Description: Benedict Cumberbatch
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It is a challenging task to write about something society considers a taboo. British author Edward St Aubyn did just that with his semi-autobiographical book series commonly known as “The Patrick Melrose Novels” (published between 1992 and 2011). Threatened with death, lucid, sweat soaked and restless at night; sometimes he lost consciousness from the effort it took to save his own life. More than two decades passed until Patrick’s story, soon to be televised, found its witty, eloquent and carefully chosen
The first volume is set in the South of France of the 1960s and introduces two handfuls of English upper-class characters relevant throughout all five novels. Most important of all the Melroses, a wealthy family of three: Title character five-year-old Patrick, a lively but solitary boy with an increasing potential of playful cruelty. His alcoholic mother Eleanor. His middle-aged but dominant father David, a former doctor who instills sadistic terror in his wife’s every being. They expect guests for dinner.
“Patrick walked up a steep bank on a path that ran beside a bay tree and emerged next to the well. He was forbidden to play by the well. It was his favourite place to play. Sometimes he climbed onto the rotten cover and jumped up and down, pretending it was a trampoline. Nobody could stop him, nor did they often try. The wood was black where the blistered pink paint had peeled off. It creaked dangerously and made his heart beat faster.”(p.23)