Patrick Gale Reads from His Novel Mother’s Boy, Based on the Life of Poet Charles Causley

Damian Barr’s Literary Salon tempts the world’s best writers to read exclusively from their latest greatest works and share their own personal stories. Star guests include Jojo Moyes, John Waters, Yaa Gyasi, Mary Beard, Diana Athill and Louis de Bernières—all in front of a live audience at leading glamorous locations world-wide. Our London home is the Savoy. Suave salonnière Damian Barr is your host.

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This week’s episode is for our listeners who love historical fiction. Mother’s Boy by Patrick Gale is a finely wrought novel that centers around Cornwall, class, desire, and two world wars. Based on the life of poet Charles Causley, Mother’s Boy is the story of a man who is among, yet apart from, his fellows. Charles is being shaped for a long, remarkable, and revered life spent hiding in plain sight.

As an intensely private young man, Charles joins the navy with the new rank of coder. His escape from the tight, gossipy confines of Launceston to the color and violence of war sees him blossom as he experiences not only the possibility of death, but the constant danger of a love that is as clandestine as his work.

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This podcast is edited and produced by Megan Bay Dorman, and programmed by Matt Casbourne.