Patrick Gale - Friendly Fire

It is the 1970’s Sophie, the main character, is 14ys old when the story begins. Sophie has been an orphan since being a toddler, she can’t remember anything about her parents, she just remembers books being read to her. She has lived in an orphanage most of her life and has refused offers of fostering as she was quite happy where she was with Margaret & Kieran (who run the orphanage) and her ‘extended family’ and more particular, Wilf. Wilf is older than Sophie but hey have formed a brother sister relationship and watch out for each other.
Sophie is very clever and wins a charity scholarship at a local old, established, boarding school. They don’t take many female students, they are referred to as ‘daughters’. She falls in love with the place when she visits in the summer and can’t wait to start the term and fits in very quickly as Sophie is used to living in an institution. The females have separate dorms with a ‘nurse’ to oversee that there are no guests unless approved by Nurse. Sophie doesn’t make friends so easily with other girls but finds that Kimiko (with whom she shares a room) forms an attachment with her & eventually they become good friends.
On her first day there Sophie sees, secretly through a window, & falls in love with, Lucas, who is dressed in ladys clothes & jiving with the other boys. Sophie & Lucas, who is gay & from a wealthy Jewish family, become good friends. She finds herself being invited back for Sunday Lunches to their house and sees less of her ‘family’ at the orphanage. Lucas has to chaperone Charlie Somborne Abbott who’s also wealthy & gay, and when introduced to Sophie the three of them become inseperable. They are invited to the Somborne Abbotts one weekend where Charlies snobby mother refers to Sophie & Lucas as ‘the bastard & the jew’. Its about life at Winchester Boarding College, the love attraction that develops between male pupils and male pupils with male staff .
The story is about how all their lives unfold. How Sophie draws away from Wilf eventually, even after their relationship has gone from friend to lover, as she realises that his life is taking a completely different path than hers, she loves education & being around educated people.
It was a book that I would pick up & read if I had spare time but I didn’t make spare time to read it. I didn’t rush to get back to it.
One comment I read from someone else who reviewed it was that ‘they found it hard to believe that a low-class girl like Sophie could be so at ease with all the members of the upper classes that she comes into contact with’. And I hadn’t thought of that but its quite true.
Another reviewers comment: ‘it's rather too twee, safe and lacking what PG's fans have come to love about him, his acerbic wit and brittle observation,
Nostalgia moment for me was when they cooked a ‘Vesta Dried Meal’ (I do so remember them).
The author admits to being completely gay by the age of 12 and went to Winchester college so a lot of his own experiences have been drawn on in this book. Patrick Gale also wrote ‘Notes From an Exhibition’