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Mother's Boy
'Tender, evocative' TLS
'Richly engaging' Spectator
A Radio 4 Serial Fiction Book of the Week
'A characteristically tender novel about a young man growing up in the shadow of one war and the whispers of the next' Observer
'A wonderful novel about relationships, particularly between a mother and son. A compelling read, beautifully crafted and sensitively written' Irish Examiner
_______
Laura, a laundress, meets her young husband when they are both placed in service in Teignmouth in 1914. They have a baby, Charles, but his father returns home from the trenches a damaged man, already ill with the tuberculosis that will soon leave Laura a widow.
As a new war looms, Charles signs up for the navy as a coder. His escape from the tight, gossipy confines of Launceston to a more colourful life in action sees him blossom, as he experiences the possibility of death, and the excitement - even terror - of a love that is as clandestine as his work.
_______
'Stands with the best queer literary fiction of a historical bent, illuminated as it is by Gale's devilish wit and talent for both social observation and intricacies of character' Sydney Morning Herald
'A wonderful novel - a touching, utterly convincing portrait of the nascent artist' Mail on Sunday
'A deeply moving novel. The portrait of a complex relationship that constricted as much as it sustained is brilliantly done' The Tablet
'Richly engaging' Spectator
A Radio 4 Serial Fiction Book of the Week
'A characteristically tender novel about a young man growing up in the shadow of one war and the whispers of the next' Observer
'A wonderful novel about relationships, particularly between a mother and son. A compelling read, beautifully crafted and sensitively written' Irish Examiner
_______
Laura, a laundress, meets her young husband when they are both placed in service in Teignmouth in 1914. They have a baby, Charles, but his father returns home from the trenches a damaged man, already ill with the tuberculosis that will soon leave Laura a widow.
As a new war looms, Charles signs up for the navy as a coder. His escape from the tight, gossipy confines of Launceston to a more colourful life in action sees him blossom, as he experiences the possibility of death, and the excitement - even terror - of a love that is as clandestine as his work.
_______
'Stands with the best queer literary fiction of a historical bent, illuminated as it is by Gale's devilish wit and talent for both social observation and intricacies of character' Sydney Morning Herald
'A wonderful novel - a touching, utterly convincing portrait of the nascent artist' Mail on Sunday
'A deeply moving novel. The portrait of a complex relationship that constricted as much as it sustained is brilliantly done' The Tablet
406 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
141 people are currently reading
2160 people want to read
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 331 reviews
August 31, 2022
This book was recommended to me by my father who himself was a signalman in the Australian Navy. This story is a fictionalised account of English poet, Charles Causley, the book a product of meticulous research assisted by the Charles Causley Trust. I have not read this author before, and I am so glad this book was mine for a couple of weeks. I also have others of this author sitting on my shelf. I often am late to the party, but that doesn’t matter; I will always make it eventually.
Charles saw two world wars, his life experience took him from an introspective childhood, a boy who loved the academic side, who was on the outer. His skill in storytelling and poetry evident from a young lad. He wrote plays, directing and playing the piano; he gave much happiness in very hard times.
His mother Laura, extremely protective, was a hard-working woman who lost her husband from effects of the first world war. She was Charles’ most fierce protector and loved him dearly. Charles ending up in coding, a new position, but his travels were far from smooth as he suffered terribly from sea sickness. His demeanour never meant he would take on physically challenging roles, but the position demanded skill and hard work.
The descriptions of the harshness of war, and the despair and general layout was done so well, as was his relationships and reserved nature. Fiercely private, we saw how Laura must stay back to ensure he was not pushed too much as this would not serve her well.
Patrick Gale, a gifted writer, portrayed a longing within a character that I felt completely drawn into Charles’ world, his experiences of war and the landscape were lush, serious, and somehow still beautiful.
I felt transported to Cornwall, to the ships and to Gibraltar. I also became very interested in the man Charles Causley, and have borrowed his poetry from work, accessed scholarly articles and joined the Trust for email updates. I’ve never really shown an interest in poetry, but this man, and his relationships, I found quite fascinating. I’m pleased dad recommended this one, and as a reader who normally shies away from this genre, I’m so glad I pushed my boundaries. After all, this is how we learn.
She hugged Laura in parting, as her own sisters did, like a sister in a book.
And once Charlie died she and Charles became all and all to each other… but it seemed to her that any grown man who needed nudging, who couldn’t shift for himself, was likely to prove just another person to tend and mend..
Life, Charles was coming to see, rarely offered her pleasures unmixed. The delicious pudding would be preceded by tubey pig’s liver, the history lesson followed by a maths test, blackberries had savage thorns and Christmas carols were full of stabby little reminders of the horrors of Good Friday.
He put his glasses back on as he walked away towards the shoreline. When he wore them he felt the glasses were all people saw and not the awkward boy behind them.
Charles saw two world wars, his life experience took him from an introspective childhood, a boy who loved the academic side, who was on the outer. His skill in storytelling and poetry evident from a young lad. He wrote plays, directing and playing the piano; he gave much happiness in very hard times.
His mother Laura, extremely protective, was a hard-working woman who lost her husband from effects of the first world war. She was Charles’ most fierce protector and loved him dearly. Charles ending up in coding, a new position, but his travels were far from smooth as he suffered terribly from sea sickness. His demeanour never meant he would take on physically challenging roles, but the position demanded skill and hard work.
The descriptions of the harshness of war, and the despair and general layout was done so well, as was his relationships and reserved nature. Fiercely private, we saw how Laura must stay back to ensure he was not pushed too much as this would not serve her well.
Patrick Gale, a gifted writer, portrayed a longing within a character that I felt completely drawn into Charles’ world, his experiences of war and the landscape were lush, serious, and somehow still beautiful.
I felt transported to Cornwall, to the ships and to Gibraltar. I also became very interested in the man Charles Causley, and have borrowed his poetry from work, accessed scholarly articles and joined the Trust for email updates. I’ve never really shown an interest in poetry, but this man, and his relationships, I found quite fascinating. I’m pleased dad recommended this one, and as a reader who normally shies away from this genre, I’m so glad I pushed my boundaries. After all, this is how we learn.
She hugged Laura in parting, as her own sisters did, like a sister in a book.
And once Charlie died she and Charles became all and all to each other… but it seemed to her that any grown man who needed nudging, who couldn’t shift for himself, was likely to prove just another person to tend and mend..
Life, Charles was coming to see, rarely offered her pleasures unmixed. The delicious pudding would be preceded by tubey pig’s liver, the history lesson followed by a maths test, blackberries had savage thorns and Christmas carols were full of stabby little reminders of the horrors of Good Friday.
He put his glasses back on as he walked away towards the shoreline. When he wore them he felt the glasses were all people saw and not the awkward boy behind them.
October 21, 2021
Mothers Boy is a story of love and war, and class and poverty. It's a story of division and unity, of unbelonging and uncertainty. The characters are so real and so complete, from the minute you meet them, they will settle in your mind as though they were always meant to be there. There is incredible depth to this story, but even the most complex emotions are written about with such ease and clarity, there were times I needed to stop reading for a moment, because the words I had been given were just so perfect. One scene particularly was (literally) a hand to mouth moment and (10 mins before my Ocado delivery) made me sob so much, David in the Plum Van must have thought I was quite insane.
I'm sorry to rave about a book which isn't out until March, but the v best advice I can give you is to pre-order it now, because it will be the most incredible gift to your future self.
Out of all the books you've ever read, I'll bet there's a handful that rise above the others, stories you'll remember forever. This is one of those stories. Truly a forever book.
I'm sorry to rave about a book which isn't out until March, but the v best advice I can give you is to pre-order it now, because it will be the most incredible gift to your future self.
Out of all the books you've ever read, I'll bet there's a handful that rise above the others, stories you'll remember forever. This is one of those stories. Truly a forever book.
April 10, 2022
“The poem was a piece of code, he realised. It didn’t expose him directly, as writing a story or essay might, not like writing anything in the first person singular, but it locked his thoughts and feelings safely in a place where only those granted the key would ever access them.”
Mother’s Boy is the seventeenth novel by British author, Patrick Gale. Regardless of her less-than idyllic childhood, and despite her superior in service to the Frasers warning her of the pitfalls of marriage, all Laura Bartlett really wants is to be a mother. When, as England heads into war, she meets handsome Charlie Causley, whose plans for running a guesthouse might not exactly thrill her, she accepts his marriage proposal without delay.
Charlie enlists and goes off to fight, but they take advantage of his every leave, as short and far apart as they are. By the time Charlie is invalided out with mustard gas damage to his lungs, they have a baby boy, named Charles Stanley Causley, after his father and Laura’s recently-lost, much-beloved younger brother. Unlike other fathers who go out to work, Charles gets to spend lots of time with his, due to something mentioned only in whispers: TB. But only for a few years…
Just like her widowed mother did, Laura works hard as a laundress to maintain her independence, to keep herself and Charles housed, fed and clothed. She knows he has to make his way in the world and, working class she may be, but Laura is fiercely determined to gain every possible educational advantage for her beloved boy, who is so very aware and reveals an early love of words and music.
She understood: “He would never be like his cousins. She had to accept and embrace that. He would always be different, and less trouble in some ways and far more of a worry in others. He would probably never be like everyone else, never be normal, and the butcher’s boy would probably not be the last to be maddened by his brilliance.”
“She had hoped for a clever, special boy and he had grown into a clever, special man, which meant he could be prickly and difficult and knew exactly how best to wound her with his sharp tongue. If he had been ordinary, what Miss Bracewell called ‘low wattage’, he’d have been married by now, and lost to her that way, and probably risking his health in the iron foundry, sawmill or tanneries.”
After two office jobs, and with the country again at war, Charles enlists in the Navy as a coder, a life that will entail training, a lot of seasickness, fleeting episodes of clandestine love, and decoding or coding under tremendous pressure while lines of poetry insist on running through his head.
Meanwhile, Laura’s life consists of hard work, taking in evacuees, rare and short Intervals with her son on his infrequent and unpredictable leaves, encounters with black American GIs and later, German POWs, and waiting, endless waiting for word. And hoping he has the luck of “… those who felt they had been stroked by the black wingtip but spared the talons.”
Patrick Gale takes the known facts of cherished Cornwall poet and playwright, Charles Causley and, with richly imagined detail and gorgeous prose, brings this intensely private man to vivid life. Causley’s beloved mother, Laura, too is depicted as a woman of depth and strength.
Gale’s descriptive prose is so beautiful and evocative, it’s hard to limit the quotes; of Causley’s earliest memory: “As an old man famous for his sensitivity, discretion, wit and discipline, he will secretly inspect this memory at intervals and do so with professional envy. The baby in his cot may be quite passive and vulnerable to the whims of others, but he is also quite safe and will never again be so receptive; he is all ear, all eye, no judgement, no defensive irony.”
Once again, an utterly superb read.
Mother’s Boy is the seventeenth novel by British author, Patrick Gale. Regardless of her less-than idyllic childhood, and despite her superior in service to the Frasers warning her of the pitfalls of marriage, all Laura Bartlett really wants is to be a mother. When, as England heads into war, she meets handsome Charlie Causley, whose plans for running a guesthouse might not exactly thrill her, she accepts his marriage proposal without delay.
Charlie enlists and goes off to fight, but they take advantage of his every leave, as short and far apart as they are. By the time Charlie is invalided out with mustard gas damage to his lungs, they have a baby boy, named Charles Stanley Causley, after his father and Laura’s recently-lost, much-beloved younger brother. Unlike other fathers who go out to work, Charles gets to spend lots of time with his, due to something mentioned only in whispers: TB. But only for a few years…
Just like her widowed mother did, Laura works hard as a laundress to maintain her independence, to keep herself and Charles housed, fed and clothed. She knows he has to make his way in the world and, working class she may be, but Laura is fiercely determined to gain every possible educational advantage for her beloved boy, who is so very aware and reveals an early love of words and music.
She understood: “He would never be like his cousins. She had to accept and embrace that. He would always be different, and less trouble in some ways and far more of a worry in others. He would probably never be like everyone else, never be normal, and the butcher’s boy would probably not be the last to be maddened by his brilliance.”
“She had hoped for a clever, special boy and he had grown into a clever, special man, which meant he could be prickly and difficult and knew exactly how best to wound her with his sharp tongue. If he had been ordinary, what Miss Bracewell called ‘low wattage’, he’d have been married by now, and lost to her that way, and probably risking his health in the iron foundry, sawmill or tanneries.”
After two office jobs, and with the country again at war, Charles enlists in the Navy as a coder, a life that will entail training, a lot of seasickness, fleeting episodes of clandestine love, and decoding or coding under tremendous pressure while lines of poetry insist on running through his head.
Meanwhile, Laura’s life consists of hard work, taking in evacuees, rare and short Intervals with her son on his infrequent and unpredictable leaves, encounters with black American GIs and later, German POWs, and waiting, endless waiting for word. And hoping he has the luck of “… those who felt they had been stroked by the black wingtip but spared the talons.”
Patrick Gale takes the known facts of cherished Cornwall poet and playwright, Charles Causley and, with richly imagined detail and gorgeous prose, brings this intensely private man to vivid life. Causley’s beloved mother, Laura, too is depicted as a woman of depth and strength.
Gale’s descriptive prose is so beautiful and evocative, it’s hard to limit the quotes; of Causley’s earliest memory: “As an old man famous for his sensitivity, discretion, wit and discipline, he will secretly inspect this memory at intervals and do so with professional envy. The baby in his cot may be quite passive and vulnerable to the whims of others, but he is also quite safe and will never again be so receptive; he is all ear, all eye, no judgement, no defensive irony.”
Once again, an utterly superb read.
January 7, 2023
What a wonderful read, beautifully written with characters you are sad to see depart from the story.
The intertwined lives of Laura and her son Charles, that is filled with family, friends, and the pets they love :)
Tragic and heartbreaking but equally filled with laugh out loud moments.
The intertwined lives of Laura and her son Charles, that is filled with family, friends, and the pets they love :)
Tragic and heartbreaking but equally filled with laugh out loud moments.
September 1, 2022
I spotted this on the “Popular books” shelf at my local library, and remembered reading and enjoying a couple of Gale’s earlier books. The blurb on the back cover was appealing – a Cornish story set before and during the Second World War, with a hard working widowed mother raising her son, and the hint of forbidden love as a bonus.
I’d never heard of the poet Charles Causley so had no idea this was loosely based on his life.
I enjoyed the book, but felt it was made up of anecdotes, rather than being a fully fledged story. I kept waiting for something important to happen. It was disappointing, with an unsatisfactory ending. After reading the Author’s Note at the conclusion of the book, I realised the resolution I’d been missing couldn’t happen, as it was based on a real person, and sometimes life stories don’t end in the way I’d been hoping. Perhaps it might have been a good idea to mention somewhere on the cover that this was based on the life of an actual British poet.
I’d never heard of the poet Charles Causley so had no idea this was loosely based on his life.
I enjoyed the book, but felt it was made up of anecdotes, rather than being a fully fledged story. I kept waiting for something important to happen. It was disappointing, with an unsatisfactory ending. After reading the Author’s Note at the conclusion of the book, I realised the resolution I’d been missing couldn’t happen, as it was based on a real person, and sometimes life stories don’t end in the way I’d been hoping. Perhaps it might have been a good idea to mention somewhere on the cover that this was based on the life of an actual British poet.
April 14, 2022
Setting: Devon & Cornwall, UK; 1914-1948. This book is a fictionalised account of the life of poet Charles Causley and his mother, Laura, tracing his life from childhood in Teignmouth, Devon and Launceston, Cornwall through his wartime experiences as a coder in the Navy during World War Two to his life living with his mother after the war as he develops his career as a poet. In a number of different postings, Charles has homosexual relationships with a fellow officer although these are tastefully described and not especially critical to the intriguing story of Charles and his mother....
As I have come to expect from the author, this was a well-written story with great characters which I thoroughly enjoyed - 9/10.
As I have come to expect from the author, this was a well-written story with great characters which I thoroughly enjoyed - 9/10.
March 8, 2022
‘Based around the known facts of the boyhood and youth of the great Cornish poet, Charles Causley
and the life of the mother who raised him singlehandedly.’
Mother’s Boy by Patrick Gale was just published March 1st with Tinder Press. Described as ‘a superb historical novel of Cornwall, class, desire and two world wars’, it is Patrick Gale’s seventeenth novel and his first fully historical one since A Place Called Winter.
To many, including myself, the name Charles Causley may not be familiar but ‘as a patron of the Charles Causley Trust Patrick Gale was already passionate about Causley’s poems and wanting to get them read by a wider audience…it was only when he started to look more closely into the poet’s life that he hit on the idea of basing a novel on him.’ Charles Causley was born August 24th 1917 in the town of Launceston in Cornwall. His mother, Laura and father, Charlie had had a whirlwind relationship during a time when they were both servants to wealthy households. Following their marriage, Charlie enlisted and Laura was left at home taking in laundry, like her mother before her, to help keep food on the table. Laura longed for a baby and, on one of Charlie’s trips home, their son Charles was conceived. Following his birth, Laura doted on him and, until Charlie came back from the war, it was just the two of them. Laura relished this time alone with her son.
‘Nothing had prepared Laura for the deep comfort and satisfaction motherhood had brought her….the pleasure she took in Charles was so intense that she felt it almost indecent, a thing she needed to hide. He cried occasionally, of course, usually when she left him, but most of the time he just gurgled to himself and watched her…and she talked to him, naturally, incessantly, glad of his company’
After the war, Charlie came back a different man, both physically and emotionally. His lungs were very badly damaged in the trenches and his mind was altered by the horrors he witnessed. Poorly, his condition was something that young Charles just accepted. He knew his father was not like others and he relished any time they had together. But Charlie eventually succumbed to his illness when young Charles was seven years old, leaving Laura and himself even stronger as a unit, facing the challenges and struggles ahead together.
Laura knew that Charles was quite a unique child, different to other boys, with no interest in sport. He was a bookish young lad, with a curiosity and an openness that to some made him a target of bullying. Leaving school at fifteen years of age, his working career began. Charles was never that enamoured by office work and, when WW2 broke out, like his father before him, he enlisted. He joined the navy and was a coder, although his seasickness meant that he spent much time on Gibraltar. The freedom these years provided to Charles gave him insights into life beyond the confines of small town living but also allowed him to express himself and his desires and, in many ways, although a traumatic time in his life, it was a journey of self-discovery.
Mother’s Boy is as much a tribute to Charles Causley as it is to Laura, his mother. Her strength to carry on under the most difficult circumstances and her love for her son was clearly evident in every decision she made. At times, frustrated by Charles’ need for privacy as he got older, she felt she was losing him but she was never sure what to. He returned from the war a changed man, moving back into the family home and becoming a teacher. Over the years his work was recognised and published and he was the host of BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please for quite a few years. He never left Launceston, except to travel during school holidays and he died in 2003.
Patrick Gale researched the life of Charles Causley and soon became immersed in the life of both mother and son. He assembled as much fact as possible and then wrapped his story around it, keeping as close to the truth as he could.
“He seemed to have laid out the clues in plain sight, like a tantalising breadcrumb trail for me to follow. Whenever he was asked why he never wrote his memoir he would always reply that it was all in the poems so I began to reread the poems more clearly and found one in particular, Angel Hill, which reads like a haunting confession. And then there was his training as one of the first generation of naval coders which handed me the perfect metaphor for a man hiding himself in layers of secrecy as well as the perfect training for him to receive as a poet.”
– Patrick Gale
Mother’s Boy is a beautifully researched tribute to a quiet man, a gentle man, a man whose work, in later years, resonated for its simplicity and its ability to depict Cornish life and culture. Patrick Gale explores the mother-son relationship up to the late 1940s. He describes it in the Author’s Note as “a loose retelling of the early life of the Cornish Poet Charles Causley and his mother.”
I have a passion for historical fiction for many reasons but one in particular, which is that I always stumble upon a person or an event that I knew very little about. Opening my eyes and my mind to our past allows me to see where we are now as a society and how life has changed over the course of many years. Some changes are slower than others and some are ones that may not bring goodwill to mankind but it is fascinating to read about other people and their experiences during times gone by.
Mother’s Boy is a simple story beautifully told. Dignified in its portrayal of Charles Causley, Patrick Gale transports the reader back to those challenging years of the 20th century, a time that saw incomprehensive damage inflicted by two world wars. A beguiling piece of writing, Mother’s Boy is an insightful and engaging tale, one that radiates authenticity and confidence in its storytelling.
“I have honoured most of the established facts and included plenty of others I stumbled on in my research but I’d want nobody to make the mistake this for a scholarly biography of a great man, not least because I have shamelessly used fiction and conjecture to fill the gaps in stories that history and discretion had left blank”
– Patrick Gale
and the life of the mother who raised him singlehandedly.’
Mother’s Boy by Patrick Gale was just published March 1st with Tinder Press. Described as ‘a superb historical novel of Cornwall, class, desire and two world wars’, it is Patrick Gale’s seventeenth novel and his first fully historical one since A Place Called Winter.
To many, including myself, the name Charles Causley may not be familiar but ‘as a patron of the Charles Causley Trust Patrick Gale was already passionate about Causley’s poems and wanting to get them read by a wider audience…it was only when he started to look more closely into the poet’s life that he hit on the idea of basing a novel on him.’ Charles Causley was born August 24th 1917 in the town of Launceston in Cornwall. His mother, Laura and father, Charlie had had a whirlwind relationship during a time when they were both servants to wealthy households. Following their marriage, Charlie enlisted and Laura was left at home taking in laundry, like her mother before her, to help keep food on the table. Laura longed for a baby and, on one of Charlie’s trips home, their son Charles was conceived. Following his birth, Laura doted on him and, until Charlie came back from the war, it was just the two of them. Laura relished this time alone with her son.
‘Nothing had prepared Laura for the deep comfort and satisfaction motherhood had brought her….the pleasure she took in Charles was so intense that she felt it almost indecent, a thing she needed to hide. He cried occasionally, of course, usually when she left him, but most of the time he just gurgled to himself and watched her…and she talked to him, naturally, incessantly, glad of his company’
After the war, Charlie came back a different man, both physically and emotionally. His lungs were very badly damaged in the trenches and his mind was altered by the horrors he witnessed. Poorly, his condition was something that young Charles just accepted. He knew his father was not like others and he relished any time they had together. But Charlie eventually succumbed to his illness when young Charles was seven years old, leaving Laura and himself even stronger as a unit, facing the challenges and struggles ahead together.
Laura knew that Charles was quite a unique child, different to other boys, with no interest in sport. He was a bookish young lad, with a curiosity and an openness that to some made him a target of bullying. Leaving school at fifteen years of age, his working career began. Charles was never that enamoured by office work and, when WW2 broke out, like his father before him, he enlisted. He joined the navy and was a coder, although his seasickness meant that he spent much time on Gibraltar. The freedom these years provided to Charles gave him insights into life beyond the confines of small town living but also allowed him to express himself and his desires and, in many ways, although a traumatic time in his life, it was a journey of self-discovery.
Mother’s Boy is as much a tribute to Charles Causley as it is to Laura, his mother. Her strength to carry on under the most difficult circumstances and her love for her son was clearly evident in every decision she made. At times, frustrated by Charles’ need for privacy as he got older, she felt she was losing him but she was never sure what to. He returned from the war a changed man, moving back into the family home and becoming a teacher. Over the years his work was recognised and published and he was the host of BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please for quite a few years. He never left Launceston, except to travel during school holidays and he died in 2003.
Patrick Gale researched the life of Charles Causley and soon became immersed in the life of both mother and son. He assembled as much fact as possible and then wrapped his story around it, keeping as close to the truth as he could.
“He seemed to have laid out the clues in plain sight, like a tantalising breadcrumb trail for me to follow. Whenever he was asked why he never wrote his memoir he would always reply that it was all in the poems so I began to reread the poems more clearly and found one in particular, Angel Hill, which reads like a haunting confession. And then there was his training as one of the first generation of naval coders which handed me the perfect metaphor for a man hiding himself in layers of secrecy as well as the perfect training for him to receive as a poet.”
– Patrick Gale
Mother’s Boy is a beautifully researched tribute to a quiet man, a gentle man, a man whose work, in later years, resonated for its simplicity and its ability to depict Cornish life and culture. Patrick Gale explores the mother-son relationship up to the late 1940s. He describes it in the Author’s Note as “a loose retelling of the early life of the Cornish Poet Charles Causley and his mother.”
I have a passion for historical fiction for many reasons but one in particular, which is that I always stumble upon a person or an event that I knew very little about. Opening my eyes and my mind to our past allows me to see where we are now as a society and how life has changed over the course of many years. Some changes are slower than others and some are ones that may not bring goodwill to mankind but it is fascinating to read about other people and their experiences during times gone by.
Mother’s Boy is a simple story beautifully told. Dignified in its portrayal of Charles Causley, Patrick Gale transports the reader back to those challenging years of the 20th century, a time that saw incomprehensive damage inflicted by two world wars. A beguiling piece of writing, Mother’s Boy is an insightful and engaging tale, one that radiates authenticity and confidence in its storytelling.
“I have honoured most of the established facts and included plenty of others I stumbled on in my research but I’d want nobody to make the mistake this for a scholarly biography of a great man, not least because I have shamelessly used fiction and conjecture to fill the gaps in stories that history and discretion had left blank”
– Patrick Gale
September 14, 2022
“The poem was a piece of code, he realised. It didn’t expose him directly, as writing a story or essay might, not like writing anything in the first person singular, but it locked his thoughts and feelings safely in a place where only those granted the key would ever access them.”
‘A very loose retelling of the early life of the Cornish poet Charles Causley’ schrijft Patrick Gale in zijn nawoord. Hij beschrijft de jeugdjaren van Causley (tijdgenoot van Ted Hughes en Philip Larkin). Het verhaal begint in 1914 en eindigt in 1948 als hij 30 jaar oud is (hij is overleden in 2003). De dichter in wording zou je kunnen zeggen. Gale is een echte verhalenverteller. Het leest dan ook als een ouderwets goed boek. De sfeer van de kleine dorpen in Cornwall. Met name de tijd gedurende WO2 is heel goed getroffen. Niet alleen Charles die dienst moet doen bij de marine als codeur. Maar ook de besognes aan het thuisfront. De evacuees uit London, de stationering van de Amerikanen in Engeland in de maanden voor D-Day. En uiteindelijk ook de Duitse en Italiaanse krijgsgevangenen die te werk worden gesteld. Patrick Gale heeft er voor gekozen om ook een hoofdrol weg te leggen voor Laura de moeder van Charles. En dat pakt heel goed uit. Een mooie balans tussen moeder en zoon. Ze zouden samen blijven wonen tot haar dood in 1971.
Cyprus Well, het huis van Causley, in Cornwall is nu een museum. Al zijn dagboeken en documenten kun je inzien in Exeter University. Op de vraag waarom hij nooit zijn memoires heeft geschreven antwoordde Causley altijd:
“It’s all-in the poems”
Een belangrijke inspiratiebron voor dit boek was het gedicht Angel Hill. En staat in zijn geheel afgedrukt in Mother’s boy. Maar dat moet je zelf lezen als je het boek uit hebt! Een bekend (kinder)gedicht van hem is I am the song.
I am the song that sings the bird.
I am the leaf that grows the land.
I am the tide that moves the moon.
I am the stream that halts the sand.
I am the cloud that drives the storm.
I am the earth that lights the sun.
I am the fire that strikes the stone.
I am the clay that shapes the hand.
I am the word that speaks the man.
‘A very loose retelling of the early life of the Cornish poet Charles Causley’ schrijft Patrick Gale in zijn nawoord. Hij beschrijft de jeugdjaren van Causley (tijdgenoot van Ted Hughes en Philip Larkin). Het verhaal begint in 1914 en eindigt in 1948 als hij 30 jaar oud is (hij is overleden in 2003). De dichter in wording zou je kunnen zeggen. Gale is een echte verhalenverteller. Het leest dan ook als een ouderwets goed boek. De sfeer van de kleine dorpen in Cornwall. Met name de tijd gedurende WO2 is heel goed getroffen. Niet alleen Charles die dienst moet doen bij de marine als codeur. Maar ook de besognes aan het thuisfront. De evacuees uit London, de stationering van de Amerikanen in Engeland in de maanden voor D-Day. En uiteindelijk ook de Duitse en Italiaanse krijgsgevangenen die te werk worden gesteld. Patrick Gale heeft er voor gekozen om ook een hoofdrol weg te leggen voor Laura de moeder van Charles. En dat pakt heel goed uit. Een mooie balans tussen moeder en zoon. Ze zouden samen blijven wonen tot haar dood in 1971.
Cyprus Well, het huis van Causley, in Cornwall is nu een museum. Al zijn dagboeken en documenten kun je inzien in Exeter University. Op de vraag waarom hij nooit zijn memoires heeft geschreven antwoordde Causley altijd:
“It’s all-in the poems”
Een belangrijke inspiratiebron voor dit boek was het gedicht Angel Hill. En staat in zijn geheel afgedrukt in Mother’s boy. Maar dat moet je zelf lezen als je het boek uit hebt! Een bekend (kinder)gedicht van hem is I am the song.
I am the song that sings the bird.
I am the leaf that grows the land.
I am the tide that moves the moon.
I am the stream that halts the sand.
I am the cloud that drives the storm.
I am the earth that lights the sun.
I am the fire that strikes the stone.
I am the clay that shapes the hand.
I am the word that speaks the man.
November 20, 2024
Set between 1914 and 1948, Mothers Boy is a fictional / biographical account of the early life of poet Charles Causley and his mother Laura. More of a series of linier moments than a novel, and perhaps lacks the emotional punch of say, A Place Called Winter. it is however, really really lovely. I got a bit emotional at the end, not sure why because it isn’t sad, in fact, quite the opposite.
December 1, 2024
Mother's Boy is a "very loose retelling" of the life of Charles Causley, who was a significant poet and Christian writer. The novel concentrates on the life with his mother, Laura Causley. But a slow start is guaranteed because Patrick Gale takes fifty-five pages to get Charles born. In other words a fair part of the novel is not about Charles and Laura. Additional frustration is created by the split structure of the novel: Laura is in Launceston and Charles (for much of his time) is away at sea. There are some heavy sentences indeed: Laura "was quite unprepared for the flushes of pleasure the baby to gave her as he fed, not unlike the pleasure brought on in bed by his father." But Sons and Lovers this is not. In fact the novel is banal and generic. The war begins. People are killed. Evacuees arrive. American soldiers visit Launceston. German POWs appear. Charles endures the sea and comes home as a Petty Officer, having transformed an innocent boy into an experienced man.
The most problematic aspect of Mother's Boy, though, is Gale's wish to "out" Charles Causley. In the only biography on Causley that exists, All Cornwall Thunders at My Door. Laurence Green goes out of his way to assure the reader that there was no taint of homosexuality in Causley and no evidence for such exists. Gale believes that he has such evidence -- as mentioned in An Author's Note --but he offers not a scrap of evidence other than the text of "Angel Hill", which he fails to read in detail. There are three noticeable homosexual episodes in Mother's Boy. In the first of these, Charles and his young friend Ginger (do note the crass symbolism) visit a swimming pool. Charles watches knowingly as Ginger disappears into the lavatories with a sailor. The second occurrence is a bed scene between Charles and another sailor. And the third is a public school boy fumble with a fellow naval course leader -- nothing more than might have happened at Marlborough says the narrator. This perversion of facts is deeply uncomfortable. And "very loose" seems to mean: wilful fabrication.
Ultimately, Mother's Boy falls between two stools. It is neither fine biography nor exceptional fiction. And, as it ends before Causley ever became a poet, it is a minor study that could have been about anyone. The novel is a travesty along the lines of A New Life: one in which history can be bent to tell a false story.
The most problematic aspect of Mother's Boy, though, is Gale's wish to "out" Charles Causley. In the only biography on Causley that exists, All Cornwall Thunders at My Door. Laurence Green goes out of his way to assure the reader that there was no taint of homosexuality in Causley and no evidence for such exists. Gale believes that he has such evidence -- as mentioned in An Author's Note --but he offers not a scrap of evidence other than the text of "Angel Hill", which he fails to read in detail. There are three noticeable homosexual episodes in Mother's Boy. In the first of these, Charles and his young friend Ginger (do note the crass symbolism) visit a swimming pool. Charles watches knowingly as Ginger disappears into the lavatories with a sailor. The second occurrence is a bed scene between Charles and another sailor. And the third is a public school boy fumble with a fellow naval course leader -- nothing more than might have happened at Marlborough says the narrator. This perversion of facts is deeply uncomfortable. And "very loose" seems to mean: wilful fabrication.
Ultimately, Mother's Boy falls between two stools. It is neither fine biography nor exceptional fiction. And, as it ends before Causley ever became a poet, it is a minor study that could have been about anyone. The novel is a travesty along the lines of A New Life: one in which history can be bent to tell a false story.
January 22, 2024
Not going to set the world of fire but an enjoyable read.
January 31, 2024
After two chapters you get into the story of Charles and his mother Laura. I only found out at the end it's based loosely on the story of Cornish poet Charles Causley. After looking into him I realised that I knew one of his poems which was in a childhood book I have! It's a charming lolling story set over the pre war and into WW2. It follows both Charles and his mother for over 30+ years and their relationship. It's not a story which goes anywhere it's the joy of the content and small things. There's no big crescendo, but I enjoyed it.
August 9, 2023
What a lovely, lovely, lovely novel. I was at least two-thirds of the way through before I figured out that Charles Causley was a real person; somehow I had never heard of him or read any of his poems. I have read a few now, and I will read more. This fictionalized version of his life begins with the meeting between his parents in 1913 and ends with him and his mother in their home in Launceston a few years after the second world war. It's a gentle book--he seems to have been a gentle man. But there's a core of unsentimental steeliness to the book that really appealed to me, and that same quality is there in the few poems of his I've read so far.
November 30, 2022
A lovely and absorbing novel.
April 1, 2022
(Rounded up from 4.75)
I was introduced to Patrick Gale a couple of years ago by one of the most influential and inspiring teachers I've ever had, who wrote to me and sent 'Take Nothing With You', thinking I might like it. It then inspired me to start reading for pleasure properly again in 2019, which I hadn't done at least throughout my degree in the years beforehand. So I owe Gale (and that teacher) a heck of a lot.
I'm sort of surprised, then, that this is only the second book of his that I've read. I do own and plan to read more, but as this has just been released, I thought I'd get with the hype. I knew this was going to be a fictionalised account of the life and experiences of the poet Charles Causley (whom I'd never heard of before) before and during the war, and about his relationship with his mother. What I am now realising is that Gale always writes women with as much depth and influence as his male characters - something which shouldn't be - but is - refreshing. The result here is a novel with a huge span both in its timeline and focus - but it really works.
The earlier part of the book especially did seem quite episodic at first, sticking with a character for a good-sized chapter at a certain point in their life (and, necessarily, interacting with the characters they would have done at that stage) and then moving on for the next chapter. In the whole novel, this makes perfect sense as it gives just the right amount of context to our two main characters' development. At the time, sometimes I felt like I'd liked to have stayed with that scenario for a little longer. But I think that's just a sign of how good the writing is, more than anything, as the chapters we get at certain periods are more than enough.
Speaking of the writing, I recently watched an interview with the author in which he said that if he writes anything he's particularly proud of, he immediately gets rid of it because he doesn't want the reader to feel they're been shown-off to and to remember they're reading a book, he just wants them to get lost in the world of the story. And that's exactly what happened to me with this book. It's so quietly clever and absorbing that only on reflection (as I didn't feel the necessity at the time of reading) do I appreciate how well crafted it is. The way Gale marries the known facts about Causley's (very) private life with an interesting and bittersweet narrative is seamless. And, at the end in the Author's Note, one of Causley's more haunting poems is quoted - and I was mesmerised by how Gale wrote a novel which made that poem seem like the perfect ending while still sensitively, generously and intelligently honouring the facts and people which inspired it.
The psychology of the characters is also unexpectedly deep - by the end you realise you know them inside-out and can see the reasoning for all of their behaviour. They well and truly did come to life, and Gale's love for the source material not only shone through but was also an added layer of delight to the experience of reading the book. I feel like this is going to be a book that sits in the mind over a lifetime, that I'll always be grateful for and remember.
I was introduced to Patrick Gale a couple of years ago by one of the most influential and inspiring teachers I've ever had, who wrote to me and sent 'Take Nothing With You', thinking I might like it. It then inspired me to start reading for pleasure properly again in 2019, which I hadn't done at least throughout my degree in the years beforehand. So I owe Gale (and that teacher) a heck of a lot.
I'm sort of surprised, then, that this is only the second book of his that I've read. I do own and plan to read more, but as this has just been released, I thought I'd get with the hype. I knew this was going to be a fictionalised account of the life and experiences of the poet Charles Causley (whom I'd never heard of before) before and during the war, and about his relationship with his mother. What I am now realising is that Gale always writes women with as much depth and influence as his male characters - something which shouldn't be - but is - refreshing. The result here is a novel with a huge span both in its timeline and focus - but it really works.
The earlier part of the book especially did seem quite episodic at first, sticking with a character for a good-sized chapter at a certain point in their life (and, necessarily, interacting with the characters they would have done at that stage) and then moving on for the next chapter. In the whole novel, this makes perfect sense as it gives just the right amount of context to our two main characters' development. At the time, sometimes I felt like I'd liked to have stayed with that scenario for a little longer. But I think that's just a sign of how good the writing is, more than anything, as the chapters we get at certain periods are more than enough.
Speaking of the writing, I recently watched an interview with the author in which he said that if he writes anything he's particularly proud of, he immediately gets rid of it because he doesn't want the reader to feel they're been shown-off to and to remember they're reading a book, he just wants them to get lost in the world of the story. And that's exactly what happened to me with this book. It's so quietly clever and absorbing that only on reflection (as I didn't feel the necessity at the time of reading) do I appreciate how well crafted it is. The way Gale marries the known facts about Causley's (very) private life with an interesting and bittersweet narrative is seamless. And, at the end in the Author's Note, one of Causley's more haunting poems is quoted - and I was mesmerised by how Gale wrote a novel which made that poem seem like the perfect ending while still sensitively, generously and intelligently honouring the facts and people which inspired it.
The psychology of the characters is also unexpectedly deep - by the end you realise you know them inside-out and can see the reasoning for all of their behaviour. They well and truly did come to life, and Gale's love for the source material not only shone through but was also an added layer of delight to the experience of reading the book. I feel like this is going to be a book that sits in the mind over a lifetime, that I'll always be grateful for and remember.
July 3, 2022
I think Gale is a great writer and I very much enjoyed this, his latest. The novel is based on the life of the Cornish poet, Charles Causley and his mother, Laura. It spans more than half a century, showing the impact of World War 1 (in which Charles’ father is gassed) and World War 2 in which Charles serves as a coder in the Navy.
Meanwhile Laura remains in the Cornish town of Launceston. She started life as a domestic servant but after her husband is incapacitated because of his war service she joins her mother as a laundry woman. Laura is strong, hard working and a loving mother. Through her character Gale dignifies women who take on physical work to support their families.
Gale’s other theme is Causley’s repressed homosexuality. While this is historically controversial, Gale bases his interpretation on Causley’s journals and poetry and his own knowledge of love between men. It is sensitively and convincingly done. I found Mother’s Boy a rich, complex and heart warming novel.
Meanwhile Laura remains in the Cornish town of Launceston. She started life as a domestic servant but after her husband is incapacitated because of his war service she joins her mother as a laundry woman. Laura is strong, hard working and a loving mother. Through her character Gale dignifies women who take on physical work to support their families.
Gale’s other theme is Causley’s repressed homosexuality. While this is historically controversial, Gale bases his interpretation on Causley’s journals and poetry and his own knowledge of love between men. It is sensitively and convincingly done. I found Mother’s Boy a rich, complex and heart warming novel.
December 27, 2021
I really enjoyed the scope and story, but by adding in other layers to express just how accepting of anyone his mother was, it removed some of the nuance and took me out of the world.
September 5, 2025
It was a complete coincidence that I should be listening to Mother’s Boy immediately after Moonglow as both books reflected in a significant part life in the forces during WW2. Thanks to Colin’s review I was made aware that Patrick Gale wrote this as a fictionalised memoir of the Cornish Poet, Charles Causley, who in fact had a very distinguished career as a much published poet and could count upon Siegfried Sassoon and Ted Hughes as friends.
The book itself recounts Charles’ upbringing in Launceton, Cornwall and his widowed mother’s struggles to bring in enough money as a laundress, his father having died of wounds as a result of fighting in WW1. The picture painted is of a clever but modest boy devoted to his mother who gets called up into the Navy as a coder: there are evocative pieces describing the military fortress on Gibraltar and also sending relief supplies to war torn Malta under a blockade; the acute symptoms of seasickness whilst trying to do your job; the terrifying experience of coming under hostile enemy fire in a ship at sea. Back home in England there are superb portraits of the evacuees lovingly cared for by his mother; the presence of American GIs and their abhorrent racial segregation rules; the care shown to foreign prisoners of war sent in gangs to help out on farms and making improvements in the villages like a playground for the children. Charles’ awareness of his sexuality is sensitively explored but not in any way salaciously and is only a small but important facet of this very wide ranging and wonderful account of a life.
Overall a really great read which was made even better by listening to the author narrating an unabridged version himself.
The book itself recounts Charles’ upbringing in Launceton, Cornwall and his widowed mother’s struggles to bring in enough money as a laundress, his father having died of wounds as a result of fighting in WW1. The picture painted is of a clever but modest boy devoted to his mother who gets called up into the Navy as a coder: there are evocative pieces describing the military fortress on Gibraltar and also sending relief supplies to war torn Malta under a blockade; the acute symptoms of seasickness whilst trying to do your job; the terrifying experience of coming under hostile enemy fire in a ship at sea. Back home in England there are superb portraits of the evacuees lovingly cared for by his mother; the presence of American GIs and their abhorrent racial segregation rules; the care shown to foreign prisoners of war sent in gangs to help out on farms and making improvements in the villages like a playground for the children. Charles’ awareness of his sexuality is sensitively explored but not in any way salaciously and is only a small but important facet of this very wide ranging and wonderful account of a life.
Overall a really great read which was made even better by listening to the author narrating an unabridged version himself.
May 30, 2022
Mother's Boy is based on the early life of the Cornish poet Charles Causley. I had never heard of Causley but it doesn't matter if you haven't (although don't miss the author's note at the end which includes the poem that inspired Gale to write the novel). It's very much a novel and Gale has invented quite a few characters and events, although the spine of the story is based on fact.
Charles was born in 1917. His father was away at war and died when Charles was young, so for most of his childhood it was just him and his mother Laura who supported them by working as a laundress. The first half of the book is about him growing up and his burgeoning sense of being homosexual, but where the book really finds its feet is in the second half when he is in the Navy during WW2. The story of Charles's role in the war is the engine that drives this novel and it's terrific. At times we visit Laura back in Cornwall, and though I initially resented these breaks in the narrative, in the end I also found them terrifically moving. There are a couple of characters who get written out at points in the story and these parts almost broke me.
If you enjoyed A Place Called Winter, this is every bit as good. I loved it.
Charles was born in 1917. His father was away at war and died when Charles was young, so for most of his childhood it was just him and his mother Laura who supported them by working as a laundress. The first half of the book is about him growing up and his burgeoning sense of being homosexual, but where the book really finds its feet is in the second half when he is in the Navy during WW2. The story of Charles's role in the war is the engine that drives this novel and it's terrific. At times we visit Laura back in Cornwall, and though I initially resented these breaks in the narrative, in the end I also found them terrifically moving. There are a couple of characters who get written out at points in the story and these parts almost broke me.
If you enjoyed A Place Called Winter, this is every bit as good. I loved it.
May 14, 2024
Brilliant. Patrick Gale writes such fantastic books, his main character is always struggling inside himself and I find myself rooting for him. Highly recommend this book.
September 7, 2022
Being a Patrick Gale super-fan I had high expectations for this one & I’m pleased to report that I was not disappointed! A really moving and beautifully written (& yet cleverly unsentimental) novel based on the life of Cornish poet, Charles Causley.
I really enjoyed following the life of Charles’ mother, Laura, from her early years in service through to her marriage & the birth of young Charles when the book splits into dual narration of the two characters & follows their lives for the following 30 years.
The author’s note was as fascinating as the book- he did a vast amount of research & it really shows in the depth of writing. The story feels completely biographical (though it is in fact fiction, based on fact) & it was fascinating to learn the background of our famous local poet.
If you are Cornish or you live in Cornwall it will give you added layers of pleasure; some of the ‘localisms’ had me laughing out loud.
Awesome read. My favourite book so far this year & I think, Patrick Gale’s best to date.
I really enjoyed following the life of Charles’ mother, Laura, from her early years in service through to her marriage & the birth of young Charles when the book splits into dual narration of the two characters & follows their lives for the following 30 years.
The author’s note was as fascinating as the book- he did a vast amount of research & it really shows in the depth of writing. The story feels completely biographical (though it is in fact fiction, based on fact) & it was fascinating to learn the background of our famous local poet.
If you are Cornish or you live in Cornwall it will give you added layers of pleasure; some of the ‘localisms’ had me laughing out loud.
Awesome read. My favourite book so far this year & I think, Patrick Gale’s best to date.
October 15, 2024
Mother's Boy is Patrick Gale's engaging fictionalized rendering of the early years of the life of poet and playwright Charles Causley. As the title infers, it is also about his mother Laura. "[She] had always hoped for a clever, special boy, and he had grown into a clever, special man [...]". Laura is introduced to the reader as an unassuming easy-going young woman with one dream she's adamant to make reality as soon as possible: hear the patter of tiny feet.
To start us off, Gale paints an honest, detailed and accurate picture of society in the early 1900s as it was in Launceston, an unpretentious town in quiet leafy Cornwall. In particular, Laura's everyday life, first as a housemaid, then a laundress, is the very thing to remind me of what my grandmother used to tell me about her own youth. In fact, the whole book displays a lively historical and social fresco of the UK, from one war to the next.
Moreover if, for whatever reason, let's say failed parents for instance, parental love is unchartered territory to you, then Patrick Gale will give you a true idea of what you have missed out on, what it could have been like under the wing of a doting mother. As for Charles's father, the poor fellow was as loving as his wife, but the horror of the Great War took its toll.
When the Second World War breaks out, Charles volunteers for the Royal Navy. Once in military garb, he sees his new life come as a shocker. The inductee needs time to get the hang of it. The wimpy swot he was at school is now expected to build himself a physique. The nascent poet must learn how to fit in a world that "[seems] to function on over two hundred specialist words of which he [can] confidently use about fifteen". And his friend Joe warns him that fresh recruits "who get it straight off are the ones who've been to prison, or grew up in orphanages". Yet, there is no hint here at an incipient anti-military stance, just the feelings of a misfit on his painful way to becoming a coder on board one of His Majesty's warships, a trailblazing posting, as the job was then a first-timer in the armed forces.
Charles's misgivings mirror his mother's concerns at the same time. Laura is a widow who sees her only child go far from home to war, whilst the Blitz is raging on in earnest. This makes for some moving reading at such a stage in the story.
Aboard a warship, strict discipline is the key to accomplishing the mission: one flub, no lull! This is my own personal version of the old seafaring saying: "A sailor's life is hard, but the sea is harder." There is no bolt-hole to hope for when at sea.
The specifics of life in the Navy are described as if Patrick Gale himself had written the Book of Reference 3, although I am pushing it a little, as he never holds forth. On the contray, he is always seeing things through the eyes of his key character, Charles, whose "old dreams [are] blasted to shreds", for war, of course, has little time, if any, for literature. Not only that but, as a coder, Charles has been sworn to secrecy, and when it comes to secrets, he has a very private one he can't pour his lonely heart out about. So imagine how pent-up emotions and frustration are building up. I can't but deeply feel for him.
The gruesome depiction of all-out modern war at sea, when pandemonium breaks loose in an inferno of burning fuel, shelling, torpedoing, and bombing, make you wonder how bravery and forebearance at full stretch do not eventually cave in, especially when, as is the case with Charles, nothing has got you ready to put up with it. He's still so wet behind the ears! Yet, in such mayhem, Charles, always the perceptive poet, can make out slivers of beauty during the rescuing of an unknown wounded. This shows that no matter what, in the midst of unabated chaos, deep inside, the flickering candle that makes us human after all cannot be snuffed out (chapter VILLETTA 1942). As to whether Charles can get off unscathed in his head, that still remains to be seen.
In the meantime in the UK, following Laura and the evacuees she takes in, we see what turn life takes, now that the Americans are here for keeps. If their sharp-looking uniforms, their funny accents, chewing gum and lots of US dollars are welcome as so many boosts to the morale of the cash-strapped locals, open ethnic discrimination - segregation - within the US military is frowned upon, which I think is rather rich coming from the Brits, who are still at the head of an Empire overseas where native people are not exactly on an equal footing with the colonists, are they? Anyhow, just the same, Laura will soon have a lot to say about segregation, sadly.
The parallel between the situations of the son and the mother reveals much bitter irony. At first glance, you'd think Laura is safer in Launceston in 1942 than Charles on the Mediterranean, swarming with enemy subs. And it's true, to some extent. But actually, it's amazing how fast the American soldiers in Launceston turn themselves into an occupying force, bringing their own set of challenges. A harrowing passage puts me in mind of what Winston Churchill said once: There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them."
In addition to raising awareness of all this, the book is in my eyes a fair tribute to Causley's personality and style. He was a very private person, and I suppose that is why his intimate life is most of the time only hinted at. Gale doesn't speak in hidden terms (nor coded language, which would fit a coder, ha,ha!), he just masters the art of subtlety, and I really like that. Causley's poetic style is widely praised for its simplicity, clarity, and emotional depth. So are his nostalgic and reflective tone, and his strong sense of place and community. In his own way, Patrick Gale uses the same narrative techniques, and that is why Mother's Boy is a very good read, faithful in spirit and letter to its inspiration spurce.
There's this quotation by Siegfried Sassoon in the book: "The interesting thing about the poem for me is that there's always a subtext. The skin of the poem is never what it's really about. A poem is much more than what lies on the page in front of you." Patrick Gale in turn says that "the last pages of good novels and last scenes of good plays invariably left him with a kind of sorrow that they were nearly over, and a childlike frustration at being left outside the story and return to his own life." This is exactly how I feel at the end of Mother's Boy!
To start us off, Gale paints an honest, detailed and accurate picture of society in the early 1900s as it was in Launceston, an unpretentious town in quiet leafy Cornwall. In particular, Laura's everyday life, first as a housemaid, then a laundress, is the very thing to remind me of what my grandmother used to tell me about her own youth. In fact, the whole book displays a lively historical and social fresco of the UK, from one war to the next.
Moreover if, for whatever reason, let's say failed parents for instance, parental love is unchartered territory to you, then Patrick Gale will give you a true idea of what you have missed out on, what it could have been like under the wing of a doting mother. As for Charles's father, the poor fellow was as loving as his wife, but the horror of the Great War took its toll.
When the Second World War breaks out, Charles volunteers for the Royal Navy. Once in military garb, he sees his new life come as a shocker. The inductee needs time to get the hang of it. The wimpy swot he was at school is now expected to build himself a physique. The nascent poet must learn how to fit in a world that "[seems] to function on over two hundred specialist words of which he [can] confidently use about fifteen". And his friend Joe warns him that fresh recruits "who get it straight off are the ones who've been to prison, or grew up in orphanages". Yet, there is no hint here at an incipient anti-military stance, just the feelings of a misfit on his painful way to becoming a coder on board one of His Majesty's warships, a trailblazing posting, as the job was then a first-timer in the armed forces.
Charles's misgivings mirror his mother's concerns at the same time. Laura is a widow who sees her only child go far from home to war, whilst the Blitz is raging on in earnest. This makes for some moving reading at such a stage in the story.
Aboard a warship, strict discipline is the key to accomplishing the mission: one flub, no lull! This is my own personal version of the old seafaring saying: "A sailor's life is hard, but the sea is harder." There is no bolt-hole to hope for when at sea.
The specifics of life in the Navy are described as if Patrick Gale himself had written the Book of Reference 3, although I am pushing it a little, as he never holds forth. On the contray, he is always seeing things through the eyes of his key character, Charles, whose "old dreams [are] blasted to shreds", for war, of course, has little time, if any, for literature. Not only that but, as a coder, Charles has been sworn to secrecy, and when it comes to secrets, he has a very private one he can't pour his lonely heart out about. So imagine how pent-up emotions and frustration are building up. I can't but deeply feel for him.
The gruesome depiction of all-out modern war at sea, when pandemonium breaks loose in an inferno of burning fuel, shelling, torpedoing, and bombing, make you wonder how bravery and forebearance at full stretch do not eventually cave in, especially when, as is the case with Charles, nothing has got you ready to put up with it. He's still so wet behind the ears! Yet, in such mayhem, Charles, always the perceptive poet, can make out slivers of beauty during the rescuing of an unknown wounded. This shows that no matter what, in the midst of unabated chaos, deep inside, the flickering candle that makes us human after all cannot be snuffed out (chapter VILLETTA 1942). As to whether Charles can get off unscathed in his head, that still remains to be seen.
In the meantime in the UK, following Laura and the evacuees she takes in, we see what turn life takes, now that the Americans are here for keeps. If their sharp-looking uniforms, their funny accents, chewing gum and lots of US dollars are welcome as so many boosts to the morale of the cash-strapped locals, open ethnic discrimination - segregation - within the US military is frowned upon, which I think is rather rich coming from the Brits, who are still at the head of an Empire overseas where native people are not exactly on an equal footing with the colonists, are they? Anyhow, just the same, Laura will soon have a lot to say about segregation, sadly.
The parallel between the situations of the son and the mother reveals much bitter irony. At first glance, you'd think Laura is safer in Launceston in 1942 than Charles on the Mediterranean, swarming with enemy subs. And it's true, to some extent. But actually, it's amazing how fast the American soldiers in Launceston turn themselves into an occupying force, bringing their own set of challenges. A harrowing passage puts me in mind of what Winston Churchill said once: There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them."
In addition to raising awareness of all this, the book is in my eyes a fair tribute to Causley's personality and style. He was a very private person, and I suppose that is why his intimate life is most of the time only hinted at. Gale doesn't speak in hidden terms (nor coded language, which would fit a coder, ha,ha!), he just masters the art of subtlety, and I really like that. Causley's poetic style is widely praised for its simplicity, clarity, and emotional depth. So are his nostalgic and reflective tone, and his strong sense of place and community. In his own way, Patrick Gale uses the same narrative techniques, and that is why Mother's Boy is a very good read, faithful in spirit and letter to its inspiration spurce.
There's this quotation by Siegfried Sassoon in the book: "The interesting thing about the poem for me is that there's always a subtext. The skin of the poem is never what it's really about. A poem is much more than what lies on the page in front of you." Patrick Gale in turn says that "the last pages of good novels and last scenes of good plays invariably left him with a kind of sorrow that they were nearly over, and a childlike frustration at being left outside the story and return to his own life." This is exactly how I feel at the end of Mother's Boy!
April 8, 2022
There is something very special about Gale's writing that draws one in from the very start. Read my thoughts on this new novel on my blog here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2022/04/0...
April 21, 2025
Mother’s Boy is another beautifully written novel by Patrick Gale. I was absolutely blown away by A Place Called Winter which was my first experience of this author. I have since added all his books to my TBR list.
Mother’s Boy is based on the true story of poet, Charles Causley. I hadn’t heard of Charles Causley previously (I have now added one of his poetry collections to my Wishlist), but I found his story fascinating. He is an interesting character. One I found quite difficult to warm to initially though, if I’m honest. He’s quite standoffish which seems like an odd thing to say, but I can understand why he is why he is. He lived in a time when he couldn’t be free to be who he really was, without fear of arrest.
After the untimely death of his father at such a young age, it is just him and his mother, Laura. Laura is a very warm character. Resilient, and hardworking, doing whatever she needs to do to provide for her son. I really liked Laura, and my heart went out to her. Charles is desperate to escape Launceston at his first opportunity, which I found sad for Laura, but understandable from the young Charles’ perspective. When another world war looks imminent, he signs up with the Navy as a coder. He’s an intelligent boy with much to offer. Away from his mother and his hometown he feels more able to explore who he really is. This isn’t without caution though. Charles grew on me more as his story progressed and I felt so sad for him in the end.
This is an inspiring character driven story full of love, loss, and sacrifice. A beautiful portrait of a mother and son relationship. A bond unbroken and one which endures.
** I bought the paperback edition of Mother’s Boy on Publication Day, 13th May 2022 **
https://chataboutbooks.blog/2025/04/2...
Mother’s Boy is based on the true story of poet, Charles Causley. I hadn’t heard of Charles Causley previously (I have now added one of his poetry collections to my Wishlist), but I found his story fascinating. He is an interesting character. One I found quite difficult to warm to initially though, if I’m honest. He’s quite standoffish which seems like an odd thing to say, but I can understand why he is why he is. He lived in a time when he couldn’t be free to be who he really was, without fear of arrest.
After the untimely death of his father at such a young age, it is just him and his mother, Laura. Laura is a very warm character. Resilient, and hardworking, doing whatever she needs to do to provide for her son. I really liked Laura, and my heart went out to her. Charles is desperate to escape Launceston at his first opportunity, which I found sad for Laura, but understandable from the young Charles’ perspective. When another world war looks imminent, he signs up with the Navy as a coder. He’s an intelligent boy with much to offer. Away from his mother and his hometown he feels more able to explore who he really is. This isn’t without caution though. Charles grew on me more as his story progressed and I felt so sad for him in the end.
This is an inspiring character driven story full of love, loss, and sacrifice. A beautiful portrait of a mother and son relationship. A bond unbroken and one which endures.
** I bought the paperback edition of Mother’s Boy on Publication Day, 13th May 2022 **
https://chataboutbooks.blog/2025/04/2...
March 17, 2023
I had only read one other novel by Gale, The Facts of Life, which I found to be quite melodramatic and not really to my taste. When I saw that this was postitively reviewed I thought time to revisit, and what a nice surprise.
Clearly this is Gale's love letter to the poet Charles Causley, and whilst not quite in the same league of Toibin's letters to Henry James and Thomas Mann, it is certainly worth reading if a historical fictional narrative is of interest. I was a hundred pages when I decided to read the Author's notes and acknowledgments at the back, and that certainly helped with my enjoyment. Up until then I was feeling a little underwhelmed.
The strengths of the novel are in the depiction of Cornwall and village life 1910-1948, especially during the wars, and Gale's language reflects that period. Whilst there are a couple of plot points that are telegraphed (and disappointingly obvious and cliched), the novel is certainly moving.
It helped me to do a google on Charles Causley and that helped.
Clearly this is Gale's love letter to the poet Charles Causley, and whilst not quite in the same league of Toibin's letters to Henry James and Thomas Mann, it is certainly worth reading if a historical fictional narrative is of interest. I was a hundred pages when I decided to read the Author's notes and acknowledgments at the back, and that certainly helped with my enjoyment. Up until then I was feeling a little underwhelmed.
The strengths of the novel are in the depiction of Cornwall and village life 1910-1948, especially during the wars, and Gale's language reflects that period. Whilst there are a couple of plot points that are telegraphed (and disappointingly obvious and cliched), the novel is certainly moving.
It helped me to do a google on Charles Causley and that helped.
March 17, 2023
Exquisitely written. Slightly depressing. I realise that this is based on a real person, so there are constraints on where the plot could go, however I was not happy with the resolution, so it just couldn't be a 5 star book.
January 31, 2024
Cute wartime story of the life of a poet, Charles Causley, and his mother. An enjoyable read with loveable characters.
October 19, 2023
A fascinating book. I loved it.
August 30, 2022
Just loved this poignant read about, love, war, family and friendship. A fictional tale based on the life of the poet Charles Causley
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