Filth: Failed in London, Try Hong Kong

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Sir Edward Feathers QC, known as Old Filth (Failed In London Try Hong kong), is acutely aware of his loneliness although he rarely voices it. Born in Malaya to a mother who immediately dies and a father whose heart has been petrified by the first world war, Eddie is expelled to the loveless mother-country.

While not hugely offensive, the term had a derogatory tone, even though some self-aware Britons would jokingly describe themselves as "filth". The book actually covers quite a bit of his past when he was growing up and in his college years (and WWII was sandwiched in there).Last Friends (2013) [“The satisfying conclusion to Gardam’s Old Filth trilogy offers exquisite prose, wry humor, and keen insights into aging and death. If the British had been more organised and assertive prior to Patten’s arrival, they might have been able to entrench democratising moves within the parameters of the Basic Law. His relationship with his wife Betty seems friendly, even though Gardam lets us know directly that Betty has found love elsewhere.

OK, I was missing the point, which was that there were a number of people involved and they all reacted differently to their experiences and the significance was the impact those experiences had on the rest of their lives - and that is something that Gardam makes us aware of. Instead, they are forming a new class of highly qualified young Britons, unable to find work at home, who are taking the manual labour jobs that have traditionally been the domain of native Chinese. The New Yorker| “All three Gardam books are beautifully written but it’s a pleasure to note that Last Friends is the most enjoyable, the funniest and the most touching.

And she mastered the transitions that flit from Old Filth to Master Eddie and some in between with graceful stability to those grounded "attachments" of Eddie Feathers' life and accomplishments. I found myself pausing often to think about such things and the reading experience was enhanced by doing so. He's looking for a new job in Hong Kong and says he's had some promising conversations with recruiters. Yet through it all he has carried with him the wounds of a difficult and emotionally hollow childhood.

I had read The Flight of the Maidens about 3 weeks ago and really liked it, and very much liked her writing style.With anatomical precision, Gardam reveals that, contrary to appearances, Sir Edward’s life is seething with incident: a “raj orphan,” whose mother died when he was born and whose father took no notice of him, he was shipped from Malaysia to Wales (cheaper than England) and entrusted to a foster mother who was cruel to him. This may explains the words "Failed in and Try" The same person is nothing special in Singapore, as too many Singaporeans are fluent in English. It had been said that he fled London Bar, very young, very poor, on a sudden whim just after the War, and had done magnificently well in Hong Kong from the start. When the story opens, Feather is already retired; Gardam flashes back and forward along the timeline throughout the novel, so skillfully that it's never annoying. He does not regret coming to Hong Kong, but says that if other graduates want to follow 'they should be more realistic than we were'.

Old Filth (aka Eddie, the Judge, Fevvers, Filth, Master of the Inner Temple, Teddy and Sir Edward Feather), is a wonderful creation through which to encapsulate a lengthy period: from the glory days of British Empire, through WW2, and into the present day. Perhaps is you lose your mother when you are three days old and have no recollection of her, maybe it is not difficult; but maybe if that death was caused by your birth, perhaps you will always feel, not only loss but also guilt. Filth (a name that never ceases to cause the reader a queasy, surprised pang with each recurrence) dies on a final journey "to Malaysia, then up to Borneo.Posters brandishing the word will be plastered all over the walls of City Hall to promote a new play of the same name as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival in March. All the while the British delegates, led by Sir Percy Cradock and later Sir Richard Evans, watched Deng’s deadline approach. And the arrogant expats in western companies in HK were quickly shown the door is probably not true nowadays.