English writer Patrick Gale was BOTD in 1962. Born in the Isle of Wight, where his father was a prison governor, he grew up in Winchester and was educated at Oxford University. He published his first novel, The Aerodynamics of Pork in 1985, a surrealist fantasy chronicling a series of queer love affairs. His best-known works include the queer-themed novels Rough Music and Notes on an Exhibition. He has also written a biography of his friend and mentor Armistead Maupin, author of the Tales of the City series. In 2017, he authored the screenplay for the television film Man in an Orange Shirt, which won an International Emmy Award. His latest novel Mother’s Boy, a fictional account of gay Cornish poet Charles Causley, was published in 2022. Gale lives in Zennor, Cornwall with his husband Aidan Hicks, where he hosts local music and literary festivals.