Last Friends

By: Jane Gardam

Narrated by: Bill Wallis

Shortlisted for the 2014 Folio Prize.

Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat told with bristling tenderness and black humour the stories of that Titan of the Hong Kong law courts, Old Filth QC, and his clever, misunderstood wife Betty. Last Friends, the final volume of this trilogy, picks up with Terence Veneering, Filth's great rival in work and - though it was never spoken of - in love.

Veneering's were not the usual beginnings of an establishment silk: the son of a Russian acrobat marooned in northeast England and a devoted local girl, he escapes the war to emerge in the Far East as a man of panache, success, and fame. But, always, at the stuffy English Bar he is treated with suspicion: where did this blond, louche, brilliant Slav come from?

Veneering, Filth, and their friends tell a tale of love, friendship, grace, the bittersweet experiences of a now-forgotten Empire, and the disappointments and consolations of age.

©2013 Jane Gardam (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"An ambitious and complex portrait of extraordinary times." (Guardian)

A loose jumble to conclude the triogy

Old Filth, the first novel in the trilogy, is superb. The Man in the Wooden Hat isn' quite as good, but it narrates things largely from Betty's point of view, and this enriches and complicates the whole story. I found this book interesting simply because I'd read the previous two, and it offers more background. But as a novel in its own right, it's a bit of a mess, moving between times and perspectives with no clear purpose or direction. Still enjoyable, though, since Gardam is a fin writer and Wallis a great narrator.