by Jane Gardam
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 (mata...
bookshelves: hong-kong, fraudio, published-2004, winter-20132014, period-piece, tbr-busting-2013, lit-richer, colonial-overlords, legal-courtcase Read from December 02, 2013 to January 02, 2014 From the description: Sir Edward Feathers has had a brilliant career, from his early days as a lawyer...
I think I must be losing my tolerance for books written to a theme, rather than the author’s burning desire to tell a story. This one is about Raj orphans, those children of parents busily engaged on the work of the British Empire in India or various parts of the Far East. While their parents swanne...
An unexpectedly excellent book that I bought because of the title and had come to dread reading. “Filth” stands for “failed in London try Hong Kong,” and the thumbnail story line is “Raj orphan British attorney who made a fortune in Hong Kong looks back at his life.” Sounds like such a yawn but it ...
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,...
FILTH stands for "Failed in London, Try Hong Kong." The story of a successful British barrister from Hong Kong who has retired in his eighties and is living in a cottage in Dorset. The recent death of his wife has causes him to revisit his past memories of growing up and becoming the man he is now. ...
Like Proulx, Gardam's true genius is for the short story. Here she does a fine, if a little overrated job of capturing the character of eminent judge Filth.
Marvelous. Great read! Why? Well, it is informative - it depicts the life of a Raj orphan, of which there were many. Through books such as this history becomes real, not just a subject of dates and numbers. I like learning as I read. Furthermore FILTH, the main character of the book, does not have a...
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