Old Filth Summary
Jane Gardam

Old Filth Overview

Jane Gardam's Old Filth is the story of Sir Edward Feathers, his long and eventful life and his continual search for Home. It is in part historical fiction, covering some of the major events of the twentieth century, and in part fictional memoir, using Filth's story to explore the effects of British colonialism on its British subjects. The premise of the story rests on Filth as an old man remembering and coming to terms with his fraught childhood, beginning in British Malaya before moving to Wales, England, and at one point even all the way to Africa and then Singapore. The story alternates between Filth's life before age 20 and his life as an old man, using this alternation to explore the idea of memory and the psychological impacts of trauma.