Damian Baxter is hugely wealthy and dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, looked after by a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern - his fortune in excess of 500 million and who should inherit it on his death. PAST IMPERFECT is the story of a quest. Damian Baxter 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!

作者簡介

朱利安•費羅斯（Julian Fellowes）

著名作家、演員、電影導演製作人。在從事電影編劇之前，費羅斯有過30年不太成功的演員生涯。2002年，53歲的朱利安•費洛斯憑藉第一個被拍成電影的劇本《迷霧莊園》Gosford Park獲得第74屆奧斯卡金像獎最佳原創劇本獎，其後擔任編劇的作品《浮華世家》、《年輕的維多利亞》和音樂劇《保母包萍》等都廣獲好評。2011年，費羅斯憑藉《唐頓莊園》榮獲第63屆美國電視艾美獎最佳編劇。該劇集不但創下高收視並打破1981年《拾夢記》的收視紀錄，成為當代最成功的英國時代劇，並榮獲今氏世界紀錄「2010年全球最受好評的電視影集」，是首獲此殊榮的英國電視影集。

朱利安•費羅斯目前的劇作還有鐵達尼號電視劇集。

譯者簡介

宋瑛堂

台大外文學士，台大新聞碩士，波特蘭州立大學專業文件碩士﹐曾任China Post記者、副採訪主任、Student Post主編等職。譯作包括《修正》、《禪與摩托車維修的藝術》、《單身》﹑《斷背山》、《冷月》、《永遠的園丁》、《幸福的抉擇》、《蘭花賊》等書。