Edward St Aubyn

BA English 1979
Author and Journalist

Edward St Aubyn was born in London in 1960. He was educated at Westminster School and Keble College, Oxford. He is the author of ten novels.

His first, Never Mind (1992) won the Betty Trask Award. This, along with Bad News (1992) and Some Hope (1994) became the first three Patrick Melrose novels.

On the Edge (1998) was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize. A Clue to the Exit was published in 2000.

Mother’s Milk—the fourth novel in the semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose series—was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. It was also awarded the 2007 Prix Femina Étranger and won the 2007 South Bank Show award for literature. At Last (2011) was the fifth and final book in the Patrick Melrose series.

In 2018, the Patrick Melrose series was made into a five-part television drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch. It was directed by Edward Berger and adapted by David Nicholls. It won several awards including Baftas for Best Miniseries and Best Leading Actor.

The Patrick Melrose series was followed by three novels: Lost for Words (2014) (winner of the Prix Rive Gauche), Dunbar (2017) and Double Blind (2021).

His sequel to Double Blind, Parallel Lines, will be published in May 2025 by Jonathan Cape in London and Knopf in New York.

“My time in Keble was academically disgraceful but marked by the extraordinary humanity and generosity of my tutors who had so many justifications for sending me down but chose to protect an undergraduate who was clearly going through one of the unhappiest periods of his life. I will always be grateful to Stephen Wall and Malcolm Parkes for their kindness and hope that the same spirit survives in the Keble of today.”