{"id":149,"date":"2016-02-01T22:38:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T22:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/02\/01\/old-filth-by-jane-gardam-uk-2004\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:27:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T04:27:38","slug":"old-filth-by-jane-gardam-uk-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/old-filth-by-jane-gardam-uk-2004\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Filth by Jane Gardam, UK 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The <\/span>Old Filth (<\/span><\/span><\/span>Filth: Failed In London Try Hong Kong)<\/span><\/span><\/span> of the book is <\/span>Sir Edward Feathers, <\/span>lawyer and judge, who <\/span>i<\/span>s born in Malaysia some years after the Great War. <\/span>As a very small child, he <\/span>i<\/span>s sent back to England <\/span>on his own <\/span>to be <\/span>fostered out and <\/span>educated. <\/span>His life winds through rejection, abuse, war, <\/span>marriage and <\/span>what is obviously a brilliant career (he definitely did not fail in London), but which, in the end, is summed up by a judge: ‘\u2026 difficult to say exactly what he’d done\u2026 ‘<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Eddie’s life is told in flashbacks <\/span>without any chronology. Like a painting, his life is built up in layers \u2013 sometimes the author hesitates at one particular point or at one particular colour before hopping over layers and years to investigate a completely different point or a completely different colour. Strange to say, the method works, and there is no confusion or irritation. Bit by bit Sir Edward Feathers fills out and becomes a well-rounded, <\/span>believable character.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>
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\u00a0 \u00a0Jane Gardam (The Guardian)<\/span><\/div>\n
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This is a book about a particular period in English history; it is also a book about survival. Most importantly, it is a book about our need to feel loved and to belong. <\/span>Beautifully written, it is a book that should not be missed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Old Filth (Filth: Failed In London Try Hong Kong) of the book is Sir Edward Feathers, lawyer and judge, who is born in Malaysia some years after the Great War. As a very small child, he is sent back to England on his own to be fostered out and educated. His life winds through … <\/p>\n

+ Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3820,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/3820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}