The Patrick Melrose books by Edward St Aubyn in order
All the books in the Patrick Melrose series by Edward St Aubyn, now a Sky Atlantic TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch, in order.
If you enjoyed watching the BAFTA-nominated Patrick Melrose series, then you’ll love the books on which the TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch was based. Each episode follows the story of one of Edward St Aubyn’s quintet of novels, which are listed here in order.
The semi-autobiographical books follow Patrick from his traumatic childhood in England and France with his abusive father and alcoholic mother, through his drug-addicted, hedonistic twenties to the challenges of having his own family and his eventual road to recovery as he finally faces his demons.
Edward St Aubyn’s novels are available in two volumes, Volume One: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope and Volume Two: Mother’s Milk and At Last, as well as individual books.
Never Mind
Book one in the series
At his mother’s family house in the south of France, five-year-old Patrick Melrose has the run of a magical garden. His father, David, rules with considered cruelty, and Eleanor, his mother, has retreated into drink. One summer's day, shocking events will tear Patrick's world in two.
Bad News
Book two in the series
Twenty-two years old and in the grip of a massive addiction, Patrick Melrose is forced to fly to New York to collect his father’s ashes. Over the course of a weekend, Patrick’s remorseless search for drugs on the avenues of Manhattan, haunted by old acquaintances and insistent inner voices, sends him into a nightmarish spiral.
Some Hope
Book three in the series
Patrick Melrose, cleaned-up and world-weary, is a reluctant guest at a glittering party deep in the English countryside. Amid a crowd of flitting social dragonflies, he finds his search for redemption and capacity for forgiveness challenged by his observation of the cruelties around him. Can Patrick, who has been to the furthest limits of experience and back again, find release from the savageries of his childhood?
Mother's Milk
Book four in the series
Caught up in the wreckage of broken promises, child-rearing, adultery and assisted suicide, Patrick finds his wife Mary consumed by motherhood, his mother in thrall to a New Age foundation, and his young son Robert understanding far more than he should. But even as the family struggles against the pull of its ever-present past, a new generation brings a new tenderness, and the possibility of change.
At Last
by Edward St Aubyn
Book five in the series
As friends, relatives and foes trickle in to pay their final respects to his mother Eleanor, Patrick Melrose finds himself questioning whether a life without parents will be the liberation he has so long imagined. Yet as the memorial service ends and the family gathers one last time, amidst the social niceties and the social horrors, the calms and the rapids, Patrick begins to sense a new current: the chance of some form of safety – at last.
Patrick Melrose Volume 1
by Edward St Aubyn
Volume One of Patrick Melrose includes books one to three in the quintet: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope.
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.
Patrick Melrose Volume 2
Volume Two of Patrick Melrose includes books four to five in the quintet: Mother’s Milk and At Last.
Caught up in the turmoil of broken promises, assisted suicide, adultery and fatherhood, Patrick is still a long way from salvation, but even as the family struggles against the pull of its dark past, a new generation promises new light, new hope and – perhaps – the promise of a brighter future.
In this episode of our YouTube show Book Break we take an in depth look at the books behind the hit TV series Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
