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Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope
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An absolute treat!
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it's early
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Performance
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At his mother’s family house in the south of France, Patrick Melrose has the run of a magical garden. Bravely imaginative and self-sufficient, five-year-old Patrick encounters the volatile lives of adults with care. His father, David, rules with considered cruelty, and Eleanor, his mother, has retreated into drink. They are expecting guests for dinner. But this afternoon is unlike the chain of summer days before, and the shocking events that precede the guests’ arrival tear Patrick's world in two.
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An absolute treat!
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Performance
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December 1348: With the country in the grip of the Black Death, brothers John and William fear that they will shortly die and go to Hell. But as the end draws near, they are given an unexpected choice: either to go home and spend their last six days in their familiar world or to search for salvation across the forthcoming centuries - living each one of their remaining days 99 years after the last. John and William choose the future and find themselves in 1447, ignorant of almost everything going on....
-
-
Imaginative, thought-provoking historical fiction
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it's early
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A Very English Scandal
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Overall
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Performance
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It's the late 1960s, and homosexuality has only just been legalised, and Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal party, has a secret he's desperate to hide. As long as Norman Scott, his beautiful, unstable lover is around, Thorpe's brilliant career is at risk. With the help of his fellow politicians, Thorpe schemes, deceives and embezzles - until he can see only one way to silence Scott for good. The trial of Jeremy Thorpe changed our society forever: it was the moment the British public discovered the truth about its political class.
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Excellent
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best not to try to resolve the mystery ...
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They come over here stealing our deep places...
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A Stranger in the House
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Summary
Now a major Sky TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Moving from Provence to New York to Gloucestershire, from the savageries of a childhood with a cruel father and an alcoholic mother to an adulthood fraught with addiction, Patrick Melrose is on a mission to escape himself.
But the drugs don’t make him forget his past, and the glittering parties offer him no redemption....
Searingly funny and deeply humane, Patrick Melrose: The Early Years contains the first three novels in the Patrick Melrose series, Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope. Also available: Patrick Melrose The Later Years, containing the final two novels in the series, Mother’s Milk and At Last.
What members say
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- Amazon Customer
- 20-05-18
Fabulous!!! *****
Amazingly well written and did not expect this book would grip me so much. The way the author describes addiction and reasons why Patrick uses substances is on point. The narration is fantastic and adds a lot of humour to quite a dark story at times. Can’t wait to listen to the next book.
30 of 36 people found this review helpful
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- hugo humphreys
- 22-06-18
perfection
I haven't see the tv adaptation and I don't need to, this performance has taken me to the soul of the novels, the narrator hit the vein every time.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
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- Patricia
- Wadebridge, United Kingdom
- 09-06-18
Uncomfortable subject humorously delivered
Having watched the first tv episode of the book, I was intrigued to see if the book was any good. Cumberbatch is hilarious in his portrayal of the main character and I am pleased to say the narrator does equally well in his delivery. I have been laughing out loud at the descriptions offered. Its a sad subject but delivered in a manner that is cathartic and humorous. I read some reviews of people who said they just didn't understand what was going on at all. I am not sure what was so difficult to understand. The story is of a young man retelling his experiences as an addict and as a person who has experienced incest. Not pleasant subject matter but refreshingly told with humour and irony.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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- Alan Coady
- 12-08-18
Evelyn Waugh meets William Burroughs
Well, that's only true of the middle story of this volume, during the seedy NY period - but what a great combination! The prose is beautiful and all the more so if you enjoy the cynical humour which Patrick Melrose goes in for at this stage in his life. Alex Jennings is perfect for the job and pitches perfectly all the variables of age, class, gender and nationality. I feel sure that I'll revisit these tales. One of my favourite characters is Nicholas. Even although you might not agree with all he says, he just sounds like hugely entertaining company.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Jillian Knipe
- 03-08-18
Posh Bores Meets Glimpse of Redemption
Reading was faultless. Drooped a little in the middle though perhaps necessary to get a truly rotten sense of Patrick's smelly drug habit. Seems there's no need to EVER be jealous of the mostly awful elite, their absurd hierarchies and incredibly empty lives, though the gossipy details were almost as addictive as P's attraction to heroin. Still, I wish they weren't so ... um ... in charge.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 13-07-18
Totally absorbing
Brilliant performance by Alex Jennings who brings to life characters who are at once repellent and fascinating!
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Antony
- 06-07-18
Brilliantly written, brilliantly performed and hugely insightful
if it wasn’t semi autobiographical it might be tempting to dismiss many of the characters as monsters or mere caricatures. But it is entirely believable, and absolutely enthralling. Even better than the tv adaptation.
I suspect that the third section, some hope, tells you everything you need to know about the character of the people who are currently doing such a comprehensively appalling job of governing this country.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Nicola
- 13-06-18
Awesome
This is such a beautifully written, thought provoking book. It has pathos, humour, an exploration of vengeance and forgiveness in the face of evil acts, and the best and worst parts of masculinity. The narration is fantastic
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- ms
- 10-05-18
No idea what this is about
Tried to stay with it due to airing on the norton show as writer was commend - sorry but I can't go any further with this, I've listened a number of times to first couple of hours and I still don't know what it's about.
41 of 67 people found this review helpful
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- Mrs E Brad
- 21-06-18
Just didn't get it
I tried to stick with it, but gave up in the last third. I don't really see any real story line other than pompous rich people and lots of drug taking. Not much actual substance, other than substance abuse.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful