Humor, pathos, razor-sharp judgement, pain, joy and everything in between. The Melrose novels are a masterwork for the twenty-first century, by one of our greatest prose stylists Alice Sebold A memorable tour de force New York Times Book Review Ive loved Edward St Aubyns Patrick Melrose novels. Read them all, now David Nicholls St Aubyns Melrose series slices and dices morality with prose so chiselled and a narrative so intense that the hairs on the back of your neck stand up Geordie Greig, Evening Standard A masterpiece. Edward St Aubyn is a writer of immense gifts Patrick McGrath 'The wit of Wilde, the lightness of Wodehouse, the waspishness of Waugh. A joy' Zadie Smith Perhaps the most brilliant English novelist of his generation Alan Hollinghurst Humor, pathos, razor-sharp judgement, pain, joy and everything in between. The Melrose novels are a masterwork for the 21st century, by one of our greatest prose stylists Alice Sebold From the very first lines I was completely hooked . . . By turns witty, moving and an intense social comedy, I wept at the end but wouldnt dream of giving away the totally unexpected reason Antonia Fraser, Sunday Telegraph Blackly comic, superbly written fiction . . . His style is crisp and light; his similes exhilarating in their accuracy . . . St Aubyn writes with luminous tenderness of Patricks love for his sons Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph Wonderful caustic wit . . . Perhaps the very sprightliness of the prose its lapidary concision and moral certitude represents the cure for which the characters yearn. So much good writing is in itself a form of health Edmund White, Guardian 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 OFarrell Beautifully written, excruciatingly funny and also very tragic Mariella Frostrup, Sky Magazine His prose has an easy charm that masks a ferocious, searching intellect. As a sketcher of character, his wit whether turned against pointless members of the aristocracy or hopeless crack dealers is ticklingly wicked. As an analyser of broken minds and tired hearts he is as energetic, careful and creative as the perfect shrink. And when it comes to spinning a good yarn, whether over the grand scale or within a single page of anecdote, he has a natural talent for keeping you on the edge of your seat Melissa Katsoulis, The Times The Patrick Melrose novels can be read as the navigational charts of a mariner desperate not to end up in the wretched harbor from which he embarked on a voyage that has led in and out of heroin addiction, alcoholism, marital infidelity and a range of behaviors for which the term self-destructive is the mildest of euphemisms. Some of the most perceptive, elegantly written and hilarious novels of our era. . . Remarkable Francine Prose, New York Times Irony courses through these pages like adrenaline . . . Patricks intelligence processes his predicaments into elegant, lucid, dispassionate, near-aphoristic formulations . . . Brimming with witty flair, sardonic perceptiveness and literary finesse Peter Kemp, Sunday Times A humane meditation on lives blighted by the sins of the previous generation. St Aubyn remains among the cream of British novelists Sunday Times The main joy of a St Aubyn novel is the exquisite clarity of his prose, the almost uncanny sense he gives that, in language as in mathematical formulae, precision and beauty invariably point to truth . . . Characters in St Aubyn novels are hyper-articulate, and the witty dialogue is here, as ever, one of the chief joys Suzi Feay, Financial Times The darkest possible comedy about the cruelty of the old to the young, vicious and excruciatingly honest. It opened my eyes to a whole realm of experience I have never seen written about. Thats the mark of a masterpiece The Times 'One of the most amazing reading experiences I've had in a decade.' Michael Chabon, LA Times
