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

  • Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope
  • By: Edward St. Aubyn
  • Narrated by: Alex Jennings
  • Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (323 ratings)
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Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope cover art

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

By: Edward St. Aubyn
Narrated by: Alex Jennings
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Summary

Now a major Sky TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

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: The Early Years contains the first three novels in the Patrick Melrose series, Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope. Also available: Patrick Melrose The Later Years, containing the final two novels in the series, Mother’s Milk and At Last.

©2018 Edward St Aubyn (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio

What listeners say about Patrick Melrose, Volume 1: Never Mind, Bad News and Some Hope

Average customer ratings
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  • ms
  • 10-05-18

No idea what this is about

Tried to stay with it due to airing on the norton show as writer was commend - sorry but I can't go any further with this, I've listened a number of times to first couple of hours and I still don't know what it's about.

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42 people found this helpful

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Fabulous!!! *****

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.

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32 people found this helpful

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perfection

I haven't see the tv adaptation and I don't need to, this performance has taken me to the soul of the novels, the narrator hit the vein every time.

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4 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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FFSakes

As a guide to the arrogance complacency and snobbery of the upper middle class, not bad.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Just too unlikeable to spend time with

Patrick Melrose starts well and then veers into serious boredom very quickly. I kept waiting for the insights to start flowing and they didn't. This Vol.1 is only half the story but I could be bothered to try Vol 2 - someone else can listen to his whining instead.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Depressing

Havent found a book this downbeat for ages. What an awful world of misery it reveals.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliantly written, brilliantly performed and hugely insightful

if it wasn’t semi autobiographical it might be tempting to dismiss many of the characters as monsters or mere caricatures. But it is entirely believable, and absolutely enthralling. Even better than the tv adaptation.
I suspect that the third section, some hope, tells you everything you need to know about the character of the people who are currently doing such a comprehensively appalling job of governing this country.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Just didn't get it

I tried to stick with it, but gave up in the last third. I don't really see any real story line other than pompous rich people and lots of drug taking. Not much actual substance, other than substance abuse.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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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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    1 out of 5 stars
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Well read but stuggled to get into the story line

Excellent voice of Alex Jennings - well read but gave up at chapter 3 as I just couldn't get into the story line and was bored

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1 person found this helpful