| Admin History | Written c1985, Kansas in August was first published in the UK in 1987, in the United States in 1989 and the Netherlands, in a Dutch translation by Maarten Polman, in 1988.
This is the last of PG's Bayswater novels and was inspired by work he was then doing for a journalist friend who had accepted an advance to write every alternate alphabetical entry for an encylopaedia of the British and American musical before realising he didn't have the time to do the work. Spending his days immersed in Rodgers, Gershwin et al, and his nights vainly pursuing romance, Gale turned the spotlight on himself and his preoccupations in this his third novel.
The little girl in the novel, Sumitra Sharma, is the first instance of a recurring interest in childhood in Gale's work.
The novel was later adapted a feature film with co-writer Ian Sellar. This was commissioned by the Really Useful Picture Group and subsequently developed by BBC Films, Carabosse and DNA. The film was never made. |