Old Filth: Amazon.co.uk: Jane Gardam: Books

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Product Description

The Guardian, 30th July, 2005
'The writing crackles with energy, variety, sensuous richness.'

Guardian, 19 November 2005
'Gardam does old age brilliantly ... She is on top form here' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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18 Reviews

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever, subtle and very funny, 30 Oct 2006

By	A. Gordon "annettego" (London) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Old Filth (Paperback)

A gentle yet gripping story (I won't indulge in spoilers see reviewer below if you want your pleasure ruined) that describes the life of a distinguished judge taking the unpleasant consequences of his childhood and carefully unwrapping them to show how they have echoed and shaped his adult life. The book is at different times very funny but also very poignant and tragic. I think the great strength of Gardam's writing lies in her effortless understatement. Too many writers now either have nothing to say or else tell their stories with great big hairy signposts you can't fail to miss.
Engaging and intelligent without being obscure and all done in less than 250 pages - amazing!

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and moving, 18 Sep 2005

By A Customer

What marvelous characters! This book opens a whole world--the world of the Raj Orphans, those sent back to Britain from the farflung Empire between the two wars--and makes it come alive through the complex character of Edward Feathers, Old Filth. As he moves in and out of time, his experiences bring to the reader not only magically historical moments but characters so beautifully drawn their equals are rarely seen in modern fiction. From his best friend at school to the "Chinese dwarf" with whom he sails back East as a teenager to his mad cousin Babs, the cast of Old Filth's life turns out to be rich and quirky and not at all what many of his admirers might have guessed as they describe him as someone to whom "nothing happened."

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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real treat, 19 Mar 2006

By	Ralph Blumenau (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Old Filth (Paperback)

Don’t be put off by the horrid title or by the fact that the main character, whose real name is Sir Edward Feathers, is frequently referred to as Filth, even by his loving wife: the nickname of this distinguished lawyer who had made his career in the Far East, stood for Failed In London Try Hong Kong. Otherwise no name could be less appropriate for this old man who is described as “spectacularly clean” and whose kaleidoscopic life story, in England and the Far East, this is. It would be a spoiler if I described it or the gaps in the story which the author leaves to our imagination to fill in.

The book and the characters in it are quirky, funny, sad, and touching; the touches of period flavour (ca. 1923 to 2002 - though there seems to be an error on the very last page) are spot-on; and Jane Gardam’ style is idiosyncratic, often staccato, but a pleasure to read. Her similes or descriptions are never hackneyed, never forced, but always fresh and arresting. I found the novel a real treat.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Awful title, brilliant book
I know that I admire Jane Gardam's work, and I can only suppose that it was the offputting title that prevented me reading this before. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Anastasia Brown

5.0 out of 5 stars It stays with you
I read this book because my father is in his eighties and both my parents are children of the Raj, so I thought it would be interesting. Read more

Published 9 months ago by FIONA STOW

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read for ages
This really was a highly original and well-crafted five star read - curious, shocking and haunting and somehow also amusing and even somewhat heart-warming. Read more

Published 14 months ago by scotvic

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent

A wonderful book. This is an extraordinary achievement of understated but beautiful prose, deep insight, and compassion. Read more

Published 22 months ago by George Knight

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a book I'd rave about.
This was and interesting account of Edward Feathers' upbringing as a Raj orphan and the effect it had on his whole life. Read more

Published on 21 Feb 2007 by MaryAnne

5.0 out of 5 stars very well plotted and freshly original
This is a very readable book. 'Old Filth' is a lawyer and judge - 'Failed in London, Tried Hong Kong' - and a very sympathetic character. Read more

Published on 23 Dec 2006 by Mr. Ian A. Macfarlane

5.0 out of 5 stars "All my life I have been left or dumped...I want to know why."
Sir Edward Feathers, known as "Old Filth," is, ironically, "spectacularly...ostentatiously clean." His nickname derives from the fact that as a lawyer, he "Failed In London, Tried... Read more

Published on 14 Sep 2006 by Mary Whipple

3.0 out of 5 stars Overrated
this book received rave reviews from the broadsheets - "masterpiece" etc. I don't read many modern novels, so I can only assume that this is because there is a dearth of quality... Read more

Published on 27 Aug 2006 by molondas

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
This is a truly wonderful read. Old Filth is still with me days after I finished the book. I read the last few chapters so slowly as I did not want it to end. Read more

Published on 20 Aug 2006 by M. Stanley

4.0 out of 5 stars Life, love and loss
An entertaining, often very funny and moving riff on the never-ending search for identity and a sense of belonging in a difficult, changing world. Read more

Published on 17 April 2006 by G. L. Haggett

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Old Filth (Hardcover)

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