| Admin History | Written in 1992-3 and first published in the United Kingdom in 1995, The Facts of Life is a complex family saga covering three generations and a vast array of topics from holocaust, mercy killing, class prejudice, AIDS, mental illness and dysfunctional family relationships.
Originally entitled 'poison Ivy', the novel was written on the suggestion of Chatto and Windus's Managing Director Carmen Callil based on Gale's obvious interest in family dynamics and the renaissance in lengthier novels in the mid 1990s.
The Facts of Life was originally to have been three separate novels, linked by concept of disease - Edward's TB, venereal disease suffered by the first generation of women to take the pill in the 1960s and the third volume focusing on Miriam's children and their experience of AIDS. In practice the plot line was simplified and combined into one novel, written in two parts. Gale admits that the novel was written at a time of personal unhappiness, when he was experiencing a period of professional and emotional insecurity. As such, he did not have the confidence to take risks with the novel and combine the two separate narratives, as he later did with Rough Music.
Unlike many of Gale's novels, the Facts of Life is written in the third person.
The unique twelve sided building of The Roundel, around which much of the novel is set, is closely based on the byzantine-style La Ronde near Exmouth. La Ronde is managed by the National Trust and is open to the public. |