Best-selling novelist Patrick Gale on his UK 'Love Lane' Book Tour in Oundle
The evening will feature a conversation with Patrick about Love Lane, his work and life, an audience Q&A and a book signing.
Join best-selling novelist Patrick Gale for a night of bookish conversation accompanied by drinks, good company and books to buy. The perfect night out? We think so!
Patrick comes to Oundle festival of Literature on Friday 8th May as part of his UK wide book tour for new novel, ‘Love Lane’. Patrick is well known for earlier books such as Notes from an Exhibition and A Place Called Winter, he also wrote the award-winning BBC drama Man in an Orange Shirt. Love Lane is his 18th novel and has been lauded widely for it’s beautiful writing and portrayal of the complexity of family dynamics.
'I adored it. One of the most atmospheric and subtly realised novels I've read in a long while. It has the feel of a small-scale epic, filtered through distinct voices, about family and memory, estrangement and homecoming' James Cahil
You don’t have to have read Love Lane or any of Patrick’s earlier books to enjoy the night. His books are romantic and atmospheric, so the evening will appeal to quality fiction lovers generally, and particularly those who enjoy work by writers such as Maggie O'Farrell, Rose Tremain, Joanne Harris, David Nicholls, Sarah Waters, Alan Hollinghurst, and Sarah Waters.
Love Lane
A reunion. A journey. A longing for a place called home...
When veteran Canadian wheat farmer, Harry Cane is obliged to sell up and sail home to an England transformed by two world wars, his arrival triggers unwelcome self-examination for the family he abandoned, and for whom he has never been more than a distant myth.
His daughter feels duty bound to take him in but is riven with doubt and ambushed by a long buried anger she has never before expressed. Harry's effect on the next generation is less predictable, and enables his granddaughter to deal with an unspeakable trauma, while her gentle husband feels seen for who he truly is.
Can Harry stay and make a new life before it's too late, or will he find himself cast out again, punished for having witnessed and understood too much?
Love Lane is a searing portrayal of escape and entrapment, and a powerful exploration of what home and family can really be.
The evening will feature a conversation with Patrick about Love Lane, his work and life, an audience Q&A and a book signing. There will be books to buy and a bar at the venue.
When: Friday 8th May 2026, 7.30pm. Doors open 7pm.
Where: Queen Victoria Hall, 7 West Street, Oundle PE8 4EJ
Tickets: £10/£9 concessions. Available from The Oundle Bookshop (cash only) or online: https://www.oundlefestivalofliterature.co.uk/what-s-on
Oundle is on the twice hourly X4 bus route between Northampton (Kettering/Corby) and Peterborough.
There is free parking in several car parks in Oundle and on streets around the venue which is right in the centre of Oundle, surrounded by cafes, bars and restaurants for those who want to make a night of it.