Patrick Gale, St Margaret’s Hall, Sunday

Patrick Gale delighted another packed house in Saint Margaret’s Hall on Sunday evening with his presentation of his latest novel, A Perfectly Good Man. The shocking opening chapter, featuring the suicide of a young paraplegic – apparently assisted by the parish priest – was initially written as a short story. But the writer was haunted by his characters and, eventually, it was the priest who became the central figure in a study of fatherhood, both personal and pastoral. Gale enjoys all aspects of authorship, including promotion, and displayed great warmth and generosity as he described his writing process, the inspiration from his family history, his own unsureness in matters of faith and his deep love of the west Cornwall that is his home and the setting for his fiction. Perceptive questions showed just how appreciative the audience was of Gale’s work, demonstrating the truth of his comment that each novel is an intimate communication with every reader, taking on any number of different lives. He gave tantalising glimpses of the next one and of a three-part BBC2 series we can look forward to, dealing with what it means to be a gay man in the 21st century. Riveting.

Judith Dunn