Last Friends - (Old Filth Trilogy) by Jane Gardam (Paperback)

About the Book

The marriage of Edward Feathers and Betty as seen through the eyes of Edward's friend and Betty's lover Terry Veneering in the third book in the Old Filth trilogy ("Old Filth," "The Man in the Wooden Hat," "Last Friends").

Book Synopsis

"The satisfying conclusion to Gardam's Old Filth trilogy offers exquisite prose, wry humor, and keen insights into aging and death" (The New Yorker).

While Old Filth introduced readers to Sir Edward Feathers, his dreadful childhood, and his decades-long marriage, The Man in the Wooden Hat was his wife Betty's story. Last Friends is Terence Veneering's turn. His beginnings were not those of the usual establishment grandee. Filth's hated rival in court and in love is the son of a Russian acrobat marooned in the English midlands and a local girl. He escapes the war and later emerges in the Far East as a man of panache and fame. The Bar treats his success with suspicion: where did this handsome, brilliant Slav come from? This exquisite story of Veneering, Filth, and their circle tells a bittersweet tale of friendship and grace and of the disappointments and consolations of age. They are all, finally, each other's last friend as this magnificent series ends with the deep and abiding satisfaction that only great literature provides.

"[Gardam's] prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor. She keeps us entertained, and she keeps us guessing. Be thankful for her books. Be thankful for this trilogy, which is ultimately an elegy, created with deep affection."--The Washington Post

"Restores us to an era rich in spectacle and bristling with insinuation and intrigue. Vivid, spacious, superbly witty, and refreshingly brisk . . . the story (and the author) will endure."--The Boston Globe

"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."--National Post

Review Quotes

Praise for Last Friends

"The satisfying conclusion to Gardam's Old Filth trilogy offers exquisite prose, wry humor, and keen insights into aging and death."
--The New Yorker

"Last Friends is evocative, elegiac, and shaded in autumnal tones, as suits the final volume in a trilogy. Like Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, the Old Filth trilogy restores us to an era rich in spectacle and bristling with insinuation and intrigue. Vivid, spacious, superbly witty, and refreshingly brisk...the story (and the author) will endure."
--The Boston Globe

"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."
--National Post

"[Gardam] is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying."
--Los Angeles Review of Books

"It's hard...not to be charmed by a writer with Gardam's substantial gifts."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Gardam proves that, even in its twilight, there is still life in the traditional English novel."--Publishers Weekly

Praise for Jane Gardam

"[Gardam] is a brilliant writer. Her prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor."
--The Washington Post

"[Gardam] is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying."
--Los Angeles Review of Books

"It's hard...not to be charmed by a writer with Gardam's substantial gifts."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Gardam's prose is so economical that no moment she describes is either gratuitous or wasted."
--The New Yorker

"Jane Gardam's beautiful, vivid, defiantly funny novels are a must."
--The Times

"Gardam is a unique and wonderful writer."
--The Huffington Post

"Gardam is the best British writer you've never heard of"
--Maureen Corrigan, NPR
"Jane Gardam is a wonderful writer. Her understanding of character and use of language are both remarkable"
--The Times
"Old Filth belongs in the Dickensian pantheon of memorable characters."
--New York Times Sunday Book Review

About the Author

Jane Gardam is the only writer to have been twice awarded the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel of the Year. She is winner of the David Higham Prize, the Royal Society for Literature's Winifred Holtby Prize, the Katherine Mansfield Prize, and the Silver Pen Award from PEN. Her novels include: God on the Rocks, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Old Filth, a finalist for the Orange Prize; The Man in the Wooden Hat, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book prize, and Last Friends, finalist for the Folio Award. She lives in the south of England, near the sea.