Book Review
Old Filth By JANE GARDAM
Reviewed by PEGGY BARNETT
Let's deal with the title first. This isn't pornography or waste management. "Old Filth" is the nickname bestowed on Sir Edward Feathers, a prominent member of the bar, because he is said to have invented the phrase "Failed In London. Try Hong Kong."

He is introduced, along with the nickname, in a dialog among jurists at lunch when they see a familiar, elderly figure. They comment that he indeed "tried Hong Kong."

Nearing 80, he lives alone in the country, his wife Betty having died a few years before the book begins. "His success as an advocate in Hong Kong had been phenomenal for he had had ease, grasp, diligence, and flair." He and Betty had both been children of the British Raj in India, sent home to England to be educated.

We learn about their lives through flashback scenes and through the eyes of others. Old Filth seems a really nice person, getting along with almost everyone, though there is a hint that he had one enemy, Veneering. Almost before we are settled into the story, Old Filth has stepped out on a snowy night to see if the taxi has arrived. Unfortunately, he is in his slippers and the door locks behind him.

It turns out that his neighbor is the afore-mentioned Veneering, whom he has been avoiding since he moved in next door. With little choice, he makes his way down the long driver, and Veneering, also an old man now, welcomes him in and they become friends.

In the next scene, we meet Edward's mother, who dies a few days after he is born in India. His father, a wounded war hero, is a wealthy, overworked colonial administrator. He is not unkind; he simply ignores his young son, giving him into the care of his wet nurse and his daughter. When he is four and a half, he is jerked out of his happy existence to be taken to England to a home where two girl cousins and another boy live with a wicked old woman. His aunts were supposed to have investigated the home, but they have obviously neglected to do so.

Something dreadful happens there, but Gardam does not let us know what that something was till the end of the book. Young Edward is rescued by the headmaster of the school which he then attends. We are beguiled by Old Filth as he grows and learns and by many minor, delightful characters, including the cousins and the missionary who brings him "home." Betty is particularly likable, but she dies early on, planting tulips in her garden.

This is Gardam's twelfth novel, but she is better known in England than here. She acknowledges her debt to Rudyard Kipling in the writing of this book, to his autobiography and stories. However, this is Gardam's own original story, told with wit and compassion.

Old Filth is available at the Mary Willis Library.

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