Old Filth – Jane Gardam – 9/10

This is the story of Old Filth (Sir Edward Feathers), a venerated international lawyer and judge and his eventful life from Raj Orphan to retirement and old age.

The book is superbly well written. Gardam creates characters and situations that swoop in and out of vibrant settings with an ease and confidence that allows several hours to have passed before you realise what has happened. The pacing and timing of the prose is excellent and it allows the reader to discover details and piece the narrative together in a subtle way.

Old Filth is all at once an unloved youth, an unsuccessful husband, a legend of the Hong Kong bar and an unhappy old man. Through his eyes we learn of the major events of his life, which mainly stem from his childhood and hint at a disturbing secret which has shaped his life.

The setting is key. The bulk of the story is set in the 1930s-40s or the modern day. He is either a youth under 20 or an old man over 80. The vast majority of his life is merely mentioned in passing, the time where he achieved everything, the time that most people would arguably think of as life, is glossed over. It is an interesting concept, when we are near the end of our lives, which part will we look back upon as making us who we are?

When an author jumps around in time they run the risk of making some parts more interesting than others, the modern day often suffers, but with old Filth Gardam has successfully negotiated this pitfall with a mixture of reality and humour. Her characters are almost uniquely believable, the dialogue is fitting and the gritty scenes have enough dirt and sadness to make them real.

This book is actually one of a trilogy with The Man in the Wooden Hat and Last Friends documenting the lives of Old Filth’s wife Betty and contemporary enemy Vaneering, respectively. Together the books are a tour de force and make for a spectacularly vivid treatise on class, family and society in the last days of the Empire.