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

"Gardam is an exquisite storyteller, picking up threads, laying them down, returning to them and giving them new meaning."

The Seattle Times

Jane Gardam's highly praised trilogy that began with Old Filth, continued with The Man in the Wooden Hat, and concludes with this book tells the story of a decades-long marriage stretching from the immediate post-World War II period to the early years of the twenty-first century. Old Filth was the story of Sir Edward Feathers-so clever, so triumphantly his own man, so wounded by his dreadful childhood. The Man in the Wooden Hat was his wife Betty's story, in which the difference between marriage and romance is weighed with great subtly and understanding. In Last Friends it is Terence Veneering's turn. Filth's hated rival in court, Veneering has escaped both his unconventional upbringing and the war and later emerges in the Far East as a brilliant, handsome man of panache and fame. Last Friends is an unforgettable novel that brings a magnificent trilogy to an end with the deep satisfaction that only great literature provides.

"I don't know why Gardam isn't universally celebrated and beloved. Her prose is dazzling, and she writes with a kind

of subdued but wicked humor." Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds

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.