- Paperback: 233 pages
- Publisher: Europa Editions; First Publication edition (27 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1933372893
- ISBN-13: 978-1933372891
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 13.7 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 840,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The New York Times called Sir Edward Feathers one of the most memorable characters in modern literature. A lyrical novel that recalls his fully lived life, Old Filth has been acclaimed as Jane Gardam's masterpiece, a book where life and art merge. And now that beautiful, haunting novel has been joined by a companion that also bursts with humor and wisdom: The Man in the Wooden Hat.
Old Filth was Eddie's story. The Man in the Wooden Hat is the history of his marriage told from the perspective of his wife, Betty, a character as vivid and enchanting as Filth himself.
They met in Hong Kong after the war. Betty had spent the duration in a Japanese internment camp. Filth was already a successful barrister, handsome, fast becoming rich, in need of a wife but unaccustomed to romance. A perfect English couple of the late 1940s.
As a portrait of a marriage, with all the bittersweet secrets and surprising fulfillment of the 50-year union of two remarkable people, the novel is a triumph. The Man in the Wooden Hat is fiction of a very high order from a great novelist working at the pinnacle of her considerable power. It will be read and loved and recommended by all the many thousands of readers who found its predecessor, Old Filth, so compelling and so thoroughly satisfying.
Old Filth was Eddie's story. The Man in the Wooden Hat is the history of his marriage told from the perspective of his wife, Betty, a character as vivid and enchanting as Filth himself.
They met in Hong Kong after the war. Betty had spent the duration in a Japanese internment camp. Filth was already a successful barrister, handsome, fast becoming rich, in need of a wife but unaccustomed to romance. A perfect English couple of the late 1940s.
As a portrait of a marriage, with all the bittersweet secrets and surprising fulfillment of the 50-year union of two remarkable people, the novel is a triumph. The Man in the Wooden Hat is fiction of a very high order from a great novelist working at the pinnacle of her considerable power. It will be read and loved and recommended by all the many thousands of readers who found its predecessor, Old Filth, so compelling and so thoroughly satisfying.
About the Author
Jane Gardam is the only writer to have been twice awarded the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel of the Year. In addition to Old Filth, her books include The Queen of the Tambourine and the story collection The People on Privilege Hill. She lives in England with her husband.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a treat for those who have read `Old Filth', Jane Gardam's previous book about Sir Edward Feathers and his wife Betty (see my Amazon review), but also for those who have not read it (and will surely want to read it next), for, though the knowledge of its predecessor will add an additional layer of enjoyment, this book does not assume such knowledge. And anyway, significant though it is, there is only a modicum of overlap between the two novels (and there are even two small discrepancies between the events described).
The focus of `Old Filth' was on Sir Edward; here it is on Betty: we learn much, much more about her than in the first book. Edward we see as the kind of person he already was when they married - a workaholic and unable to give much emotionally; but we would have to go to the earlier novel to see what had made him become like that. The current book begins with their engagement and more or less ends where the earlier book more or less began.
There are more disconcerting elements in the second book than in the first. The dwarf Albert Ross, who is devoted to Edward and knows him better than anyone else does, seems more spooky. His hat is an important part of him, and the title of the book suggests the great influence Jane Gardam attributes to him (though why the hat of the title is wooden we discover in a single image near the end of the book.) She even has him survive Edward, when in the previous book Edward outlived him - one of the two discrepancies noted above. (The other relates to a watch). Betty's behaviour when she has just been engaged (the oddest engagement, to be followed by the oddest wedding) is more upsetting and indeed hard to explain. There is in the first half of the book a note of hysteria. It is hard to believe that this could ever be a successful marriage.
And yet it was - though at a price that will be fully apparent only in the last few pages. Betty does have to go through trials - and very movingly they are described - but her relationship with Edward is not the cause of them.
We move back and forth between a retreat in the depth of the Dorset countryside and the throbbing life of Hong Kong. Again the writing is both funny and touching.
It is, I think, an even better book than `Old Filth' - and I had given five stars to that!
The focus of `Old Filth' was on Sir Edward; here it is on Betty: we learn much, much more about her than in the first book. Edward we see as the kind of person he already was when they married - a workaholic and unable to give much emotionally; but we would have to go to the earlier novel to see what had made him become like that. The current book begins with their engagement and more or less ends where the earlier book more or less began.
There are more disconcerting elements in the second book than in the first. The dwarf Albert Ross, who is devoted to Edward and knows him better than anyone else does, seems more spooky. His hat is an important part of him, and the title of the book suggests the great influence Jane Gardam attributes to him (though why the hat of the title is wooden we discover in a single image near the end of the book.) She even has him survive Edward, when in the previous book Edward outlived him - one of the two discrepancies noted above. (The other relates to a watch). Betty's behaviour when she has just been engaged (the oddest engagement, to be followed by the oddest wedding) is more upsetting and indeed hard to explain. There is in the first half of the book a note of hysteria. It is hard to believe that this could ever be a successful marriage.
And yet it was - though at a price that will be fully apparent only in the last few pages. Betty does have to go through trials - and very movingly they are described - but her relationship with Edward is not the cause of them.
We move back and forth between a retreat in the depth of the Dorset countryside and the throbbing life of Hong Kong. Again the writing is both funny and touching.
It is, I think, an even better book than `Old Filth' - and I had given five stars to that!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I don't think you can review one book with out reviewing the other, just as I don't think you can read one and not the other. "Old Filth" was published in 2006. It is the story of Sir Edward Feathers, a noted jurist based in Hong Kong. His nickname - "Old Filth" - was at odds with his precise and personal probity. "Filth" stands for "Failed In London, Try HongKong". Sir Edward's life is written by Jane Gardam in not exactly a timely sequence; she starts when he is an old and distinguished judge, retired back in England, living life alone after the death of his wife, Betty. He meets an new neighbor who turns out to be an old enemy of his, a fellow jurist, also newly retired from duty in Hong Kong.
The main story in "Old Filth" is about Edward Feather's childhood as a "Raj" orphan. He was born to an English doctor and his wife in the British East Indies. His mother dies in childbirth and his father, stricken by his wife's death and becoming an alcoholic, basically turns over baby Edward to the care of a native nurse. Edward is sent back to England at an early age, boarding with first a family near Wales, and then entering boarding schools. World War 2 begins when he's about 17 and is on his way back to the Indies to live with his father. He is forced to return to England, where he is further educated in the law, and, after the war, goes to live in Hong Kong, becoming first a noted lawyer and then a judge. He's met Betty along the way, and she, another orphan, born in China to British parents who are die under Japanese captivity, make a long, mostly happy but childless marriage.
"The Man in the Wooden Hat", published in 2009, is neither the prequel or sequel to "Old Filth". Rather, it is the companion piece. If "Filth" told the story from Sir Edward's point, "Man" focuses on the story from Betty's. Gardam's writing in both books is exquisite, spare yet right to the point. Both main characters are given equal weight, along with the secondary ones, most of whom are drawn as well as Betty and Edward.
Both books are just superb; if I could give six stars to both, I would.
The main story in "Old Filth" is about Edward Feather's childhood as a "Raj" orphan. He was born to an English doctor and his wife in the British East Indies. His mother dies in childbirth and his father, stricken by his wife's death and becoming an alcoholic, basically turns over baby Edward to the care of a native nurse. Edward is sent back to England at an early age, boarding with first a family near Wales, and then entering boarding schools. World War 2 begins when he's about 17 and is on his way back to the Indies to live with his father. He is forced to return to England, where he is further educated in the law, and, after the war, goes to live in Hong Kong, becoming first a noted lawyer and then a judge. He's met Betty along the way, and she, another orphan, born in China to British parents who are die under Japanese captivity, make a long, mostly happy but childless marriage.
"The Man in the Wooden Hat", published in 2009, is neither the prequel or sequel to "Old Filth". Rather, it is the companion piece. If "Filth" told the story from Sir Edward's point, "Man" focuses on the story from Betty's. Gardam's writing in both books is exquisite, spare yet right to the point. Both main characters are given equal weight, along with the secondary ones, most of whom are drawn as well as Betty and Edward.
Both books are just superb; if I could give six stars to both, I would.
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read this before I read 'Old Filth', and although this novel unquestionably stands on its own, it consistently gave me the feeling that it was making assumptions about its characters and perhaps unintentionally assuming that they would already be familiar from the earlier book.
One of the positives to be derived from this is that it doesn't hang about, doesn't linger self-indulgently. And one of the negatives to be derived from that in turn is a rather sketchy attitude to some characters and events. Terry Veneering, for instance, the oik rival lawyer to Eddie Feathers, the male protagonist, seemed to me more of a plot device than a real character. And I wasn't at all sure whether Albert Ross (the "Chinese dwarf") was supposed to have some kind of fantastical, mystical element to him, which in a way undermined for me the reality. That sketchiness seemed to me to extend to the narrative technique, which slips into using letters or screenplay, for instance, in ways that might sometimes seem just a bit lazily arbitrary. But they do contribute to the story being told clearly.
Now that I have read "Old Filth", quite a bit becomes quite a lot clearer, so I think that's my recommendation: do read them both but in that order. Maybe they should be combined somehow into one book, with the parallel narratives merged.
One small niggle: it's always annoying and unsettling to come upon factual errors; they always make you wonder whether there aren't perhaps more that you haven't spotted and don't happen to recognise. I don't think it was possible in the time of Attlee's government (i.e. 1951 at the latest) to fly from London to Hong Kong in fourteen hours with just one stopover, and it certainly wouldn't have been with British Airways which wasn't formed until 1974.
One of the positives to be derived from this is that it doesn't hang about, doesn't linger self-indulgently. And one of the negatives to be derived from that in turn is a rather sketchy attitude to some characters and events. Terry Veneering, for instance, the oik rival lawyer to Eddie Feathers, the male protagonist, seemed to me more of a plot device than a real character. And I wasn't at all sure whether Albert Ross (the "Chinese dwarf") was supposed to have some kind of fantastical, mystical element to him, which in a way undermined for me the reality. That sketchiness seemed to me to extend to the narrative technique, which slips into using letters or screenplay, for instance, in ways that might sometimes seem just a bit lazily arbitrary. But they do contribute to the story being told clearly.
Now that I have read "Old Filth", quite a bit becomes quite a lot clearer, so I think that's my recommendation: do read them both but in that order. Maybe they should be combined somehow into one book, with the parallel narratives merged.
One small niggle: it's always annoying and unsettling to come upon factual errors; they always make you wonder whether there aren't perhaps more that you haven't spotted and don't happen to recognise. I don't think it was possible in the time of Attlee's government (i.e. 1951 at the latest) to fly from London to Hong Kong in fourteen hours with just one stopover, and it certainly wouldn't have been with British Airways which wasn't formed until 1974.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great but incomplete
Jane Gardam is a very skilled writer with an eye for detail and a great sense of humour. This book is well worth reading particularly if you read Old Filth and liked that, it is... Read more
Published 1 month ago by bookpike
lazy money spinner
Old Filth was witty, pithy, well thought out and economically written. It deserved to be a great success. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Judy Stephenson
contrived
Most reviewers seem to have a natural bent towards their subjects, so non-positive reviews on Amazon are not too popular. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Hugh Crawford
Under the surface
A companion volume to Old Filth, The Man in the Wooden Hat fills in some of the intriguing gaps left in that book, this time giving us Old Filth and Betty's story more from the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
Delightful, enchanting book
I am totally captivated by Gardam's characters, Betty, Eddy and Veneering, brought forward from her earlier novels 'Old Filth' and 'Privilege Hill'. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Stormfever
Love it
Very interesting book and in excellent condition. I only wish I had read "Filth" first as it is the prequel to "The Man in the Wooden Hat". Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mrs. K. L. Lester-george
Very succesful present
Thoroughly enjoyed by the recipient - who has gone on to buy other books by Jane Gardam - well worth reading.
Published 8 months ago by Dean Palmer
Wonderful sequel (/prequel) to Old Filth
This is another wonderful story about the life of fictional judge Edward Feathers and his wife Betty. Read more
Published 9 months ago by H. Eaton
The Man in the Wooden Hat
Thank you for the prompt delivery and the excellent condition of this book. (I trust it had been "decommissioned" from the library which owned it!?)
Published 9 months ago by Patricia A. Seymour
Not sure
I read and loved 'Old Filth' some years ago, so I looked with interest to this follow up book, this time told from the perspective of Betty. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Pen pal
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