Waterstones, Piccadilly on March 24, 2026
Patrick will be talking about Love Lane with fellow novelist, James Cahill.
James has said of the book, “It really is an extraordinary creation, one of the most atmospheric and subtly realised novels I’ve read in a long while. It has the feel of a small-scale epic, filtered through distinct voices, about family and memory, estrangement and homecoming – all suffused in the ambiences of the mid-twentieth century. The shifting perspectives, the small resonant details of time and place, the sharp observations of family life – all these give the novel an emotional force that steals up on you. One aspect I loved was the alternation between lives observed at an everyday level and the evocation of longer, generational time. Among other things, the novel is a masterly examination of time and the fading of regret into resignation – how one learns to live with whatever blows the past has dealt; how time itself allows this. Harry struck me as the clearest embodiment of the theme – a man very nearly destroyed by life, and yet powerfully and defiantly alive in the final pages. Incidentally, I loved the sharpness of the closing sentence. It sums up so much about his character.” Bless him!
James Cahill © Marc Vallée
Tickets will be on sale through Waterstones’ website. 7pm.
