Edward St Aubyn

Edward St Aubyn (born 14 January 1960) is an English author and journalist. He is the author of ten novels, including notably the semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels. In 2006, Mother's Milk was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Background and education St Aubyn was born in 1960 in London, the son of Roger Geoffrey St Aubyn (1906–1985), a surgeon, and his second wife, Lorna Mackintosh (1929–2005). On his father's side, he is a great-great grandson of Sir Edward St Aubyn, 1st Baronet, and a great-nephew of John St Aubyn, 1st Baron St Levan. On his mother's side, he is a grandson of Captain Alastair William Mackintosh of the Seaforth Highlanders, who was briefly married to Constance Talmadge 1926–1927), and Lela Emery (later Duchess of Talleyrand), daughter of the American businessman John Josiah Emery, Sr. He is a great-nephew of John J. Emery, Jr. and Audrey Emery, wife of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia. St Aubyn's father was first married to Sophie Helene Freifrau von Puthon of Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg, whom he divorced in 1957. St Aubyn has two half-sisters by his father's first marriage, and an elder sister, Alexandra. He grew up in London and France, where his family had houses. He has described an unhappy childhood in which he was repeatedly raped by his sexually abusive father from the ages of 5 to 8, with the complicity of his mother. St. Aubyn later said of his father, “He had a small canvas, but he was as destructive as he could be. If he’d been given Cambodia, or China, I’m sure he would have done sterling work.” St Aubyn attended Sussex House and then Westminster School. In 1979 he went on to read English at Keble College, Oxford. At the time a heroin addict, he graduated with a pass, the lowest possible class of degree. He entered psychotherapy at the age of 25 and subsequently became a professional writer.