This "first full-length study of a genre that has had increasing critical attention and popular appeal at the turn of the twenty-first century ... combines a contextual and theoretical framework for the success of historical fiction in Britain in the last forty years with detailed analysis of thirteen novels, from well-known examples of the genre such as The French Lieutenant's Woman and Possession to very recent works, including Philip Hensher's The Mulberry Empire and James Robertson's Joseph Knight. Boccardi discusses the contemporary British historical novel in relation to questions of national identity in the aftermath of the past, particularly in the form of heritage, and as a complex representative of postmodernism in fiction"--Page 4 of cover.