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Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope
- Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
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Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope
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Summary
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.
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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)
What listeners say about Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 13-12-21
Excellent character study and attention to detail.
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.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- JMK
- 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.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MS J.
- 27-03-21
Different from the (wonderful) programme version
Amazing. Can't recommend enough.
This is told linearly, as opposed to the programme. Listen.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Patricia
- 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.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 15-10-19
Excellent
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.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- JC
- 31-07-18
a fascinating insight into a privileged worl
it's quite a feat for the author to write such an engaging book when so many of the characters are dislikeable and unsympathetic. Apart from s few dodgy accents which made me wince I really enjoyed this book
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Benedict Hughes
- 30-03-22
Distressing Read
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.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rachel OConnell
- 22-11-19
Exceptional writing
I'm late to party in reading these books. They are very cleverly written and fascinating. It really makes me glad I am not part of that class, thoroughly horrible people who are bitchy, 2 faced, self absorbed, mean spirited and above all very dull. Princess Margaret sounds like a real pain in the ass which is not a surprise. Ugh! awful snobs.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 13-07-18
Totally absorbing
Brilliant performance by Alex Jennings who brings to life characters who are at once repellent and fascinating!
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1 person found this helpful