Old Filth
by Jane Gardham.
For the first time in many book clubs there was resounding and unreserved unanimous approval for this wonderful book.
Everybody loved it.
The one reservation expressed – a disliking for sad stories – was relieved by a generous helping of humour.
Undoubtedly there is a core of sadness at the heart of the book with its themes of loss, bereavement, rejection, exclusion and repressed emotion but it is beautifully written and achieves a conclusion of wholeness and completion.
The character of Old Filth is superbly and sympathetically developed and the story is gripping and informative on the plight of the Raj Orphans.
The ironic commentary by the denizens of the Inner Temple amusingly reveals just how wrong colleagues can be.
NS May 2011
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