Patrick Gale's latest is a Richard & Judy Book Club choice, although admirers of his subtle, well-crafted novels will have needed no such endorsement. Set, like several of his previous books, in a beautifully described Cornwall, it concerns a family torn apart by the mental illness of one member, who is an artist.

This is Rachel Kelly, whose meteoric career is described in a series of episodes, each centred around a particular painting or

artefact relating to her life, or one of her family's. These include her husband, Antony Middleton, who rescues her after a suicide attempt, and takes her to his Penzance home, where, between bouts of madness barely controlled by drugs, she establishes herself as an artist, and brings up four children - all affected, in different ways, by their mother's successive breakdowns.

Inspired in part by the life of the poet Anne Sexton, Notes on an Exhibition offers a sombre account of the damage that depressive illnesses can inflict. Rachel's selfishness, cruelty and insensitivity to others' needs is not glossed over, and it is made clear that there are times when her children come close to hating her. But they do not, partly because of her charm, and partly because it emerges that she is a great artist, and one makes allowances for such people. The author conveys all this with great skill, in a tautly structured work that is as compelling as it is psychologically convincing.

Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale
Harper Perennial, £7.99

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