Jane Gardam - Old Filth

Review by Ro Bennett on show 25th Feb 2010
bought Old Filth because the reading group at St Martins said they were interested in any book by Jane Gardam. I’d never heard of her so decided to look her up.

From the back cover: FILTH in his heyday, was an international lawyer with a practice in the Far East. Now only the oldest QCs and Silks can remember that his nickname stood for Failed in London Try Hong Kong. I didn’t know what Silks were so looked it up and it’s Queen or King’s council so named because they had the right to wear a gown made of silk.

Long ago, Filth was a Raj orphan - one of the many young children sent ‘Home’ from the East to be fostered and educated in England. Jane Gardam’s novel tells his story, from his birth in what was then Malaya to the extremities of his old age. In s doing, she not only encapsulates a whole period from the glory days of the British Empire, through the Second World War, to the present and beyond, but also illuminates the complexities of the character known variously as Eddie, the Judge, Fevvers, Filth, Master of the Inner Temple, Teddy and Sir Edward Feathers.

This didn’t particularly inspire me to read the book but it had mainly good reviews so I went for it. I found it a very touching book and I felt quite weepy several times. But besides it being tragic in places it’s also humorous, for instance he always refers to the lady who helps out in the house as Mrs...Er... and the time he decides to drive his Rolls Royce which he hasn’t driven for years up North on all the motorways.

However there were several surprises and shocks as the book progressed and I found myself saying things like ‘ Oh my goodness so that was him!!‘ or ‘Oh no! that was her!!’ It was a real page turner. I often found myself feeling so sorry for Filth. He’s a complex character but also very naive at the same time. My heart went out to him and I felt quite protective of him.

I didn’t know anything about Raj orphans. Rudyard Kipling was a Raj orphan and was educated in Britain. The children were sent very young to foster parents or boarding schools and that must have been horrendous. Kipling was only 5 when he was sent over and according to the book he suffered from half blindness when he was 7 - a psychological blindness - how traumatic it must have been for them! Imagine leaving India or Burma or wherever and arriving in England in the Winter without your mum and dad!

An ironic part of the book is that his colleagues and juniors who are all in awe of him describe him as someone to whom nothing much has happened in his life, they have no idea of all the things he experienced. And of course, reading the book you know that is far from true.

When the story opens Filth is almost 80 and he and his wife Betty have retired to a comfortable life in Dorset. I don’t want to give any of the story away as that would spoil the way it unfolds and the surprises wouldn’t be surprises then. It’s well worth reading.

One review I agree with said: A gentle yet gripping story 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.

Ro Bennett
happycastaway@btinternet.com