Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgements ix
4. Preface xii
5. Introduction Retroland: The Prevailing Past 1
6. Part I: Ends of Empire: The Imperial Past and Its Aftermath
7. The Ubiquity of Empire 11
8. J.G. Farrell 13
9. Paul Scott 16
10. Salman Rushdie 24
11. Rushdie’s Influence 33
12. Rushdie’s Limitations 39
13. Rohinton Mistry 42
14. Vikram Seth 45
15. Toni Morrison 53
16. Colonial Consequences: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 59
17. Colonial Collisions and Their Aftermath 61
18. Harkings Back 67
19. Timothy Mo 69
20. Barry Unsworth 73
21. Foulds and Flashman 76
22. Invented Empires 78
23. Imperial America and Rome: Gore Vidal and Robert Harris 83
24. South-East Asia: Kazuo Ishiguro, J.G. Ballard and David Mitchell 87
25. Part II: Scars and Silences: The Personal Past and Its Aftermath
26. Individual Trauma 97
27. Pat Barker 98
28. First World War Trauma: Robert Edric and J.L. Carr 104
29. Damaged Childhoods: David Cook, Graham Swift and Peter Carey 109
30. Edward St Aubyn 113
31. David Vann 116
32. Toni Morrison 118
33. Margaret Drabble 121
34. Iron Age Excavations: Sarah Moss 125
35. Archaeologists: Penelope Lively and Hilary Mantel 128
36. Historians: Julian Barnes 133
37. Failures of Memory: Kazuo Ishiguro and Peter Carey 137
38. Childhood Harm and Creativity: Margaret Atwood 141
39. Childhood Harm and Creativity: Ian McEwan 144
40. Scars: Keri Hulme and J.K. Rowling 149
41. Unvoiced Lives: Sarah Waters 153
42. Unvoiced Lives: Alan Hollinghurst 161
43. Part III: Resurrection Writing: The Historical Past and Its Afterlife
44. The Resurgence of the Historical Novel 169
45. Language Problems: Paul Kingsnorth, James Meek and Barry Unsworth 175
46. Francis Spufford 180
47. Carys Davies and George Saunders 183
48. Pre-historical Fiction: William Golding, Jean M. Auel, Thomas Keneally and Raymond Williams 187
49. Hilary Mantel 191
50. C. J. Sansom 198
51. Barry Unsworth 202
52. Jim Crace 205
53. Robert Harris 206
54. Harry Sidebottom 211
55. Patrick O’Brian 216
56. William Golding’s To the Ends of the Earth Trilogy 220
57. Maritime Microcosms: Julian Barnes’s A History of the World in 10½ Chapters 226
58. Part IV: Post-scripts: The Literary Past and Its Afterlife
59. Consciousness of the Literary Heritage 235
60. Resuscitations 236
61. Continuations 240
62. Sherlock Holmes 246
63. Charles Dickens 252
64. Continuance of Being 254
65. Shakespeare 259
66. Victoriana 268
67. Metropolitan Prototypes: Tom Wolfe 276
68. Margaret Thatcher and the Two Nations 283
69. Edwardian Emulations 288
70. Underlying Templates 293
71. Frankenstein and Dracula 297
72. Books of Genesis: Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling 304
73. Ancient Epics 307
74. Fairy tales: Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling and Alison Lurie 310
75. Margaret Atwood: The Robber Bride 313
76. Angela Carter 316
77. A.S. Byatt and Possession 323
78. Part V: Back to the Future: The Impending Past 331
79. Notes 345
80. Index 359