Fiction Dunbar

Edward St Aubyn (Hogarth Shakespeare, £18.66)

Henry Dunbar, former king of the boardroom, is old, slightly mad and emasculated, having been incarcerated by two of his daughters, Megan and abigail, into a sanitorium in the Lake District. The sadistic sisters, and their creepy acolyte, Dr bob, are planning a coup and want their father—and rather sanctimonious younger sibling, Florence—out of the way.

Sound familiar? It should, as Dunbar is the latest novel in the series of Shakespeare adaptations published by Hogarth Press, the company founded 100 years ago by Virginia and Leonard Woolf. Previously, The Tempest, Othello and Macbeth have been taken on by the likes of Margaret atwood, Tracy Chevalier and Jo nesbo.

King Lear is one of the saddest and bloodiest of the tragedies, lending itself to edward St aubyn’s savage brand of humour and crisply evocative writing, seen to such brilliant effect in his five semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels. The start, when Henry and his camp, elderly friend Peter escape the nursing home, is hilarious and edge-of-seat exciting, as the over-sexed sisters and their dim, drug-addled hired thugs set off in pursuit.

However, as everyone knows, Lear doesn’t end well; although the writer must have had fun deciding the various gory ends, the story becomes so sordid that one is left wondering if this particular exercise in reworking the past was worth it. Kate Green