Old Filth

Old Filth, a historical novel by Jane Mary Gardam, OBE, is the first in a trilogy. Published in 2004 to much critical acclaim, the book centers on an elderly man looking back on his life and trying to make sense of the past. It was nominated for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction. Two-time-winner of the Whitbread Award, Gardam is a bestselling author of both children’s and adult novels.

Sir Edward Feathers is an eighty-year-old widower living a comfortable and quiet life in Dorset, England. Before retiring, Feathers was a successful judge in the English courts and had a prestigious legal career. After training as a lawyer in England, he worked in Southeast Asia for many years before returning to the U.K. In peer circles, this makes him an “Old Filth” – Filth being an acronym for “Failed in London, Try Hong Kong.”

Much of Old Filth is spent looking back at Feathers’s past. Ever since the death of his wife, Betty, he’s felt lost. He is increasingly preoccupied with his earlier years, and he spends a lot of time reminiscing. As these are his memories, Feathers doesn’t examine them in chronological order, but in order of importance to him. The narrative structure, therefore, moves backward and forward in time between the past and the present.



Feathers is born in the Kotakinakulu province of British-ruled Malaya, which is now Malaysia. His mother dies giving birth to him, so he is sent to live with his father, a district officer now stationed again in the U.K. His father, however, doesn’t want him, and Feathers is sent back to Malaya to live with his wet-nurse and her twelve-year-old daughter, Ada. Ada is the one who raises him for the most part, and Feathers has a happy childhood in Kotakinakulu.

His happiness is short-lived when he’s sent to Wales for school. Living in a foster home with his two cousins, he adjusts to British life. He doesn’t give much thought to his father, because he’s never known him, but he often feels guilty because his mother died giving birth to him. Feathers is preoccupied with these feelings for a long time. He and Betty never have any children; he seems to prefer it this way.

Old Filth then moves forward to a time when Betty is still alive. Betty has an affair with one of Feathers’s most hated colleagues from Hong Kong, Terry Veneering, who later becomes their neighbor in the U.K. Terry and Betty have a secret child together, which Feathers doesn’t know about at the time. He only knows because he found pearls from Terry hidden in the garden. He recalls now that Betty became withdrawn the last time she spoke to Terry. During this conversation, Terry tells him, Betty found out that their son had died.



Betty died while hiding the pearls in the garden; she died trying to cover up her actions. What’s significant about this is that the past can never be swept away entirely, and “filth” sticks. Feathers has carried around a sense of failure and inadequacy for some time.

Feathers then thinks back on leaving Wales and attending prep school. He doesn’t have much time to settle in before WWII breaks out, and everything changes again. His father, who has never been part of his life, now wants him to take shelter in Singapore, but Feathers is turned around because of the Japanese occupation. He resents ever leaving England behind. He loses many good friends to the War; their memories still haunt him.

At this point, there’s an interlude in the narrative. Colleagues are thinking about Feathers and the life he’s led. They think he’s boring and typical, and that he’s never known hardship. This shows how little they’ve known him.



The narrative then jumps back to the end of WWII. Feathers attends Oxford University, where he studies law. He’s not passionate about law, but he doesn’t know what else to do with his life, and he’s determined to have a purpose since so many others have died. After he graduates from law school, he works in a small office handling cases he has no interest in. Feeling that he will never reach his full potential, he applies for a job in Hong Kong. When he gets the job, he moves to Southeast Asia and rediscovers his passion for life.

All these memories lead up to the narrative’s conclusion—Feathers has committed a crime he wants to confess to before he dies. He explains that, back in Wales, he and his cousins were abused. Together, they murdered their abuser. He doesn’t regret doing this, and neither do his cousins. Instead, Feathers finally feels “clean.”

Feathers wants to see Malaya one last time while he’s still fit enough to travel. However, he dies upon leaving the plane, never getting to see the place of his upbringing again. His colleagues still think he lived an ordinary and boring life because Feathers never shared his memories with anyone. Nevertheless, Feathers dies peacefully, knowing he has no secrets to hide.