Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope cover art

Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope

Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope

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Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope

By: Edward St. Aubyn
Narrated by: Alex Jennings
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About this listen

Read by actor Alex Jennings, Patrick Melrose Volume 1 contains the first three novels in Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical series, filmed for Sky Atlantic and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as aristocratic addict, Patrick.

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 Volume 1 contains the first three novels in the Patrick Melrose series, Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope. Patrick Melrose Volume 2 is also available, containing the final two novels in the series, Mother’s Milk and At Last.

©Edward St Aubyn 2018 (P)2013 Macmillan Digital Audio Biographical Fiction Coming of Age Dark Humour Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Biography Funny Heartfelt Witty

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Critic reviews

The Melrose sequence is now clearly one of the major achievements of contemporary British fiction. Stingingly well-written and exhilaratingly funny (David Sexton)

Perhaps the most brilliant English novelist of his generation (Alan Hollinghurst)

St Aubyn puts an entire family under a microscope, laying bare all its painful, unavoidable complexities. At once epic and intimate, appalling and comic, the novels are masterpieces, each and every one (Maggie O’Farrell)
All stars
Most relevant
Some parts of the story were sad to read as the protagonist delved deeper and deeper into self destruction and addiction.It is undoubtedly a work of high intelligence and a succinct social commentary on the upper class society made without compromise or dilution.

Excellent character study and attention to detail.

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Distressing read, and populated entirely by awful people. The second and third books that I listened to improved, with dry humour. I shan't read the remaining books in the series.

Distressing Read

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I bought it while watching the TV show of the same name. I'm glad I did as it had more substance.

Compelling Story,.

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Disturbing, sad, enthralling and funny all at once. Excellent writing and a wonderful performance by Alex Jennings. The people who appear in this story are so deliciously appalling that a sort of addiction to listening sets in, which is somewhat ironic. I'm going straight on to the next volume.

Excellent

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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.

Fabulous!!! *****

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