More than 100 years after the death of Queen Victoria, contemporary culture remains fascinated by the Victorians. This fascination is most marked in fiction, where an entirely new genre of neo-Victorian fiction has emerged. Neo-Victorian Fiction and Historical Narrative argues that while neo-Victorian fiction emerges within a wider cultural appropriation of the Victorians, it is characterized by its commitment to the historical specificity of the Victorian era. Neo-Victorian fiction is historical fiction and as such involves a dual approach to the present and the past: these novels are determined by both the contemporary moment of writing and the Victorian moment in which they are set. This book mimics that dual approach by analyzing neo-Victorian fiction in relation to both contemporary debates about history and Victorian historical narratives. It combines broad discussion of the genre with detailed analysis of a range of neo-Victorian texts from the last 20 years.

Thatcher& After explores the persistent reappearances of Margaret Thatcher, Britain's most loved and reviled Prime Minister, in contemporary British culture. Twenty years after Thatcher left office, Britain is still struggling to come to terms with her legacy. This exciting and original volume reads Thatcher's moment as a profound and powerful rupture in British political and cultural life and argues that there is an afterlife to Thatcher and Thatcherism that requires address and even redress in the present. The urgent goal of this volume is to restore a Thatcherite past to a present that is increasingly forgetful and celebratory of Thatcher and to resist the growing conservatism in British life. Its contributors provide strategies and opportunities to resist in the present, however belatedly, Thatcherism's all-pervasive policies - policies that can be seen problematically even at the core of New Labour's ideologies. Through a range of essays, scholars of literature, cultural studies, media studies, film and drama question what it means to be living in a post-Thatcher world.

Louisa Hadley examines the range of responses to Margaret Thatcher's death in relation to the cultural discourses surrounding Thatcher in the 1980s and since her resignation. The responses examined include the anticipation of Thatcher's death in anti-Thatcher songs, social media responses, obituaries, picture tributes and the ceremonial funeral.

Placing the popular genre of neo-Victorian fiction within the context of the contemporary cultural fascination with the Victorians, this book argues that these novels are distinguished by a commitment to historical specificity and understands them within their contemporary context and the context of Victorian historical and literary narratives.

Additional Contributors Include Clyde W. Collings, Emil J. Krahulik, Walter E. Macpherson, John R. Paxton, Murray Russell, And Others.