Ian McEwan, one of the most revered authors of his generation, has hit back at accusations that he copied another writer’s work — the second time the novelist has had to face such claims.

Sections of the novel Atonement, which is being turned into a film starring Keira Knightley, are said to be similar to parts of a wartime memoir by Lucilla Andrews, a bestselling author of romantic fiction. Ms Andrews is mentioned briefly in the acknowledgements of Atonement, and McEwan says that he has paid tribute to her in interviews and public appearances.

But for some of those closest to Ms Andrews, who died last month aged 86, it is not enough. In particular her agent has attacked McEwan’s “disappointing” failure to reveal the scale of his debt to her client.

McEwan told The Times last night that his conscience was “absolutely clear”, and that it was almost impossible for a writer not to face accusations of copying at some point. He described Ms Andrews’ memoir, entitled No Time For Romance, and published in 1977, as a unique historical document that had helped him to recreate the atmosphere of a wartime hospital, but denied that Ms Andrews was the basis for one of his main characters.

The accusation will nonetheless bring back memories of the furore surrounding McEwan’s debut novel, The Cement Garden, published in 1978. Several critics suggested then that the plot, which concerned a gang of children who conceal their mother’s corpse in a cellar, bore a close resemblance to Julian Gloag’s Our Mother’s House, published a decade and a half earlier. McEwan denied having read Gloag’s work and no formal charges of plagiarism were filed.

Ms Andrews wrote 35 novels and an academic biography of a Roman Catholic theologian. But it is her autobiography — a compelling account of her time as a nurse at St Thomas’ Hospital in London during the Second World War — that furnished McEwan with much of the detail and, it has been alleged, some of the inspiration for Atonement.

Like Ms Andrews, Briony, one of the main characters in the McEwan book, nurses casualties returned from the war. She has several experiences similar to those depicted in Ms Andrews’ memoir, and her response appears to echo the thoughts and feelings that Ms Andrews describes.

Like Ms Andrews when she was a nurse during the Blitz, Briony hopes to become a writer, and descriptions of hospital routines are also similar.

Ms Andrews found out about the connection only after a student at Oxford University contacted her last year. Natasha Alden wrote a thesis on war fiction and read Ms Andrews’ book during her research.

She said that when she told Ms Andrews, the writer was amused rather than angry.

Vanessa Holt, her agent, said that she had found McEwan’s behaviour discourteous and disappointing. “She wasn’t approached for permission to use her autobiography — I think she would have been very happy to have been consulted.”

McEwan said: “When you write a historical novel you do depend on other writers. I have spoken about Lucilla Andrews countless times from a public plaftform. It has always been a very open matter.”

Reading between the lines

Excerpts from Atonement (Ian McEwan)

“. . . she had already dabbed gentian violet on ringworm, aquaflavine emulsion on a cut, and painted lead lotion on a bruise . . .”

“. . . practising blanket baths on life-size models — Mrs Mackintosh, Lady Chase, and baby George whose blandly impaired physique allowed him to double as a baby girl.”

“These bandages are so tight. Will you loosen them for me a little . . .There’s a good girl . . . go and wash the blood from your face. We don’t want the other patients upset.”

Excerpts from No Time For Romance (Lucilla Andrews)

“Our ‘nursing’ seldom involved more than dabbing gentian violet on ringworm, aquaflavine emulsion on cuts and scratches, lead lotion on bruises and sprains.”

“. . . the life-size dolls on which decades of young Nightingale nurses had learnt to blanket bath. Mrs Mackintosh, Lady Chase and George, a baby boy of convenient physique to allow him to double as a baby girl.”

“Go and wash that blood off your face and neck . . . It’ll upset the patients.”

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