Past Imperfect: a novel

The subject of Julian Fellowes' "Past Imperfect" may not seem interesting or terribly relevant to readers of our time, other than hardened snobs or Brits with a gauche fascination for the quaint practices of the upper classes in the late 60s and early 70s. These were times when debutante balls were ritually held each year to herald the coming out of the children of the privileged classes to high society, where they would hopefully meet and find their life partners from compatible backgrounds. All this may sound rather feudal but the fact that this social circle co-existed not so many decades ago with the generation of the great unwashed - think pop star Marianne Faithfull, the Rolling Stones and their drug fueled escapades - testify to there being in reality two Englands, one looking to the future for change and the other facing backwards and clinging desperately to the failing efficacy of secret codes that governed their conduct in life.