Edward St Aubyn

Edward St Aubyn brilliantly blends savage social comedy with deeply affecting characters to create an unforgettable portrait of a man doomed by the apparent good fortune of his birth. He’s joined in conversation by Louise Swinn. St Aubyn’s dark-witted books about the misdeeds of the privileged upper classes have been compared to Evelyn Waugh and Oscar Wilde. St Aubyn was born into immense wealth and privilege; his work draws on his upbringing and ‘monstrous’ parents. His semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels have been called ‘some of the most perceptive, elegantly written and hilarious novels of our era’. The fourth, Mother’s Milk, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.