Gardam, Jane: The Man in the Wooden Hat

‘Full of the humour and eccentricity that have made Gardam one of the most enjoyable novelists writing today‘ Independent on Sunday Old Filth told the story of Sir Edward (Eddie) Feathers QC, aka Filth, his colonial upbringing and career, his long and comfortable marriage, his rivalries and friendships. The Man in the Wooden Hat picks up these threads from the perspective of Filth‘s wife, Betty. An orphan of the Japanese internment camps, a free spirit, a clever code-breaker at Bletchley Park, Betty has her own secret passions. No wonder she is drawn to Filth‘s hated rival at the Bar, the brash, forceful Veneering. ‘What a lot Jane Gardam knows about love and its accommodations; the rich contradictory play of desire and loyalty; the sudden storms of feeling. And how elegantly and intelligently she writes about the instinctive, tendril-like gropings of one human heart towards another‘ Jane Shilling Daily Telegraph