Product Description

Damian Baxter is very, very rich - and he's dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, looked after by a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern: who should inherit his fortune... PAST IMPERFECT is the story of a quest. Damian Barker wishes to know if he has a living heir. By the time he married in his late thirties he was sterile (the result of adult mumps), but what about before that unfortunate illness? He was not a virgin. Had he sired a child? A letter from a girlfriend from these times suggests he did. But the letter is anonymous. Damian contacts someone he knew from their days at university. He gives him a list of girls he slept with and sets him a task: find his heir...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1131 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
'Guaranteed page turners don't come much better than Past Imperfect...witty, intelligent and elegantly written' (SUNDAY HERALD )

'This delightful comedy of manners from a master of social satire is perceptive, acute and ultimately very poignant.' (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

About the Author
Julian Fellowes is a writer, actor, director, producer and TV presenter. His acting credits include the role of Lord Kilwillie in MONARCH OF THE GLEN, as well as film roles in SHADOWLANDS, DAMAGE and TOMORROW NEVER DIES. His TV writing credits include the Emmy winning LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY and the BAFTA nominated THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, which he also produced. His first cinema screenplay, GOSFORD PARK, won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He also wrote the screenplay for the recent version of VANITY FAIR and THE YOUNG VICTORIA. His debut as a director, SEPARATE LIES, was released to acclaim in 2006. Julian is married to Emma, nee Kitchener, and they have one son, Peregrine.

Customer Reviews

Evocative, witty and sad
I really enjoyed this book. It evokes a world, that few of us have experienced, of aristocratic families and the social gatherings that underpinned the marriage-market of debutantes coming-out into 'Society'. It starts in the 1960s when this world was also changing and follows the lives of a group of bright young things who met at these gatherings. As with his Gosford Park, Julian Fellowes gently satirizes the foibles, petty snobberies and unearned privileges of this world. However the book is far more than this as there is a strong central story of a dying man's quest to find a son he didn't know he'd fathered until decades later and through this search the often sad and disappointing life stories of the central characters unfold and greatly enrich the book.

Present Perfect
"Past Imperfect" produced a profound feeling of ambivalence in me; on the one hand, I wanted to devour it, and on the other, I did not want it to end. With the first sentence, Julian Fellowes caught my attention; by the end of the first page, he had me hooked. As a consequence, I found it very difficult to put the book down for the next three days, as I navigated the intricacies of its complex plot. It was as if I were being conducted on a special tour by a knowledgeable guide into a fascinating and privileged world to which I would otherwise have no entry: aristocratic London of the 1960s, an era in which Bright Young Things--and a few Dim Bulbs--still danced the night away at debutante balls.

Such a topic might, at first glance, seem frivolous, but the author soon dispels this notion by tightening the strings of suspense, introducing and repeating a key word--a place name, which I shall not reveal--and then adroitly deferring the resolution until the last chapter. With lucid prose and sharply honed wit, he cuts through the pretense and pretensions of his characters, which are delineated so thoroughly that one comes to care for each of them. (They are, in fact, so well defined that I was already casting a BBC series in my head!). The book, furthermore, comments on both past and present, being peppered with clever allusions to literature, theatre, and politics, sometimes in a single phrase (e.g., "The Curious Case of Gordon Brown" [p. 406]).

I recommend this book as an antidote for sundry books that I've picked up lately, which seem to have been knocked off in a hurry for persons in a hurry. Plot-driven, such books are like fast food; they fill one up only momentarily. With its memorable characters, wit, and suspense, "Past Imperfect," which recaptures the flavor of a vanished era, will leave one both satisfied and nourished long after the book has been closed reluctantly for the last time.

Pretty near perfect!
I started off being just a little dubious about the cover plot summary and its implications. But Julian Fellowes not only knows his stuff he has the rare ability to conjure up an era with both great sincerity and a light touch. The marks of a good novel ( for me, at any rate) were all there: I genuinely cared about the characters-even those who were pretty obnoxious-
I could 'see' every moment with cinematic clarity ; detail was what it should be-detailed; the 'human condition' was clear for all to see but was portrayed with compassion and kindness and there was enough dry and wry humour scattered throughout to stop us taking ourselves too seriously.
It kept me engrossed throughout. A pretty near perfect novel.