Notes from an Exhibition

'Poised and pitch-perfect throughout' Mail on Sunday

Set in Cornwall, the bestselling novel of artistic compulsion, marriage, and the secrets left behind.

'This book is complete perfection' Stephen Fry

Celebrated artist Rachel Kelly dies alone in her Penzance studio, after decades of struggling with the creative highs and devastating lows that have coloured her life. Her family gathers, each of them searching for answers. They reflect on lives shaped by the enigmatic Rachel - as artist, wife and mother - and on the ambiguous legacies she leaves them, of talent, torment and transcendent love.

'An uplifting, immensely empathetic novel'Guardian

What readers love about NOTES FROM AN EXHIBITION:

' A shifting, multi-layered, beautifully textured portrait of not-quite ordinary family life' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'The word that shimmers with me is empathy. Gale has such a sensitive understanding of how minds and hearts work and react on one another amid the chaos and sometimes intense joys of real living' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'I loved the exhibition-style notes at the beginning of each chapter, which heralded a hint of the chapter's contents. Beautifully woven back and forth in time to reveal the complexities of fascinating family members and their relationships' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐


About the Author
Patrick Gale was born on the Isle of Wight. He spent his infancy at Wandsworth Prison, which his father governed, then grew up in Winchester before going to Oxford University. He now lives on a farm near Land's End. One of this country's best-loved novelists, his most recent works are A Perfectly Good Man, the Richard and Judy bestseller Notes From An Exhibition, the Costa-shortlisted A Place Called Winter and Take Nothing With You. His original BBC television drama, Man In An Orange Shirt, was shown to great acclaim in 2017 as part of the BBC's Queer Britannia series, leading viewers around the world to discover his novels.