This book is the Winner of the 2006 South Bank Literature Award. The once illustrious, once wealthy Melroses are in peril. Caught in the wreckage of broken promises, child-rearing, adultery and assisted suicide, Patrick finds his wife consumed by motherhood, his mother consumed by a New Age foundation, and his five-year-old son Robert understanding far more than he ought. Showcasing Edward St Aubyn's ability to combine the most excruciating emotional pain with the driest comedy, "Mother's Milk" is a dazzling exploration of the troubled allegiances between parents and children, husbands and wives. Acerbically witty, disarmingly tender, it goes to the core of a family trapped in the remains of its ever-present past."So good - so fantastically well-written, profound and humane...it is heart-stopping" - "Observer". "The bravura quality of St Aubyn's performance is irresistible" - "Sunday Telegraph". "Wonderful caustic wit...Polished yet profound, it's even better than his previous work, and that's saying something" - "Guardian". ""Mother's Milk" has the cerebral excitement and piercing funniness of St Aubyn at his brilliant best" - "Tatler".