'Splendidly realised Cornish moorland setting, wellies, ruts, dripping sheep!Gale's specialist forte being pathos into bathos, tears of desolation leaking into the gravy, but he writes about the difficult emotions with delicacy, perception and a rare ferocious charm.' Guardian '"The Cat Sanctuary" is a book with claws. It has a soft surface -- a story set in sloping Cornish countryside, touching on love, families and forgiveness, delivered in a gentle, straightforward prose -- but from time to time it catches you unawares. Scratch the surface, suggests Gale, and you draw blood.' The Times 'Gale's novels always catch one a little short with their flaky situations and obliquely deranged behaviour. It is only later -- when the slippery charm has conveyed its resilience to everyday brutalities never far away -- that his books reveal their grace and beauty. While no less light-footed than its predecessors, "The Cat Sanctuary" has darker intimations!The tone is gentle rather than militant, as though the crushing masculinity the women have experienced might find some small antidote in the tender mercies of his style.' Observer 'Gale is a charmingly idiosyncratic writer who could not write a cliche if he tried. Spiced with mischievous irony, this engrossing story contains some interesting apercus on the process of novel writing.' Telegraph 'Like Gale's previous novels, it's an elegantly menacing, enjoyable read that starts as it means to go on -- dynamically. "The Cat Sanctuary" presents people's lives and coiled springs, wound tighter and tighter until suddenly they unleash themselves on their nearest and dearest!It's a deep and moving book; highly recommended.' New Woman 'Gale's writing is marvellously entertaining, and there is a compelling sense of biting deep into the core of the bitter truth.' Cosmopolitan 'A dark tale of loss, sex and mistrust ! A sensitive, thoughtful novel with a conclusion that is both unsettling and consistent.' Time Out 'A powerful and moving novel in which the darkness is often lightened by the author's deft touches of comedy.' Independent on Sunday 'Much of this is very funny, but that should not obscure the fact that Gale's comedy is rooted in the acceptance of the inevitability of pain.' TLS 'Sophisticated in its conception and stylish in its execution, it is easily his best novel to date. Another book to read and re-read.' Gay Times

Patrick Gale was born in 1962 on the Isle of Wight. He spent his infancy at Wandsworth Prison, which his father governed, then grew up in Winchester. He now lives on a farm near Land's End.