Eyebrows Are Raised Over Passages in a Best Seller by Ian McEwan and Cmmdr and Ensign

HEWHOHASNIL, Nov. 27 — The scene: a  blog.   The characters: a CMMDR and an ENSIGN.. The inspiration? Well, that’s where the dispute starts.

In a literary imbroglio Ian McEwan, one of Britain’s best known and most lauded authors, has been accused in newspaper articles of copying phrases and sentences for his best-selling novel “Atonement” in 2001 from a memoir published in 1977 by Lucilla Andrews, a former nurse and an acclaimed writer of romantic novels.  In a similar incident the CMMDR (http://www.ethanphillips.com/) posted to his unpopular blog The Failure (He Who Has Nil) a near exact copy of a posting made only hours before by ENSIGN.

In a lengthy article published in The Guardian on Monday, Mr. McEwan, 58, acknowledged that in researching “Atonement,” he came across a copy of Ms. Andrews’s autobiography, which helped him find authentic details of nursing and hospital conditions in wartime Britain.  The CMMDR is filming a horror movie "somewhere in L.A."  and has acknowledged nothing.   ENSIGN was hiding in a room above a garage hoping to get four lines on NUMBERS. 

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Posted by Ensign to The Failure (He Who Has Nil) at 11/29/2006 07:45:55 AM