from three of the UK's finest writers. I believe the book was conceived, in part by Messer's King and Gale, with the intention and hope of giving publicity to Tom Wakefield's writing which had never enjoyed their success. Unfortunately I don't think this volume had that result and since Mr. Wakefield's death in 1996 he is even more forgotten, totally unjustifiably. Even sadder despite Mr. Wakefield being the lead 'author' he is totally absent from the GR listing. I find this rather ironic because I have been told innumerable times by GR librarians that books have to be listed under the author(s) names given on the book when published even if this cause confusion with authors being listed in different ways on different books.
But to concentrate on this anthology - most of the characters in the novellas are older and this is a superb collection examining growing old, being old, sickness, death, memory. Although very carefully not described in anyway as to suggest it was a 'gay' anthology there are plenty of gay relationships and older gay relationships. Perhaps in 1991, when it was published, it was too soon. All three novellas touch on death, and what it means for the survivors, and again all three are exceptionally fine. It is a very wonderful collection of stories and is definitely one of my best reads for 2023. If you do not know the writing of any of the three authors this is an excellent entry into their work and I would be amazed if it did not lead you to read further. Patrick is still writing and still in print and though Francis King is now dead many of works have been republished and many that haven't are available and very reasonably priced at second hand. The same goes for Tom Wakefield's work but I believe it is only second hand, nothing is in print. I can't think of authors more deserving of rediscovery then Wakefield and King; Patrick Gale fortunately doesn't require rediscovery but he is still worth reading!
August 11, 2014
I enjoyed reading these stories. I'd never read Wakefield or King. I bought it for Patrick Gale. I admit that I was especially moved by his characters, but I'm thrilled to be introduced to the other authors. I'll look for more of their work.
May 2, 2021
I only read the first story by Tom Wakefield, but it is not listed on it's own. A quite bizarre and twisty tale about some mundane people.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews