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Facts of Life
Patrick Gale's THE FACTS OF LIFE is a mesmerising, epic yet intimate novel of love, music and the life events that stay with us forever - perfect for any reader of Armistead Maupin, or E M Forster'Absorbing . . . deftly characterised, deeply involving and relevant' The TimesGerman composer Edward Pepper escapes to England just before the war begins in earnest. Struck with TB, he is recuperating in hospital when he meets Sally, a young doctor who has battled her way through medical school, despite the opposition of her parents. They fall in love and marry, settling in the fenlands of East Anglia. Years later, Edward watches as his grandchildren trip up against life and death, and realises that patterns can repeat themselves, bringing both pain and unexpected discovery.
672 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1995
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About the author
Patrick Gale
43 books706 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 - 30 of 67 reviews
July 16, 2020
Since first reading a Patrick Gale novel in 2008 with Notes from an Exhibition - which I absolutely loved - I have read and enjoyed immensely all of his subsequent books. I have also delved into his back catalogue, indeed only one more to read now, but with somewhat more mixed results. Not that I have ever disliked one of his books but some of his older novels and story collections I was less impressed with. Not so with Facts of Life - this is right up there with the best of his earlier work:
As World War II rages, German Jew Edward Pepper (Eli Pfefferberg) languishes in a TB isolation hospital where he falls for his doctor, Sally Banks. Receiving a bizarre wedding present in the form of a house in the East Anglian Fens called The Roundel, the couple set up home there. The Roundel then bears witness to three generations of Edward's family - their loves, trials and tribulations.
A great read with lots of wonderful characters and shocking events - 9/10.
As World War II rages, German Jew Edward Pepper (Eli Pfefferberg) languishes in a TB isolation hospital where he falls for his doctor, Sally Banks. Receiving a bizarre wedding present in the form of a house in the East Anglian Fens called The Roundel, the couple set up home there. The Roundel then bears witness to three generations of Edward's family - their loves, trials and tribulations.
A great read with lots of wonderful characters and shocking events - 9/10.
April 26, 2018
I found The Facts of Life to be a joy to read as I just adore this author's writing. For a few days, I lived with the characters. All the highs and lows of life and people's reactions to events were captured perfectly. Usually when I enjoy a book I race through it quite quickly but not this one. This is a novel to savour. It's an intensely involving read with a satisfying ending.
June 1, 2013
Oh boy, there were many tears shed in the final stretch. Absolutely beautiful book. Loved it.
July 26, 2024
This is a banquet of a book, rich and moist as a well-brandied Christmas cake, layered with marzipan and icing and just as enjoyable. Totally absorbing characters, their ups and down absorbing. (and certainly read more than once)
August 9, 2024
I just couldn’t get into this. It seemed to drag on. Reading reviews I see it deals with AIDS, which I’m not interested in.
P76 in case I come back to it ever. LibrariesWest.
P76 in case I come back to it ever. LibrariesWest.
June 17, 2025
I’m reading all of Patrick’s books in order and this is, so far, for me his best one. Deeply moving, utterly readible and a great story!
October 23, 2013
I’m normally a big fan of Gale’s work. His ‘Rough Music’ has made it onto my all-time favourite book list, so when I saw this book on the shelves of my local Oxfam bookshop, I grabbed it. It’s a big thick volume, and tells the story of one family, through three generations of trials and tribulations, rather like a man’s take on Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.
The book opens in the years just after World War Two. The first characters we meet are Edward, an exiled German Jew, and Sally, a working class girl who’s made it to the rank of doctor by intelligence, hard work and sheer determination, at a time when such positions were usually held by men, or by women of a higher social class. Both characters have a ’surrogate parent’ in the form of someone who sponsored them through university, who they turn to in times of need, and both of whom are generous to a fault. Sally’s sponsor retires to a nunnery and leaves them a strange little house in the wilds of the Norfolk Broads, which they fall in love with almost as much as they fall in love with each other. They marry, move to the house and produce a family, who become the focus of later chapters of the book: their daughter Miriam, and their grandchildren Alison and Jamie, both of whom fall in love with the same man.
Unfortunately the book has some major flaws. The most obvious of these is that it’s told in third person omnipresent, which seriously detracts from getting to know the characters. The focus shifts from Edward to Sally and back again seemingly at random, and we’re no sooner told that Sally is annoyed about something, than the focus flips to Edward, and doesn’t return to Sally until half way through the next chapter by which time the action has moved on by several months. It’s very distancing and very frustrating, and it means that when the characters are presented with serious problems, you don’t feel you know them well enough to care.
The second flaw is that unlike Harrod-Eagles, Gale has crammed all three generations into a single volume. It’s already over 500 pages long but even so, telling the story of five different main characters in a book that ’short’ means that inevitably a lot of the fine detail gets left out. When Edward is faced with a terrible choice regarding the last surviving member of his family, his actions don’t ring true because we haven’t read enough about his inner battles, or his reasons for making the choice he does. It’s almost as though Gale says “Oops, Edward decided to do this,” without any further explanation, or any fallout, and it’s too disconnected to make any real sense.
I would have liked the book to be split into at least two, perhaps three volumes. I think Edward’s story alone would have been interesting enough to carry the first volume – there aren’t many books written about the Jews who fled to England just before the War, leaving so many family members and friends behind, and his relationship with his ‘father-figure’ Thomas, who is clearly a homosexual and clearly in love with him, could have been developed hugely. Why wasn’t Thomas jealous when Edward decided to marry Sally? Why didn’t he try to persuade Sally not to marry Edward, or at the very least make a few not-very-well-hidden passes at the younger man? Too often Gale doesn’t include nearly enough tension, and the tension he does introduce is often not very well used.
Sally’s character too could have been so much better developed. I’m assuming Gale did his research; it must have been very unusual for a working class girl to become a doctor in those days and the story of her struggle to be accepted for what she was would have been fascinating. As it is, we get a few snippets where male colleagues patronise her, and a few scenes where the rest of her family disapprove, and that’s about it.
In the end I lost interest in the younger generations and the book is still sitting, half-read, on my bedside table. My overall impression is one of huge frustration at a valuable story wasted. Such a shame for an author who’s produced some wonderful books.
The book opens in the years just after World War Two. The first characters we meet are Edward, an exiled German Jew, and Sally, a working class girl who’s made it to the rank of doctor by intelligence, hard work and sheer determination, at a time when such positions were usually held by men, or by women of a higher social class. Both characters have a ’surrogate parent’ in the form of someone who sponsored them through university, who they turn to in times of need, and both of whom are generous to a fault. Sally’s sponsor retires to a nunnery and leaves them a strange little house in the wilds of the Norfolk Broads, which they fall in love with almost as much as they fall in love with each other. They marry, move to the house and produce a family, who become the focus of later chapters of the book: their daughter Miriam, and their grandchildren Alison and Jamie, both of whom fall in love with the same man.
Unfortunately the book has some major flaws. The most obvious of these is that it’s told in third person omnipresent, which seriously detracts from getting to know the characters. The focus shifts from Edward to Sally and back again seemingly at random, and we’re no sooner told that Sally is annoyed about something, than the focus flips to Edward, and doesn’t return to Sally until half way through the next chapter by which time the action has moved on by several months. It’s very distancing and very frustrating, and it means that when the characters are presented with serious problems, you don’t feel you know them well enough to care.
The second flaw is that unlike Harrod-Eagles, Gale has crammed all three generations into a single volume. It’s already over 500 pages long but even so, telling the story of five different main characters in a book that ’short’ means that inevitably a lot of the fine detail gets left out. When Edward is faced with a terrible choice regarding the last surviving member of his family, his actions don’t ring true because we haven’t read enough about his inner battles, or his reasons for making the choice he does. It’s almost as though Gale says “Oops, Edward decided to do this,” without any further explanation, or any fallout, and it’s too disconnected to make any real sense.
I would have liked the book to be split into at least two, perhaps three volumes. I think Edward’s story alone would have been interesting enough to carry the first volume – there aren’t many books written about the Jews who fled to England just before the War, leaving so many family members and friends behind, and his relationship with his ‘father-figure’ Thomas, who is clearly a homosexual and clearly in love with him, could have been developed hugely. Why wasn’t Thomas jealous when Edward decided to marry Sally? Why didn’t he try to persuade Sally not to marry Edward, or at the very least make a few not-very-well-hidden passes at the younger man? Too often Gale doesn’t include nearly enough tension, and the tension he does introduce is often not very well used.
Sally’s character too could have been so much better developed. I’m assuming Gale did his research; it must have been very unusual for a working class girl to become a doctor in those days and the story of her struggle to be accepted for what she was would have been fascinating. As it is, we get a few snippets where male colleagues patronise her, and a few scenes where the rest of her family disapprove, and that’s about it.
In the end I lost interest in the younger generations and the book is still sitting, half-read, on my bedside table. My overall impression is one of huge frustration at a valuable story wasted. Such a shame for an author who’s produced some wonderful books.
September 1, 2017
I received a copy of THE FACTS OF LIFE through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest and original review.
I did not, however, manage to finish this book. I have a general rule of getting to at least 20% of the book read, especially in the cases of books acquired in exchange for reviews, and I reached that and stopped. There was no connection between me and the main characters at that point, Sally and Edward. In fact, I felt more connected to Sally and Edward's mentors than I did to them.
The story seemed to reach too far, trying to hard to encompass every event and mood of the post-World War II years.
But the final straws for me were when Edward found his sister in a psychiatric hospital in Paris, having survived medical torture in the Nazi death camps, and without much thought at all... smothered her with a pillow. Apparently because she'd be too much of a burden? It was hard to understand, knowing what I knew of Edward, why the author thought this was necessary.
The other final straw was during the birth of Sally and Edward's child. Sally and Edward hardly tolerated each other by this time, suffocating one's sister and not telling one's wife could probably lead to that, but a storm prevented them from going to a hospital and the midwife was away. Which is all fine. But then, for reasons no one will ever explain to me with an satisfaction, the author described the bowel movement that Sally had as she pushed her daughter out. And...
...some details are just best left unsaid.
I did not, however, manage to finish this book. I have a general rule of getting to at least 20% of the book read, especially in the cases of books acquired in exchange for reviews, and I reached that and stopped. There was no connection between me and the main characters at that point, Sally and Edward. In fact, I felt more connected to Sally and Edward's mentors than I did to them.
The story seemed to reach too far, trying to hard to encompass every event and mood of the post-World War II years.
But the final straws for me were when Edward found his sister in a psychiatric hospital in Paris, having survived medical torture in the Nazi death camps, and without much thought at all... smothered her with a pillow. Apparently because she'd be too much of a burden? It was hard to understand, knowing what I knew of Edward, why the author thought this was necessary.
The other final straw was during the birth of Sally and Edward's child. Sally and Edward hardly tolerated each other by this time, suffocating one's sister and not telling one's wife could probably lead to that, but a storm prevented them from going to a hospital and the midwife was away. Which is all fine. But then, for reasons no one will ever explain to me with an satisfaction, the author described the bowel movement that Sally had as she pushed her daughter out. And...
...some details are just best left unsaid.
December 14, 2018
As an appreciative reader of Gale's last six novels, I've begun to read his republished earlier books and been highly disappointed. This one, with its interminable 646 pages, made me not only frustrated, but angry at the time spent ploughing through it!
In his own postscript, Gale acknowledged that the book is really two distinct novels. I couldn't agree more. The first part interested me and would have left me able to see clearly to at least 3 stars. The remaining pages were tiresome, melodramatic in a bad TV kind of way, and featured characters I cared nothing about. It seemed to me that Gale had himself lost his goal and interest at the end of Part I.
What was he thinking in accepting the advice of an editor that to be taken seriously, he needed to write a family saga. More troubling was the about-face of several characters, who lost whatever magnetism they may have possessed in Part I.
The ending was ridiculous and, only because I'm a disciplined reader, did I even push myself to finish. The conclusion I've reached is that the talented Patrick Gale of the novels I'd read more recently finally found what works well for him in the more focused writing he produced later in his career that this 1995 effort.
In his own postscript, Gale acknowledged that the book is really two distinct novels. I couldn't agree more. The first part interested me and would have left me able to see clearly to at least 3 stars. The remaining pages were tiresome, melodramatic in a bad TV kind of way, and featured characters I cared nothing about. It seemed to me that Gale had himself lost his goal and interest at the end of Part I.
What was he thinking in accepting the advice of an editor that to be taken seriously, he needed to write a family saga. More troubling was the about-face of several characters, who lost whatever magnetism they may have possessed in Part I.
The ending was ridiculous and, only because I'm a disciplined reader, did I even push myself to finish. The conclusion I've reached is that the talented Patrick Gale of the novels I'd read more recently finally found what works well for him in the more focused writing he produced later in his career that this 1995 effort.
September 5, 2018
I love the writing of Patrick Gale. This is I think my fifth book of his. I can only say I was mesmerized, unable to put it down, reading through hours and hours in absolute possession and love of the characters and what would become of them. The love and coming together of the first major characters after World War II in England is exquisitely written: there is musical Edward, a shy German Jew sent for safety to England while his family is murdered in the camps and Sally, the girl who has fought to become a doctor and who loves him. And then the second part which centers mostly on Edward's grandchildren, Alison and Jamie and Jamie's soon-to-be lover Sam, who falls into their lives by accident with little more than the clothes on his back - what a rich character! The love between Jamie and Sam and what happens to them in the early terrible years of AIDS kept me reading until late at night. They are so real to me - that is the problem with Patrick Gale's characters, though it is not exactly a problem: you come to the last page and can't bear to let them go. And they don't stop...they continue in my mind into many more pages of adventures. Wonderful!
May 20, 2020
A truly captivating read. I’m normally put off by books that are too big, but not this one. An epic tale that spans two generations. So beautifully written. The author dissects the human condition enigmatically.
February 12, 2022
There is one glaring problem for me in this epic tale of love, hate and family. This is the way Edward decides to ‘off’ his sister, which we are led to believe is a mercy killing. It was too abrupt and I feel Patrick Gale just didn’t know where to go with the enormous difficulties involved in exploring the implications of the immense and continuing suffering of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Edward undergoes an almighty collapse of mind following this but suddenly he pulls through with the unstinting support from his wife. Just as his sister was obliterated in short manner so,too, is she. It seems to be more for ease of plotting than veracity. Edward becomes a flawed but massively successful composer who ‘gets the girl’ in the end. The girl is the sluttish starlet who had inveigled him into adultery whilst his wife was still alive. Even though she had dropped him like a hot potato when it suited her ends.
The character of Sam was also a bit wooden for me - he appears to be a composite of the ideal man for both men and women - this is his central role in the novel. A. Bit too Mr Rochester for my liking.
The exploration of the AIDS epidemic and its dreadful effects is strong and true as the author clearly has an abundance of familiarity with this area. Jamie’s demise is presented in alarmingly stark detail and presents perhaps the core of this novel - the deterioration of his selfhood is described in tender and truthful terms.
The character of Sam was also a bit wooden for me - he appears to be a composite of the ideal man for both men and women - this is his central role in the novel. A. Bit too Mr Rochester for my liking.
The exploration of the AIDS epidemic and its dreadful effects is strong and true as the author clearly has an abundance of familiarity with this area. Jamie’s demise is presented in alarmingly stark detail and presents perhaps the core of this novel - the deterioration of his selfhood is described in tender and truthful terms.
October 25, 2023
a long family saga but compelling and hard to put down. It was very well written and took me back into the years when my first marriage broke down and we were all worried about safe sex and AIDs and found the establishment and homophobia of that time so shocking. The intricate interwoven character portraits are utterly believable and we really care for them and about them, and are glad when it works out for them, shocked when it doesnt. There are some cruel twists in the story, one which left me tunned for a couple of days before i could start reading it again, but i did want to know what happened next. I think the hiatus between parts one and two did leave me having to re-engage all over again, it broke my attachments to the characters too harshly, but i am glad i did continue to read on. Any cliches are handled in a way that suggests the other side to the story always and i found this particularly gratifying rather than being left with one or two characters are shadows or too two dimensional. Might be an old book, but I do enjoy Gales' novels and will continue to look out for them
May 27, 2018
Warning: this novel often has very, very graphic sex of homosexual and heterosexual variety. So proceed only if this doesn’t offend you.
The characters are richly drawn and there is an abundance of them- like all complex people, you often have rather mixed reactions to them. For a bit I thought the plot contrived- and too sensational and too convenient, but came to believe that this is rather an overly dramatic passion play with a convenient good fairy at the end. Early in the book the composer/ a character who is prominent in the book composes an opera based on the book of Job- a dismal failure with the critics. The novel viewed through the lens of Job suddenly seems clearer. I rather enjoyed it and will read another by this same author sometime in my future reading adventures.
The characters are richly drawn and there is an abundance of them- like all complex people, you often have rather mixed reactions to them. For a bit I thought the plot contrived- and too sensational and too convenient, but came to believe that this is rather an overly dramatic passion play with a convenient good fairy at the end. Early in the book the composer/ a character who is prominent in the book composes an opera based on the book of Job- a dismal failure with the critics. The novel viewed through the lens of Job suddenly seems clearer. I rather enjoyed it and will read another by this same author sometime in my future reading adventures.
October 1, 2022
I enjoyed the first part of this book, whose lead characters are the strong willed, caring doctor Sally and the damaged, German Jewish composer Edward. We get properly under the skins of these characters, and I was thoroughly engaged.
In the second, longer part, we skip two generations to focus on their grandchildren Jamie and Alison. And here I was frustrated, for a number of reasons:
• Edward is still there, but only as a third party character whose behaviour is barely explained. Suddenly I no longer empathise with this character that I was so invested in in part one.
• Miriam – Sally and Edward’s daughter, Jamie and Alison’s mother – is so thinly drawn as to be almost a caricature.
• It’s too long.
Overall, I was relieved to reach the end, and my three star rating is a rounding up.
In the second, longer part, we skip two generations to focus on their grandchildren Jamie and Alison. And here I was frustrated, for a number of reasons:
• Edward is still there, but only as a third party character whose behaviour is barely explained. Suddenly I no longer empathise with this character that I was so invested in in part one.
• Miriam – Sally and Edward’s daughter, Jamie and Alison’s mother – is so thinly drawn as to be almost a caricature.
• It’s too long.
Overall, I was relieved to reach the end, and my three star rating is a rounding up.
January 30, 2018
I found this a long book with not very interesting people. Part 1 takes place in late 40s. Sally and Edward meet, fall in love, and marry. They have a baby. Sally is a doctor, Edward a composer. Sally's mentor gives her a house in the country. Part 2 jump ahead to the early 90s and focuses on their grandchildren, Alison and Jamie. Life in between didn't really matter. We spend 1-2 years with them and their lives.
I just never really connected to the characters or cared what was going on with their lives.
I just never really connected to the characters or cared what was going on with their lives.
August 11, 2019
I started out feeling somewhat ambivalent about this book....perhaps influenced by some of the more negative reviews I had read. I am a fairly new reader of Patrick Gale’s books and have only read his newer novels which I love. However once I got past part one and the early part of Edwards life I really got stuck into the characters and their development as the story progressed. I loved it.
November 10, 2019
The title is The Facts of Life but it's really about death, a number of deaths.
I found it difficult to engage with the main characters; we lost some of the most interesting people from the story fairly early on.
I have read and enjoyed quite a number of Patrick Gale's novels but I can't say that I really liked this one I'm afraid.
I found it difficult to engage with the main characters; we lost some of the most interesting people from the story fairly early on.
I have read and enjoyed quite a number of Patrick Gale's novels but I can't say that I really liked this one I'm afraid.
July 1, 2020
Disappointing ! I finished tbe first section of the novel and really did enjoy it. However the next section was a big let down and I really couldn't muster up any enthusiasm. So I am not going to keep reading. Sad as I have always enjoyed Patrick Gale's books. This one I feel is just an anti climax.
March 3, 2022
An enjoyable read. But I found the break in the book between the tale of the post WWII love story of the grandparents and the second half, which focused on their grandchildren challenging to adapt to. Both parts reflect issues of their time, personal challenges created by them. I so like Patrick Gale's use of language.
August 30, 2018
Adult content
Not recommended. This was my first Patrick Gale book. He has a way of drawing you into the story just to find out where he's going with his odd assortment of characters. Just say no.
Not recommended. This was my first Patrick Gale book. He has a way of drawing you into the story just to find out where he's going with his odd assortment of characters. Just say no.
January 25, 2023
I will always remember the person who introduced me to Patrick Gale with Little Bits of Baby. I have read everything, and many twice. This is one of my favourites with characters who remain part of the family of my dreams and imagination.
March 3, 2023
Interesting to read a genre of fiction - romantic, family dynasty, sweep of history etc - written by a man. Some genuinely unexpected plots twists keep you interested. Thoughtful reflections on physicality and death too.
June 9, 2019
So many good things to write about in this book. Lovely characterisation and yet some difficult reading about homosexuality. Sad, happy all emotions coming into play. So glad I’ve read it.
August 2, 2020
Counting it as read even though I didn’t finish it because it’s approximately 12 million pages long and I got like halfway through it before I completely lost any shred of interest.
August 23, 2021
Enjoyed the first half of the book, second part dragged and was an effort to finish. Much preferred all his other books.
August 1, 2023
I adored the first half of this book, but then it wobbled ever so slightly - felt a little like he was trying to shock me, rather than just tell me the story.
August 6, 2024
Couldn't Finish
I couldn't finish this book, which is unheard of for me. I got nearly halfway through, but hard to stop.
I couldn't finish this book, which is unheard of for me. I got nearly halfway through, but hard to stop.
April 30, 2025
DNF I’ve read and enjoyed many of Patrick Gayle’s books but not this one I’m afraid. I got to page 320 with another 300 or so to, and I gave up.
July 11, 2025
I love Patrick Gale, so was very happy to find a book of his I hadn't read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews