Patrick Gale - Love Lane

About

The Bookery is thrilled to welcome one of our acclaimed Patrons Patrick Gale for a very special evening discussing his powerful new novel, Love Lane in conversation with Alison Sweatman.

Love Lane transports readers to 1950s Northern England, weaving a compelling, multigenerational story of family, return, and reckoning. When veteran Canadian wheat farmer, Harry Cane is brutally 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, bound by duty yet unsettled by buried anger, reluctantly takes him in. His presence stirs the next generation too: his granddaughter is finally able to confront an unspoken trauma, while her gentle husband, for the first time, feels truly seen. As old wounds surface and unexpected truths come into the light, the question hangs in the air: can Harry build a new life before its too late, or will he once again find himself pushed aside for understanding too much?

From the vast rural plains of Canada to postwar Liverpool and Yorkshire, Love Lane is a searing portrayal of escape and entrapmentand a deeply human exploration of what home and family can really be. Less a sequel to A Place Called Winter than an adjacent novel, its designed to stand alone and will equally excite fans of the earlier novel.

Love Lane is the story of a family, told beautifully and with deep understanding. There is no judgement here, only humanity. A joy and a lesson for our time' -Ann Cleeves
Miraculous, mischievous and quietly devastating, Love Lane is the irresistible story of five individuals, linked by the past and yet separated by the present. I have just fallen in love with a beautiful book' -Rachel Joyce

Patrick Gale is one of the UKs most loved and widely read novelists. His bestselling works include Notes from an Exhibition, A Perfectly Good Man, Mothers Boy, and the BBC drama Man in an Orange Shirt. Born on the Isle of Wight and now based near Lands End, he brings to his fiction a rare warmth, emotional acuity and deep compassion.
Alison Sweatman is a freelance voiceover artist and parttime librarian at Exeter Library. Her varied creative background includes theatre management, podcast creation for Oxford University museums, and founding Freehand Writers, supporting emerging authors. She curates an interview series at Exeter Library and has chaired several Bookery author conversations with clarity, warmth and insight.

This event is part of The Bookerys wider programme celebrating reading, creativity and community during theNational Year of Reading 2026. The evening will conclude with an audience Q&A session, followed by Patrick signing copies of Love Lane.