‘Art is despair with dignity’

Friendly Fire

Friendly Fire

Patrick Gale

From the author of Richard and Judy bestseller ‘Notes from an Exhibition’ a tale of youthful disgrace, seen through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old girl.

Sophie, an exceptionally bright child, has spent all her life in a children’s home. Her life is transformed when she wins a scholarship to Tatham’s, a school for privileged high-achievers – but her education there is as much emotional as intellectual. She falls hopelessly in love with Lucas, adored gay son of a wealthy Jewish family and, through him, is drawn into a tangle of betrayed friendship and forbidden passions that ends in tragedy and disgrace.

Sophie’s doggedly pursues prizes and praise but the painful lessons she learns about herself leave the most lasting impression. Friendly Fire is an unforgettable novel about love, family and, that most English of concerns, class.

Reviews of Friendly Fire

    • ‘Utterly compelling from first to last: sad and funny and written with the matchlessly fine yet modest prose that marks him out as such a superb writer’ Stephen Fry
    • ‘Friendly Fire is an intense tale of love, life, intellectualism and passion. Inspirational’ Daily Express
    • ‘Patrick Gale is a writer who has always seemed particularly well attuned to the assorted agonies and ecstasies of childhood…The emotions still ring true’ Daily Mail
    • ‘Gale’s finely tuned rites of passage novel depicts a learning curve of betrayal and shame’ Metro

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