(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5347132.stm)

BBC News, Profile: Edward St Aubyn

Thursday, 14 September 2006, 16:48 GMT 17:48 UK

Edward St Aubyn was born in 1960 in Cornwall - his family have lived in the area since the Norman Conquest.He was raped by his father from the age of six until eight, when he confronted him about the abuse.

At the age of 16 he became a heroin addict, a habit he continued during his studies at Oxford University. At the age of 28 he began writing as therapy.

Mother's Milk is the fourth part of a "trilogy" about Patrick Melrose and his dysfunctional family.

In this volume, Patrick has become a churlish husband sexually abandoned by his wife, while his younger brother Robert narrates the story of his own birth.

St Aubyn has spoken before that talking through the events in his life let him have closure, and enabled him to use personal tragedy as material for his books.