A wonderful insight into the life of the upper classes as they were having to start to come to terms with the changing times.  Full of terrific observations on human nature, funny, poignant and enormously enjoyable.  Highly recommended.  He was the scriptwriter of Gosford Park and the recent The Young Victoria.

Abridged audiobook edition.

Read by Julian Fellowes.

6 CDs
Running Time: 7 hours

Synopsis

Stephen Fry praised Julian Fellowes' previous novel, Snobs, as 'a guilty treat'. A Sunday Times bestseller, it won praise and an enthusiastic readership across the world. Its successor, Past Imperfect, is another treat, an enthralling comedy of manners, but with an intriguing conundrum at its heart.

Damian Baxter is very rich and dying.He lives alone, attended by chauffeur, butler, cook and a housemaid, a life of everything and nothing. Before he goes he needs to know if he has a living heir. At stake is his fortune - in excess, he reckons, of £500 million. By the time he married he was sterile (the result of adult mumps in his early twenties), but what about before that unfortunate illness? Had he fathered a child as a young man?

An anonymous letter from twenty years before suggests so. But finding the truth will not prove easy, as the only man who knows where to look is Damian's sworn enemy.

Often funny and on occasion even shocking, the twists and turns of Past Imperfect will leave readers as intrigued as Damian at the eventual outcome.

Just as in his bestselling book Snobs, Julian Fellowes shows himself a wonderful storyteller with characters superbly observed. Here is the Jane Austen of the twenty-first century with more than an acerbic dash of Evelyn Waugh.

Reviews

'A gloriously funny, bumpy ride through modern times.' Andrew Barrow,  THE EVENING STANDARD
 
"Julian Fellowes has a wickedly keen eye for observing the habits of the upper classes ... Past Imperfect is intelligently and wittily written." DAILY EXPRESS

'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 mostly affetionately drawn toffs - acidly observed by the narrator, ever peevish, ever diverting.'  Peter Burton, 
THE DAILY EXPRESS

About the Author

Julian Fellowes, actor, writer, producer, was educated at Ampleforth, Magdalene College, Cambridge and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. He trained in repertory theatre at Northampton and Harrogate before making his West End début in 'A Touch of Spring' by Sam Taylor at the Comedy Theatre. He is probably best known for his portrayal of the incorrigible Lord Kilwillie in the BBC's popular Sunday night series, 'Monarch of the Glen'. In the cinema, he was seen in 'Shadowlands' with Anthony Hopkins, 'Damage' with Jeremy Irons and 'Tomorrow Never Dies' with Pierce Brosnan. As a writer for television, he is responsible for the scripts of 'Little Sir Nicholas,' 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' (winner of an International EMMY, 1995) and 'The Prince and the Pauper' (nominated for a BAFTA, 1997) which he also produced. His screenplay début for the big screen was 'Gosford Park' directed by Robert Altman, which won a plethora of prizes, not least the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. His new version of 'Vanity Fair' is currently filming with Reese Witherspoon. He is now writing the book for a new stage musical of 'Mary Poppins' for Cameron Mackintosh and Disney. Julian is married to Emma, née Kitchener, a lady-in-waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent. They have a son Peregrine. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation