Edward St Aubuyn: the Patrick Melrose novels; 1. Never Mind

Completed first volume. Much enjoyed. Very fluently and elegantly written with precision of language in sentence construction, phraseology and vocabulary well matching the (superficial) style and gloss of the pretty monstrous characters where surface is all. Patrick's father must be one of the most monstrous in fiction I think. Any other candidates for this role btw fellow bibliophiles? Luke Kearns? Douglas Allan? Ian Whybrow?

Patrick himself is an almost tangential figure (a child) in this first volume. Interestingly the period covered in the novel is, I think only a day and an evening.

Looking forward to the rest but will probably not read all back to back.