Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 13 May 2009.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 29 January 2009.
Wealthy Damian Baxter is dying without an heir when an unsigned letter arrives inferring he had a son thirty years ago. The story backtracks to the late 60s and into the lives of six girlfriends who he slept with before mumps rendered him sterile. It’s the dying days of debs, the last coming-our balls of the season and a period when the upper classes were having to adjust to changing times. Full of terrific observations on human nature, it’s funny, poignant and enormously enjoyable.
From the creator of the Emmy Award-winning Downton Abbey...
"Damian Baxter was a friend of mine at Cambridge. We met around the time when I was doing the Season at the end of the Sixties. I introduced him to some of the girls. They took him up, and we ran about together in London for a while...." Nearly forty years later, the narrator hates Damian Baxter and would gladly forget their disastrous last encounter. But if it is pleasant to hear from an old friend, it is more interesting to hear from an old enemy, and so he accepts an invitation from the rich and dying Damian, who begs him to track down the past girlfriend whose anonymous letter claimed he had fathered a child during that ruinous debutante season. The search takes the narrator back to the extraordinary world of swinging London, where aristocratic parents schemed to find suitable matches for their daughters while someone was putting hash in the brownies at a ball at Madame Tussaud's. It was a time when everything seemed to be changing--and it was, but not always quite as expected. Past Imperfect is Julian Fellowes at his best--a novel of secrets, status, and a world in upheaval.
'A gloriously funny, bumpy ride through modern times.' Andrew Barrow, THE EVENING STANDARD
'he knows too, how to create memorable characters. Working with an upper-class cast Fellowes populates PAST IMPERFECT with a gallery of sometimes grotesque but mostley affectionately drawn toffs - acidly observered by the narrator, ever peevish, ever diverting.' Peter Burton, THE DAILY EXPRESS
'PAST IMPERFECT is both a historical document for that vanished era and a comedy of manners....... sharply perceptive and required reading for anyone who was there.' Claire Colvin, THE DAILY MAIL
'Its plot cannot fail to grip the reader...... what elevates this novel to much more than a comedy of manners is the depth of compassion the author displays for his characters.' Elisa Segrave, THE SPECTATOR
