Patrick Gale is a British author who lives in Cornwall. His father was the prison governor of Camp Hill Prison on the Isle of Wight when Gale was born, and he was brought up in and around prisons.

Gale was educated at The Pilgrims' School, the choir college for both Winchester Cathedral and Winchester College, then at Winchester College and at New College, Oxford. Following university he had a range of jobs while he sang for the London Philharmonic Choir and wrote his first novel, The Aerodynamics of Pork while working as a waiter in an all-night restaurant.