{"product_id":"old-filth-50th-anniversary-edition-9780349145266","title":"Old Filth 50th Anniversary Edition","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJane Gardam''s funny and wise masterpiece, reissued with a new introduction by Nina Stibbe\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''\u003ci\u003eOld Filth\u003c\/i\u003e has stayed with me for years'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSATHNAM SANGHERA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Sharp, humane, generous and wonderfully funny'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHILARY MANTEL\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''The last great book I read'' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRACHEL WEISZ  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Gardam''s masterpiece''\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFilth, in his heydey, was an international lawyer with a practice in the Far East. Now, only the oldest QCs can remember that his nickname stood for Failed In London Try Hong Kong. Long ago, Old 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 doing so, 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 illumina\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA magnificent, deeply moving and compassionate portrait of an era and a sentimental education * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eBeautiful, vivid and defiantly funny * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eI recommend it wholeheartedly for its economy, breadth of narrative, and its insight, humour and pathos * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eWhat a spiky brilliant sledgehammer of a novel is Jane Gardam's \u003ci\u003eOld Filth\u003c\/i\u003e * Patrick Ness *\u003cbr\u003eThis novel is surely Gardam's masterpiece... On the human level, it is one of the most moving fictions I have read for years... This is the rare novel that drives its reader forward while persistently waylaying and detaining by the sheer beauty and inventiveness of its style... her cunning wit, moving deftly between scenes and eras, displays the tragedy of a vintage world forever passing away * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eIt's a cliché to compare novelists to Jane Austen, but in the case of Jane Gardam it happens to be true. Her diamond-like prose, her understanding of the human heart, her formal inventiveness and her sense of what it is to be alive - young, old, lonely, in love - never fades * Amanda Craig *\u003cbr\u003eExcellent and compulsively readable... Old Filth belongs in the Dickensian pantheon of memorable characters * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eJane Gardam's work is rich and diverse and she writes beautifully... She's a treasure of contemporary English writing * Ian McEwan *\u003cbr\u003eLike Samuel Beckett, Gardam continually explores the corrosive loneliness of being alive and the courage it takes to continue... Readers will relish \u003ci\u003eOld Filth \u003c\/i\u003efor its compassionate wisdom, its comprehension of the way we lived then and live now, and for its absolute mastery of authorial tone - the product of a lifetime of experience and craft... It is a Rembrandt portrait of a novel... Don't miss it * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eOne of the finest writers around...\u003ci\u003e Old Filth\u003c\/i\u003e has stayed with me for years... Can't think of anyone who achieves so much with so few words * Sathnam Sanghera *\u003cbr\u003eHer work, like Sylvia Townsend Warner's, has that appealing combination of elegance, erudition and flinty wit * Patrick Gale *\u003cbr\u003eExcellently observed and quietly moving... Gardam invents an apparently composed character, and then disassembles him into pieces which - on closer inspection - look jagged and in poor repair * Independent on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eGardam pulls off the near-impossible trick of great emotional depth delivered with wingtip lightness... Her characters are drawn with rich humour, and Old Filth himself is a marvellous, moving creation whose company you find yourself sad to leave * Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eTold with compassion and great style, Gardam seems to get better as she gets older -- John Humphrys * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eSuperb... quiet beauty, sly wit and heartbreaking humanity... the author has poignantly distilled a life less ordinary into 259 unforgettable pages * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eSparkles with Gardam's wit, sensibility and poignancy and it deservedly earned an Orange Prize nomination... a fictional life of absorbing, emotional sophistication about memory, loss and the vestiges of empire... a beautiful, melancholy novel which captivates, saddens and delights * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eSharp, humane, generous and wonderfully funny, she is one of our very finest writers * Hilary Mantel *\u003cbr\u003eWill bring immense pleasure to readers who treasure fiction that is intelligent, witty, sophisticated and - a quality encountered all too rarely in contemporary culture - adult * Washington Post *\u003cbr\u003eI can't say I've read anything else like Old Filth, which stands out for me as a singular, opalescent novel, a thing of beauty that gives immense gratification to its lucky readers * Meg Wolitzer *\u003cbr\u003eBeautifully written and strangely moving * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eA novel of great perception and quietly killing prose * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eWith superb skill and economy, Jane Gardam encapsulates the long lifetime of Sir Edward Feathers... Witty, humane, wise - this end-of-Empire tragicomedy is a masterclass in conducting shifting empathies * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eThe last great book I read * Rachel Weisz, Grazia *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48884016775511,"sku":"9780349145266","price":11.91,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/old-filth-50th-anniversary-edition-9780349145266","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}