Old Filth

Written by Jane Gardam

Narrated by Bill Wallace

Sir Edward Feathers has had a brilliant career, from his early days as a lawyer in Southeast Asia, where he earned the
nickname Old Filth (FILTH being an acronym for Failed In London Try Hong Kong) to his final working days as a
respected judge at the English bar. Yet through it all he has carried with him the wounds of a difficult and emotionally
hollow childhood. Now an eighty-year-old widower living in comfortable seclusion in Dorset, Feathers is finally free
from the regimen of work and the sentimental scaffolding that has sustained him throughout his life. He slips back
into the past with ever mounting frequency and intensity, and on the tide of these vivid, lyrical musings, Feathers
approaches a reckoning with his own history. Not all the old filth, it seems, can be cleaned away.

Borrowing from biography and history, Jane Gardam has written a literary masterpiece reminiscent of Rudyard
Kipling’s “Baa Baa, Black Sheep” that retraces much of the twentieth century’s torrid and momentous history

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781705010044

Reviews for Old Filth

[jack2410 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So far I'm loving this book. I'm just about to begin reading Part 2. If the end has no ugly surprises, I will rate this book highly. 12/17/2010: No ugly surprises. This is a great peace of literature in my humble opinion.

[Mariam Shah-Rais · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very well written novel about an 80 year old former judge, Edward Feathers known as “Old Filth. Much of Old Filth is spent looking back at his past. As these are his memories, the events are not in chronological order, but in order of importance to him. The narrative structure, therefore, moves backward and forward in time between the past and the present. The sense of loneliness and disconnect he feels is palpable and although he has lived a full life, his colleagues think he led an ordinary and boring one because he never shares his memories.

[vivl_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it, bought the sequels and am rereading -- will review more thoroughly post reread.

[ma_washigeri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have a children's book on my shelves by Jane Gardam of short stories called The Hollow Land which will be a good re-read after finishing Rob McFarlane's Underland. I was expecting something like a thriller or detection genre - but what I got was a glorious patchwork of someone's life, detailed in places, sketchy in others. I worked out he must have been born about 1923. Although the chapters do not follow chronological order I was never in doubt about where in his life each chapter is, but the other characters can pop up unexpectedly and I was glad I started a crib sheet so that encountering them again they were easy to place. Mostly it was set in England although Edward Feathers spent much of his life in Hong Kong and that balance is one of the subtle things that illuminate the empire theme of having your cake and eating it too, and the terrible price paid (to mix a few metaphors).

[laura1124-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was everything I hoped it would be. I will read the rest of the trilogy - and likely everything else Jane Gardam has written.

[k6gst · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When you search for Jane Gardam on the Literature Map you find her among other names of interest to this newsletter: Penelope Fitzgerald, Barbara Pym, Edna O’Brien, Elizabeth Taylor, Anita Brookner, Jean Rhys, and others. So I don’t know how I missed her before this. I’ll start apologizing for reading so many British Old Lady Authors the moment they stop kicking so much ass.Teddy “Filth” Feathers is a retired colonial judge living in England. The nickname is from an acronym he applied to lawyers like himself trying their professional luck in the colonies: “Failed in London, try Hong Kong.”He was a “Raj orphan,” that is, an Englishman born to imperial civil servants abroad who is dumped by his parents on aunts and boarding schools back in England when he turns five years old. That’s not something that doesn’t leave a lasting mark, and it can tend to produce not-totally-stable types, like, for instance, say, Kim Philby. Things that happen to you when you are five can still be messing with you badly when you are eighty, apparently.His eventful life is told in flashback. It’s funny, wise, and moving. Emotionally compelling without the least bit of sentimentality. There are two follow-on novels about Filth and I’m committed.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What is left to say. Beautifully written. It is about 20th century a British Raj-orphan who from birth to death in this book does little but let things happen to him and recovers from them. There are glimmers of interesting things lurking in the background, but on the surface this is another by&for Brits story of dull Brits, the which I gave up after Atonement, to the extent of not being able to watch Downton Abbey, no, not even for the costumes.

[thorold_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It took me a little while to get properly involved with this novel, in which an elderly, retired colonial judge looks back on a life that is quite different from the smooth ride everyone else assumes he must have had. Gardam is not an aggressively witty or sophisticated writer, and she doesn't do much to haul the reader in at the outset. Her favoured technique seems to be to sneak in towards something that will give us a deeper insight into her characters, but then turn back just before she gets there, leaving us dangling until the next opportunity. An approach that can be very effective, but makes this read almost more like a novel of the 1950s than one written just over a decade ago. This slightly archaic feeling is reinforced by the subject-matter, of course: there are strong echoes of Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs Palfrey in Gardam's tough-but-emotionally-scarred survivors of upper-class colonial childhoods, and of course (as she acknowledges) the voice of the most famously damaged Raj child, Kipling, is never far away. But Gardam brings in plenty of material that goes beyond the obvious - having been married to a QC for many years she is able to write about ageing barristers without making it sound like a pastiche of Rumpole (not that John Mortimer would ever take on a judge as a sympathetic main character!), and the cameo appearance of Queen Mary is a rather splendid touch. I wouldn't quite put in on my list of 100 greatest books, but it does go a step or two beyond being merely entertaining and well-researched.

[chellebearss · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This isn't normally the type of book that I would enjoy but I found Gardam really managed to make me stick around for the ride. Doesn't quite live up to the hype that I've been seeing about it, but I did find it quite enjoyable and I'm glad that I read it. Nice solid read!

[celerydog_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having spent 19 years living in HK, this had great appeal to me. I felt empathy with Feathers, but disappointed in the character of his wife, 'bumped off' early to set up the narrative drive of a retrospective of his life. Not inclined to read the rest of the trilogy, and feel this book stands alone, fine. Made for stimulating book club discussion, as several of us have had expat experience and several others are lawyers!

[wjohnston_43 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had seen this and other books by Gardam (her US publisher, Europa Editions, puts out quality and distinctive-looking books), but hadn't ever really thought about reading them. Then she happened to visit the store and I enjoyed our chat so much I decided I'd pick this up to read. (This happened to be the only book of hers we had.)I was quite happy with the choice. I learned about an aspect of British history I hadn't known before (Raj orphans), as well as getting some insight into the British legal system, and another perspective on life in England during WW2. The timeline jumps around, forcing you to be attentive to piece together the various bits of the story. Definitely worth the read. I'm a little surprised this hasn't been turned into a Masterpiece/BBC series.

[sandyamcpherson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read the Trilogy of which 'Old Filth' is the first and this was my favourite of the 3. Splendid characterization and irony. A sad story in a way, of an international lawyer retiring to an England he never really knew. I think this is a common theme in expat careers, "You can never go home again". Poignantly told. The tone and series was reminiscent of Joyce Cary's 'The Horse's Mouth'.

[wassilissa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Edward Feathers, genannt Old Filth, ist ein verwitweter Richter. Sein Leben erscheint unspektakulär, doch ganz nebenbei erfährt der Leser, was ihm alles wiederfahren ist. Ich war etwas überrascht über den großen Widerhall, den das Buch hervorgerufen hat. Doch auch mir hat es gefallen.

[chazzifrazz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sir Edward Feathers, a retired barrister who served as advocate and judge in Hong Kong, living in Dorset. His wife has passed away and he is now living alone. Not a very social man, he has time to remember events in his past.Born in Malaya, his mother died at his birth and his father was too busy with his work, he was raised by native ayahs till the age of 5 when he was sent back to England to be raised by foster parents and two strange aunts. This was the way of child raising for his class of society. This was how Raj children were treated.WWII broke out when he was of university age. His father felt the boy should evacuate England and come back to Malaya. Edward wanted to stay and go to Oxford (he passed the entrance exam and was accepted to attend after the War), or join the military. But he was put on a ship and sent off only to be out to sea for four months and have to turn right around back to England as Singapore had been taken over by Japanese. When he arrived back, after seven months at sea, he was close to dying from illness so spent month in hospital getting well. When he was released he chose to join and was assigned to the guard contingent guarding Queen Mary at a country estate. Not what he had hoped for.Moving back and forth from the current time to his past at various events, you see the world through Old Filth's eyes and experiences as he lives through the century. His childhood, growing up, adulthood, education, marriage and life with his wife Betty. There is humour to be found in some of the events he goes through and there is sadness too. The characters that come in and out of his world are varied and memorable.For me it was a good read. Maybe because he reminded me a bit of a special friend I had. He was also an Englisher and felt that there were correct ways to handle situations. It was not a fast read, but the more I read the more I wanted to read more.This is the first in a trilogy and I will be reading the other two books.Oh, and the nickname Old Filth? It's an anacronym for Failed In England, Try Hong Kong. He claims to have created it.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book -- beautifully written, with well-realized characters. Very, very British.

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story of Edward Feathers' life; his birth in Malaysia, childhood fostered in Wales and then at school in England, his experiences during the Second World War, his career as a barrister in Hong Kong and his retirement in Dorset. The structure is that of Filth widowed and in his eighties looking back on his past and perhaps coming to understand why his life has turned out as it did. He is viewed as a successful lawyer and judge, who has led an uneventful life, (and we learn little about his years in Hong Kong), but his early years were far from uneventful. This is a sad story about a man who has known little love and been betrayed by most of the people supposed to be responsible for him. The British Raj comes out of the story very very badly, with the exception of people like Auntie May.There were moments of mild humour and just enough kindness to keep with book from hopelessness, but a reminder again that we do not know another person's story and how it has affected them.

[hebephrene · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Delightful. Read it in a few days it was so enjoyable. Wonderful omniscient narrator although we are focused mainly on Old Filth. In contrast to Kinder Than Solititude the murder at the center of the book is artfully withheld. You don't feel manipulated since the book isn't relying on the tension of crime but rather relies on the main character. This is the world of the Raj Orphans, kids sent back to England by parents who are based in the outer reaches of the Empire and who they never know. The lack of love in their early lies is formative, sometimes resulting in compensative accomplishment but often, as Old Filth says, rendering them incapable of love. Gardam is generous, knows her subject and writes with a restrained elegance. It goes so smoothly you might miss the consummate craft that allows her to move so gracefully about between times, characters and places. This is not a deep nor powerful book but just a very pleasurable read. Enjoy

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Edward Feathers retired to England after an illustrious law career in Hong Kong. He was regarded as the epitome of the British upper class: stiff upper lip matched by a stiff spine; incredibly proper with a conventional marriage and no knowledge of even his longtime servants' names. Only his self-given ironically humorous nickname, Filth, (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong) gave a inkling that there might be more to the man. Slowly however we learn his backstory. With each puzzle piece filled in, we see a bit more of the boy, a Raj Orphan – whose father, a British official in Malaya had shipped him to England to be civilized and then educated. Still waters run deep, as they say.Wonderful character study, with interesting twists, and I thought it was wonderfully written as well as entertaining. I'll definitely be going on with this series.Side note - Ms Gardam was 72 when this was published.

[ameise1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am fascinated by Gardams writing style. She contrives to portray the life of Edward Feathers concise. It is exciting to read from the first page to last. Even if it is a fiction, it shows the sad fate of English children who were taken from their parents abroad and were taken to foster families in England. Their fate during their childhood impressed and they fought partly the rest of their life with this trauma. Edward was a Solicitor General and has received his facade of his life upright. This earned him not only friends but he remained despite marriage a loner who has difficulties in dealing with others. Only in old age, after the death of his wife, he faced up to its past and open towards others.

[bostonseanachie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a solid, slightly fussy, slightly old-fashioned book about an essentially orphaned ex-pat, his extraordinary judicial life, and his "return" to England (where he had never actually lived for any period of time). the "Old filth" of the title is a reference to this character as well as (mataphorically) to some of the experiences of his past -- whether traumatic or just not English enough. The nearly century-long span of the novel's telling is carried off masterfully; the moving back and forth through time was seamless. That said, this is very much character-driven and not event-driven, and I could see folks being tired by the lack of narrative drive.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

His colleagues at the Bar called him Filth, but not out of irony. It was because he was considered to be the source of the old joke, Failed In London Try Hong Kong. It was said that he had fled the London Bar, very young, very poor, on a sudden whim just after the War, and had done magnificently well in Hong Kong from the start. Being a modest man, they said, he had called himself a parvenu, a fraud, a carefree spirit.Filth in fact was no great maker of jokes, was not at all modest about his work and seldom, except in great extremity, went in for whims. He was loved, however, admired, laughed at kindly and still much discussed many years after retirement.In a sense, this book is like an extended obituary of Sir Edward Feathers, aka Old Filth. Readers learn at the beginning that he was a legend in his own time. The rest of the book tells how the legend was made. Filth's story is told in layers that alternate between past and present. By the end of the book, readers will understand Filth better than he understood himself, and may count themselves among his admirers.Filth was what is referred to as a “Raj orphan” - British children whose parents lived and worked in one of Britain's colonies. When the children reached school age, they were sent back to Great Britain to be raised by family members or even strangers. This theme may have special appeal to readers who were third culture kids, like children of missionaries.Filth's wife, Betty, is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Apparently her story is told in a companion novel, which I will be compelled to read at some point in the future.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Edward Feathers, often called Filth ("failed in London, try Hong Kong), has returned to England after a prestigious career as a lawyer and judge. Now retired and a widower, he reflects back on his life and as the story unfolds you realize that no one can truly know a person from the outside looking in.Old Filth is the story, told non-chronologically, of a boy who was born in Malaya and sent to England for schooling, much like other so-called Raj orphans. Old Filth himself is a bit of a curmudgeon and loner, his story sometimes terribly sad even though he's deemed "successful" by his peers. A thoughtful and understated character study.

[thebookjunky · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Old Filth. "Failed in London, tried Hong Kong". He is an old man now, a former lawyer and then judge who personified England's colonialist outposts. His memories of his years as a 'Raj orphan', of his education and early career in England, and of those other lives that became intertwined with his, all become admixed and blend together with his present day falling into frailty. His life was bound up into the highlights of the history of Britain in the twentieth century. It is a description of a time that was, and exists no longer.

[oldblack-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Why am I so out of line with everyone else? Almost everyone gives this 3 or more stars, but I was rather unimpressed. I really didn't like the style, in parts. I suppose kinder people would call it creative, but I found these varieties of style (e.g. describing a scene as in a play) just distracting. I didn't find a lot of depth of characters, either. I didn't find any of the 'humour' that some reviewers found, nor did I find it particularly 'moving'.In fact I only picked this author because of a follow-up of observing someone reading one of her books on the train! I might try one more of Gardam's books . . or maybe not.

[randymetcalfe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sir Edward Feathers is retired, renowned (in legal circles), redoubtable, and almost entirely alone. Even his companion in life, his wife Betty, doesn’t know everything about him. And yet, it is said even of lawyers, that they once were children. Sir Edward’s childhood was both singular and sadly typical. A Raj orphan, he is spirited away from his Malaysia village as a small child to be taken Home for safe keeping, or in this case to Wales, where he suffers unspecified horrors that scar him for life. Of course in a life like his, what is one scar more or less? For shocks and betrayals and tragedy abound in his life. As do moments of wonder and light. And when all is said and done, it only remains to note how little has been said of what has been done.Jane Gardam brings Sir Edward to life. Known as ‘Old Filth’ (Failed In London Try Hong Kong), he is a delightfully complex and almost inscrutable character. His life is so rich in event and masque that Gardam seems barely able to keep a grip on the reins of his story as it races round its curves. But that too is an effect that only a novelist like Gardam could achieve. And this is surely an achievement. With gentle touches and fitful forays into the past, Gardam humanizes Sir Edward. And while some of what happened to the young Eddie might come across as melodrama, the fact that Sir Edward contains and suppresses it all, doesn’t speak of it even to Betty, makes it seem merely the normThe writing is fresh and rich with detail and even emotion, for such an apparently emotionless man. The other characters are suitably enigmatic, at least to Sir Edward who little understands himself. Indeed most of the people we encounter here are damaged in one way or another, and most often by events in their childhood. And yet it all adds up to something satisfying, and terribly British.A most fascinating and surprising read. Recommended.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Never thought I would have liked a book with such an awful title about an old English stuffed shirt but I actually loved it. Wonderful writing, wonderful insight into a difficult character.

[y2ash · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's difficult to me to say if I really enjoyed "Old Filth" or not. I am not sure yet if it was/is worth the hype. Old Filth is about an aging average British/Malayan judge who goes on a impromptu and highly erratic road trip, when his wife dies, to visit his two "cousins" Barbara aka Babs and Claire. The three share a murderous secret in their past regarding their foster mother Ma Dibbs.

Superficially, Old Filth has very little payoff as it is a very simple story. Towards the end, it looks like Old Filth wants to be absolved for his sins and repent. He even calls for a vicar he cannot stand so he can confess and then he doesn't and then goes to the only truly place he ever felt at Home.

However, when I analyzed the complexities, it moves beyond a simple story and that I can commend for it. I loved that, because of his wife Betty's death, it sort of unlocked all of these repressed memories in Old Filth's mind. That significant event just unlocked the floodgates for him and you find out that before he was this highly respected judge, he was this youth who seemed to be getting abandoned by everyone he loved.

In a sense, Betty abandoned him for death.

This novel felt to me like watching an old black and white movie TCM. Gardam did a wonderful job with that imagery. It felt like a weird reading experience. It also reminded me of a Dickins or Christie novel. I would say that Old Filth isn't for everyone. I'm still not sure about me.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Edward Feathers's story is full of insights into a familiar character type: the high acheiving, emotionally repressed, stiff upper-lipped, superficially elegant, well-educated son of the pseudo-aristocracy that governed the former British colonies. Now a retired judge in his 80s whose wife has recently passed awy, Old Filth (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong) struggles to find a mooring in a changing world, and along the way, comes to terms with his past. Summed up, Feathers's childhood was shaped by a series of handings-off. His mother died following his birth, and, with barely a single glance, his father shuttled him off to live with Malaysian locals until he was 4-1/2, at which time he was ripped from the arms of the only caretaker he had ever known and sent, along with two young female cousins, to live in a foster home in Wales. This home was not, shall we say, the ideal situation for young children, but it met Feathers senior's criteria: it was cheap. When circumstances forced him to be moved yet again, young Eddie was whisked off to his father's old prep school--a place where, fortunately, he thrived academically and made his first real friend, Pat Ingleby. On holidays spent with the Inglebys (who were properly remunerated by his father), Eddie had his first taste of what family life might be like.But, alas, World War II intervened, bringing with it a series of losses and tragedies. Almost 18, and just as he passed the Oxford entrance exams, Eddie's father decides he should join not the RAF but the ranks of England's child refugees, and, once again, he becomes a pawn in motion.The above "life itinerary" barely scratches the surface of Gardam's thoroughly engaging story, a story that is alternately funny and heartbreaking. Nor does it do justice to the many unique and fascinating characters in Feathers's life: his Scottish wife Betty; his judicial rival Veneering; cousins Babs and Claire (both as girls and as elderly women); Albert Loss, a fellow passenger on board a ship bound for Singapore; "Sir," the lovable prep school headmaster; and many others.Read it--you won't be sorry.As for me, I'm off to start Gardam's follow-up novel, The Man in the Wooden Hat, which apparently focuses on Betty Feathers.

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

They don’t even see him, in a corner of the room, when today’s important lawyers remember Old Filth. They remember him with a touch of fond reverence—Failed In London but surely made it when he Tried Hongkong. They know he’s back in England, and his wife died, and there was that thing... maybe.But there are many “things” hiding in Jane Gardam’s novel, Old Filth: The history of England’s children, born in the Empire’s farflung corners and sent “home” because, somehow, foreign illnesses might be more dangerous than growing up without a family; the history of war, its confusion and agony and loss; and the history of law in the promise of foreign shores. Relationships slowly reveal themselves in new lights as different characters take the stage. And behind it all, almost unseen, Old Filth is almost accidentally gathering his fractured selves into one—invisible, lost, forgotten, then remembered again.The writing is pleasingly spare, inviting readers to connect the dots, and rewarding them with brilliantly evocative scenes, low-key pathos and humor, and powerful depths of character and relationships. Events shift effortlessly from past to present, from Malaysia to boarding school and university; and every mystery hides its own kind of answer, near or far, waiting for its perfect revelation. The novel is powerfully moving. The protagonist demands an almost reluctant sympathy. And the decline and fall of Empire are beautifully chronicled in the life of a lonely, oddly appealing, irascible old man.Disclosure: Our book group picked this book and I’m so glad they did.

[ehines_20 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The construction of the novel reminded me of Catch-22, but the story being built here is a much more personal one, and the architecture reflects the eccentricities of the main character rather than ostentatious intricacies from the author.The personal story has a lot to do with mortality and loss (the name of one of the characters), but even more about the losses we incur without anyone dying--through separation, neglect, growing apart, ignorance, arrogance, inability to communicate, the passage of time . . . how many of our connections we cheapen, lose or fail to make in the first place.And sometimes how fragile & tawdry our connections are in any case.If this sounds depressing/disturbing, this novel can be that.But it also has another side: where tawdry relationships can actually come to mean a little something. Where people's seeming self-seeking is actually altruistic. Where people do care, if not absolutely and forever, at least for a time.For a novel with a character named Vaneering, it has a very unvarnished feel to it.