The Man In The Wooden Hat (Old Filth Trilogy 2)

Its a cliche to compare novelists to Jane Austen, but in the case of Jane Gardam it happens to be true. Her diamondlike 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 CraigHer work, like Sylvia Townsend Warners, has that appealing combination of elegance, erudition and flinty wit Patrick GaleFilth (Failed In London, Try Hong Kong) is a successful lawyer when he marries Elisabeth in Hong Kong soon after the War. Reserved, immaculate and courteous, Filth finds it hard to demonstrate his emotions. But Elisabeth is different a free spirit. She was brought up in the Japanese Internment Camps, which killed both her parents but left her with a lust for survival and an affinity with the Far East. No wonder she is attracted to Filths hated rival at the Bar the brash, forceful Veneering. Veneering has a Chinese wife and an adored son and no difficulty whatsoever in demonstrating his emotions . . .How Elisabeth turns into Betty and whether she remains loyal to stolid Filth or is swept up by caddish Veneering, makes for a pageturning plot in a perfect novel which is full of surprises and revelations, as well as the humour and eccentricites for which Jane Gardams writing is famous.