| Admin History | Patrick Gale's first novel, The Aerodynamics of Pork, was written in 1986 on the back of an order pad when Gale was a struggling actor working as a singing waiter in an all-night restaurant in Covent Garden. The novel was published at same time as Ease in 1986, but marketed as second novel. With less central gay material, it thought that Ease would win a larger readership.
The Aerodynamics of Pork was written as a subvertive entry for the Betty Trask prize for romantic fiction, featuring a lesbian policewoman and a gay schoolboy. Cornwall and the Trenellion Music Festival are also featured. Gale says of the book: "Of the early novels, that's the one which, strangely, continues to sell. It seems to have a place in the gay canon over which I've no control. And it's totally out of date in so many ways. It was written in the shadow of Clause 28 when we had virtually no rights. It's such an angry book. It feels historical today" (The Independent, Friday, 12 June 2009).
The novel has also been published in London and Paris, including a French translation by Francis Hermange, and although is now often dismissed by Gale as overwritten, it continues to have a cult following. |