Friday, 18 July 2025
Books
Tomorrow I'll be presenting a book that I really love to our reading group. It's "Old Filth' by jane Gardam who died this spring at the age of 96. She started writing in her forties as soon as her youngest child, one of three, started school. Her outlook is very British, her period end of Empire. She treats her characters sometimes with humour, often revealing hidden grief, but always with kindness. I find her work quietly moving. There is a lot to reflect on and the story of Feathers stays clearly in my mind. Rarely can I recommend a book so highly!
By comparison, this recent read was instantly forgotten, I couldn't recall it at all until I picked ithe book up and read the back page blurb.It is written by another well established British writer and is about a brother and sister who have lived quiet, repressive lives, under the thumb of a domineering mother. I found it rather hard to be involved. Perhaps it is a hard act to pull off, a book featuring characters such as these!
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I loved "Old Filth", too! I read and reviewed it in 2017; if you are intested, you can find my review here:
ReplyDeletehttps://librarianwithsecrets.blogspot.com/2017/07/read-in-2017-24-old-filth.html
From what my sister told me back then, there are two other books by Jane Gardam featuring the same characters, but I obviously forgot to borrow them from my sister, since "Old Filth" is the only one I have reviewed.
As for the second book, it sounds interesting enough, with potential. I haven't read it myself but it could be another one my sister has.