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The Man in the Wooden Hat

by Jane Gardam

3.92 · rating details · 634 ratings · 218 reviews

The New York Times called Sir Edward Feathers one of the most memorable characters in modern literature. A lyrical novel that recalls his fully lived life, "Old Filth" has been acclaimed as Jane Gardam's masterpiece, a book where life and art merge. And now that beautiful, haunting novel has been joined by a companion that also bursts with humor and wisdom: "...more

Paperback, 233 pages

Published October 27th 2009 by Europa Editions (first published 2008)

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Nov 08, 2009

Courtney rated it

This book is a companion to "Old Filth," just as "Man in the Wooden Hat" protagonist Betty Feathers is a companion to the central character of the other novel, Edward Feathers.

It starts with Betty's decision to marry Edward, a charming man she hardly knows. She is 28, a virgin, an orphan, with few marital options and no money (well, until she turns 30 and her inheritance is unleashed). Edward, she can tell, is a good, caring man who will provide for her, even if ...moreThis book is a companion to "Old Filth," just as "Man in the Wooden Hat" protagonist Betty Feathers is a companion to the central character of the other novel, Edward Feathers.

It starts with Betty's decision to marry Edward, a charming man she hardly knows. She is 28, a virgin, an orphan, with few marital options and no money (well, until she turns 30 and her inheritance is unleashed). Edward, she can tell, is a good, caring man who will provide for her, even if he is deeply private and unlikely to ever fully open up.

We also get to know Albert Ross - also known as Coleridge, also as the Albatross - a strange, short Chinese solicitor who made a deep impression on Eddie Feathers when they were both youths, and who became his business partner and best friend in adulthood. Ross knows Betty's darkest secret, a pre-marital betrayal of her husband.

The plot of this book barely exists. Betty marries Edward, they live together many years, then she dies, and all of this is sketched out at the beginning.

It's made more interesting by its exploration of British colonialism and its decline through the eyes of the colonials. Edward, as we learned in "Old Filth," was born in Malaysia - then Malaya - and raised in England and Wales as a Raj Orphan. Betty was born and raised in Hong Kong, spent late childhood in a Japanese camp during World War II where both her parents die. They spend much of their adult lives together in Hong Kong, retiring, and retreating, to Britain's Donheads on the eve of Hong Kong's handover to China. It's a bittersweet handover for two souls who feel themselves more Asian than English.

The beauty of this book is in its careful study of character and in author Jane Gardam's careful understanding of unspoken and conflicting emotions. There are a few surprising revelations about Betty's choices, her marriage and her love, which may feel more meaningful if the reader has already completed "Old Filth." I'm not convinced that this book stands on its own as well as its predecessor, however. It's beautiful, but it falls just short of profound.(less)

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Aug 16, 2011

Huw Rhys rated it

I really liked the "other half" of this story, Jane Gardam's earlier novel, "Old Filth". But I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what this book was all about.

Jane Gardam writes with intelligence and authority, therefore some people (including her publishers) must have felt that there was some deep literary merit to this diatribe. It's a novel by Jane Gardam, she's won all sorts of awards, therefore by definition this will be a worthy tome...

Well, this...more

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Jan 28, 2012

Judy rated it

I think that I read Jane Gardam's book, The Man in the Wooden Hat, in the wrong order. I should have read her earlier book, Old Filth, first. And the ironic thing is that I own Old Filth. However, after reading this book, I will be reading Old Filth very shortly. Old Filth is the story of the life of Sir Edward Feathers, an international known barrister, who spends much of his career in the colony of Hong Kong. The Man in the Wooden Hat is the story of his marriage told from the perspective ...more

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Nov 28, 2011

Jeffrey Rasley added it

I can only hope that the reason this book is so poorly written is that Ms. Gardam was under pressure to publish and didn't give a damn about the quality. I loved "Old Filth". I could hardly wait to read the companion "The Man in the Wooden Hat". I can't remember the last time I was so disappointed.

I thought, at first, I was just upset because Betty betrays Eddie without any apprehensible reason and, in my view, wholly inconsistent with Betty's character. I lik...more

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Nov 13, 2011

Rachel rated it

· review of another edition

Gobbled this up after reading "Old Filth" and discovering that Gardam had written a companion novel from the point of view of Old Filth's wife, Betty. An ingenious, intriguing idea -- two novels about the same marriage. But it fell short of my expectations (and that may have been part of the problem, since "Old Filth" set them so high). The writing is still great, the story is still engaging, and the characters are still compelling, but somehow I felt that Gardam did not "...moreGobbled this up after reading "Old Filth" and discovering that Gardam had written a companion novel from the point of view of Old Filth's wife, Betty. An ingenious, intriguing idea -- two novels about the same marriage. But it fell short of my expectations (and that may have been part of the problem, since "Old Filth" set them so high). The writing is still great, the story is still engaging, and the characters are still compelling, but somehow I felt that Gardam did not "get" Betty -- capture her -- in the same way she did Eddie -- she never quite came into focus.

First of all, Eddie Feathers is too complex a character to be summed up by his marriage to Betty; much as he loves her, their marriage does not define him in the same way as Betty's marriage does in Gardam's rendering, and that limitation makes Betty less interesting, and less plausible. I wanted to know more about her upbringing in Shanghai and her time in the camps -- it wouldn't even have had to be much, but it would have balanced out the same information we got about Eddie, which helped us understand his motivations and actions much better than we are able to understand Betty's. Her attraction to Veneering and continuing attachment to him and especially to his son Harry remain mysterious.

Also, was anyone else bothered by the fact that "Betty's story" ended by sliding back into "Eddie's story"? I didn't like it that Gardam robbed Betty of her right to have her own perspective on the marriage from start to end by giving the final word to Eddie -- and his final word was a bit on the nasty side (what he knew about Betty all along; what he had kept from her), so unfortunately I ended up liking him less than I would have had I read only "Old Filth" -- the denoement made him seem much less decent.

But maybe it was not Gardam's interest that we should like her characters one way or the other, and the denoement certainly adds yet another layer of complexity to Filth, for with the switch back to his perspective at the end of "Man in the Wooden Hat", these two books are both, in the end, about him. And I was delighted enough with the whole experience of reading "companion novels" -- especially two as good as these -- that I would definitely recommend reading both (and both as opposed to just one or the other) to anyone.(less)

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Sep 11, 2011

William rated it

Jane Gardam is one of those authors about whom I suspect you could say - pick up any of her books - they're all great... but make sure you read Old Filth / The Man in the Wooden Hat before you die. Her characters are unforgettable - with only a few carefully chosen words they spring to life in all their complexity. Not only do feel that we know them - we feel that we have known them. Betty, who values loyalty and security but secretly longs for a bit of passion and excitement and is cruelly d...more

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Aug 01, 2011

Alta added it

Jane Gardam’s Man in the Wooden Hat (2009) is a sequel to Old Filfth (2006), though both novels can be read independently. The Man…is written from the perspective of Betty, married to Sir Edward Feathers, while Old Filth (Filth being an acronym for “Failed in London, Try Hong Kong”) is told from Filth’s point of view.

The Man in the Wooden Hat is one of those novels that are hard to summarize because what “happens” resides mostly in the interaction between characters—a character-dr...more

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Jul 21, 2011

Elliot Ratzman rated it

Shelves: book-club

“Love, thought Elisabeth. Adoration. Was it all just theatre?” This is the most romantic account of a sexless marriage I have read. Passionate love often ends in a ring or tears or both; it’s nice to read about a love of endurance without passion but with much kindness—lessons for us all. Award-winning author Jane Gardam’s “sequel” to “Old Filth” (Filth meaning: Failed in London; Try Hong Kong) “The Man in the Wooden Hat” is written with the wife of the lawyer Edmund Feathers (Old Filth) in the ...more

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Jun 15, 2011

Jack London rated it

If I am limited to recommend only one book, I urge you to read these two books. Jane Gardem writes prose that begins gently, invitingly, leading you to the next page and the next, never permitting you to notice that you have been drawn in to her story because all the while you read a part of your mind is asking whether ‘that could have been me….’
Old Filth has almost nothing to do with filth but, rather, is the life revisited of a British attorney who Failed in London, Tried Hong Kong. Sir...moreIf I am limited to recommend only one book, I urge you to read these two books. Jane Gardem writes prose that begins gently, invitingly, leading you to the next page and the next, never permitting you to notice that you have been drawn in to her story because all the while you read a part of your mind is asking whether ‘that could have been me….’
Old Filth has almost nothing to do with filth but, rather, is the life revisited of a British attorney who Failed in London, Tried Hong Kong. Sir Edward Feathers’ history begins the day his soul dies, not in a courtroom, not in his childhood as an orphan of English empire, but on the day he and his wife Betty fail to execute their wills. Their own lawyer having missed the appointment, he and Betty return to their retirement cottage in the country, each with his and her own thoughts, unfortunately dwelling on slights received from the other, when – Betty dies in her garden. For the first time in his life, Feathers must consider what Betty has been to him in their long and childless marriage. He begins by blaming her for dying and thereby leaving him to cope on his own with the remainder of his life. An orphan whose own parents had more or less abandoned him to English boarding schools from their post as administrators in Malaysia, Feathers reminisces about his own life, his primary school, friends lost in the war, a narrow escape, a life that no matter how fortunate he was, he views as a series of abandonments. And, at the end, he cannot understand why Betty had been so unhappy over the news that the son of his bitterest, most longstanding adversary, had died.
Standing alone, Old Filth was a finalist for the Orange Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in literature. However, Ms. Gardem goes beyond permitting Edward Feathers to live and die alone. She returns to the scene in The Man in the Wooden Hat, and the scene to which she returns is not Betty’s death, but her marriage – to Old Filth. In this parallel-quel, Ms. Gardem recalls through Betty’s eyes every stage of Feathers’ life, events and people only hinted at and histories left unexplained by Old Filth. And, even though they knew each other briefly before wedding, their lives often had intersected beforehand and the intersections would continue to map their lives afterward. With counsel from her friend Isobel, a warning from Feathers’ oddly invisible colleague Albert Ross, and an inexplicable fascination with the very young son of Feathers’ adversary, Betty sets aside her doubts and proceeds to marry a man who, in the event, becomes her partner in life but, rarely, her lover, or rarer still, her intimate, and, never, the father of the children she had wanted. To say more would be to say too much.
His story. Her story. And, before you have realized it, impressions of our own stories, not our marriages or love affairs or biographies, but of lives’ paths and decisions made young. Almost never do we perform the parts of the plays we have written for ourselves. These novels remind us that in all of our roles, the value of the play will not be revealed until the end. And, through her elegant skill, Jane Gardem graces every reader with literature that before one’s eyes has progressed from slender and gentle vignettes to reveal a magnificent, gripping, and rewarding story told in two novels.(less)

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Jul 19, 2010

Angela rated it

Recommended to Angela by: nytimes review

In The Man in the Wooden Hat, Gardam returns to the story of Eddie and Betty Feathers's lives and marriage as English expats in Hong Kong introduced in Old Filth. I expected the story to shine a whole new light on the events of the first novel, creating a more complex whole. Perhaps expectations were a bit high, and there is less new information here than one might hope. This is meant to be Betty's story, but for that it talks very little about her life before meeting Feathers. Her relationship ...more

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Jul 02, 2010

Ann rated it

This is a companion to Gardam's superb "Old Filth." It's a worthy companion, because it fills in all kinds of holes that you didn't even know were there, painting a very different and fascinating picture of the same characters. It's beautifully written,, but I preferred "Old Filth" for its deep and narrow focus on Edward; this book is about his wife Betty but also about all the other characters in "Filth" and thus seemed to lose a little of "Filth"'s ext...more

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Jan 31, 2011

Kiwiflora rated it

Sir Edward and Lady Elizabeth Feathers are devoted servants of Her Majesty's cause in the colony of Hong Kong from the time of the end of WWII to sometime before the handover back to the Chinese - in other words a very long time! In her book 'Old Filth' Jane Gardam chronicles the life of Edward from his unhappy childhood beginning in Malaya with the death of this mother in childbirth, growing up in foster homes in Wales with truly ghastly foster parents, to schooling in England, a career in the ...moreSir Edward and Lady Elizabeth Feathers are devoted servants of Her Majesty's cause in the colony of Hong Kong from the time of the end of WWII to sometime before the handover back to the Chinese - in other words a very long time! In her book 'Old Filth' Jane Gardam chronicles the life of Edward from his unhappy childhood beginning in Malaya with the death of this mother in childbirth, growing up in foster homes in Wales with truly ghastly foster parents, to schooling in England, a career in the law which takes him to Hong Kong. Hence the title Old Filth which has nothing to do with his standards of personal hygiene, but simply stands for Failed In London Try Hong Kong. Which he does with outstanding success. Along the way he marries Elizabeth, or Betty as she is known, but we actually learn very little about Betty in this first novel. Together they stand at the top of the civil service success ladder, complete with knighthood (him) and OBE (her). The story finishes with Sir Edward's old age in Dorset, thus concluding a most interesting commentary on the life of the expatriate in the British colony.

In this particular book, the sequel, the author tells the story of the other half of this success story - Betty. Betty is also a product of a traumatic childhood, having spent most of it in a Japanese internment camp, where both her parents died. We don't learn much about her prior to meeting Edward, other than that she is really quite directionless and finds herself back in Hong Kong about to accept Edward's proposal of marriage. It is not and never becomes a marriage of passion, poor Betty having no role models of what a marriage should or could be, with only distant memories of what her mother was like, and Edward of course has no idea what a marriage should or could be either! Not a good start you might think.

But being British and of the stiff upper lip variety, full of post war fortitude and the getting on with it attitude, that is exactly what they do. Along the way there are slip ups and the odd tragedy which is probably a very normal part of most marriages, and yet it is all handled extremely pragmatically and sensibly with Betty never wavering from her promise to never leave Edward. In fact the marriage and their lives together comes across as incredibly ordinary, whatever an ordinary marriage may be like! But, as one would expect of an expert story teller, never dull. Despite the rigid confines of the British colonial civil service, Betty does manage to find herself, and rise above the banality of life around her. The gradual change for example from being called Elizabeth to Betty is an example of this. As is her determination to stay in touch with her old school friend who also lives in Hong Kong, but a far more ordinary existence than Betty. And finally after years of indecision, deciding that yes she will leave Edward and follow her heart rather than her head.

Jane Gardam is wonderfully observant and insightful of people and relationships. She also writes very vividly of how Hong Kong was after the war in all its colonial splendour in an alien land. And then neatly follows this up with the tedium and uniformity of existence in London and later in the small towns of Dorset where ex-colonials of certain standing retired to. No spring chicken herself, the author is well into her eighties, and, has been writing for children and adults since the 1970s winning a large number of awards along the way.
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Oct 29, 2009

Leon rated it

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I’ve been a fan of Jane Gardam’s writing ever since I came upon her early books in the British Council Library, like God on the Rocks. I found her stories very moving and her writing very accessible and well-wrought. I still do, especially now, with her latest novel, The Man in the Wooden Hat.

She has reprised her most successful character since Faith Fox, one Edward Feathers. He first appeared as the main character in Old Filth a few years back. The novel was shortlisted for ...more

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Mar 18, 2011

Kp rated it

It was really fun to read this after having read Old Filth. It really filled in a lot of the blanks and gave a fuller perspective to the lives of both Betty and Old Filth. I'm not sure how I would have liked the book without having read the first one, however. As it was, I found this one easier to read because I DID have the background of the first book.

There sure were a lot of old secrets that both the characters carried around with them. And I don't really understand how the att...more

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Feb 22, 2010

Pattie rated it

Shelves: fiction

It's rare that a single line in a book kicks me in the stomach, but I'm giving this 5 stars just for the line: "Elizabeth thought: And it is just one hour too late."

It also gets 5 stars for the evocation of the Dexter's house where Betty stays to recuperate; I felt as if I had spent time there myself (and had an unnatural longing to spend a few weeks there right now).

There's also the sweet sense of nostalgia which hangs over so much of the story - even while ...more

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Apr 09, 2010

Amanda rated it

This is a complementary narrative to Jane Gardam's superb OLD FILTH, being the story of Edward Feathers's wife Betty -- and as such it ties up many of the loose ends left mysteriously dangling in that book. It also creates a few more of its own -- and I found I wanted to go right back and re-read OLD FILTH so as to make sense of the correspondences. It was rather like seeing one of the Alan Ayckbourne plays that supposedly take place simultaneously but must be presented sequentially. This co-dep...more

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Mar 30, 2011

Liz rated it

Jane Gardam's writing style is so easy to read that one could almost make a leap and say that children's book writers make great adult book writers. Gardam makes things so clear and simple. It is easy to visualize the characters and setting she is creating in this book as it was in Old Filth. This book gives some more information on Eddie Feathers as well as life as an expat child in China experienced by Betty, his wife. Betty's young life was horrible as Eddie's was and so one can understan...more

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Aug 27, 2010

Mary Lou rated it

Shelves: 2010, lo-bookgroup

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam is a companion piece to Old Filth, full of irony and answers to many questions about the marriage and relationship of Eddie Feathers and Betty Macintosh and a lot more information about Terry Veneering, Filth’s nemesis, who is described as, “another English lawyer, slightly younger and utterly different;” a man with a lesser education who was “bold, ugly, and unstoppable, irrepressibly merry” and to many men and women “irresistible” (20).

Bet...moreThe Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam is a companion piece to Old Filth, full of irony and answers to many questions about the marriage and relationship of Eddie Feathers and Betty Macintosh and a lot more information about Terry Veneering, Filth’s nemesis, who is described as, “another English lawyer, slightly younger and utterly different;” a man with a lesser education who was “bold, ugly, and unstoppable, irrepressibly merry” and to many men and women “irresistible” (20).

Betty seems to be more affected by her internment with her parents by the Japanese in Hong Kong than by being a Raj orphan. She sees and has a love-at-first-sight reaction to Veneering just an hour after she accepts Eddie’s proposal. She falls in love with his nine-year-old son Harry that night, too, and it is because of the son that she sees Veneering the next morning. Harry is supposed to have been on a plane that crashed, killing many kids on their way back to boarding school in England. Betty’s reaction to the news is to rush to Veneering’s apartment where she see that Harry is alive and well and where Veneering sets up what turns out to be their only sexual encounter(51 and 57).

Despite her feelings for Veneering, Betty and Eddie marry, and she begins to make a home for herself and Feathers, growing to love their neighbors and apartment, and finding herself pregnant, clearly an indication that she and Eddie consummate their marriage and are involved early on. She miscarries, though—a child that is probably Veneering’s, since Eddie believes himself to be sterile—and not long after has to have a hysterectomy. She goes to London for the surgery about the same time Harry has to have a serious operation, and she is able to help father and son by being with Harry before the procedure. Veneering sends her pearls in thanks, pearls that she and Feathers both, unbeknownst to the other, think of as her guilty pearls.

After her surgery, Ross helps her, telling her that he initially misjudged her and arranging for her to make contact with her neighbor Delilah Dexter who invites Betty to recuperate in Donhead St. Ague where she and Eddie eventually retire. Feathers advances in his career and Betty devotes herself to gardening and being the partner that English society has traditionally expected of a man of Feathers’ stature.

Betty stays with Eddie because he makes her feel safe, he gives her the type of life her parents had, she’s drawn to his neediness in a maternal way, they share the knowledge and experience of having lost loved ones, she promised she’d never leave him, and she doesn’t want to upset Harry’s life by a breaking up his parents marriage. She’s never been able to tell Eddie about her feelings for Veneering because that would show betrayal and infidelity, but she’s also never been able to tell him about her love for Harry because that developed the same night she met Veneering. When she learns of Harry’s death, she does decide to leave Eddie, but she stays to plant tulips, buries her guilty pearls, decides Eddie’s too potty to leave (210) and then dies. The timing could symbolize that without her “child,” she has no need to live but she also saw Ross (208) who showed her the night they met that he knew of her affair with Veneering and told her that he’d break her if she left Eddie (70).

Veneering moves to Donhead St. Ague after Betty has died and he and Feathers become fairly close, a logical development given the many connections of their past. When Veneering later sets off on a trip, Feathers deliberately flaunts the past to show up his old foe (225-227). Feathers confesses to Veneering that while he was with Betty in the days before her marriage, Eddie was with Isobel Ingoldby. He says that he did an even worse disservice to Betty by not telling her that he was probably sterile even though he knew she wanted ten children, and that he always knew that Veneering probably fathered the child Betty miscarried. He concludes, however, that Betty loved Harry Veneering more than either of the older men, and he reveals that Betty loaned money to Harry.

While Feathers is busy baring his soul and smugly enjoying his disclosures, Veneering is quiet. The puzzle that is left for the reader is the extent to which Ross manipulated everyone’s life. Some of Eddie’s knowledge could have come from Ross, but Eddie could also have had his own sources. Still the friendship that developed between Veneering and Feathers as old men may have been a last gift to Feathers from Ross since the dwarf was seen in the neighborhood just before Veneering bought his property.

The symbolism of the title may be that none of the men is whole; they are most effective together. The actual man in a wooden hat is a bust or half man, whose hat is separate and more magnificient than its torso. Veneering and Betty see the statue in a museum and have a hearty laugh when they discover its pieces. Most of the rest of the humor in the novel relates to Harry and situations that comes up with children.

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Sep 14, 2010

Cynthia rated it

Old Filth should be read before or after The Man in the Wooden Hat - they must be read together as their total is more than the sum of their parts. These are two stories written about the same characters, one from the perspective of the wife (Wooden Hat) and one from the perspective of the husband (Old Filth). Filth is an abbreviation for Failed in London, try Hong Kong. Sir Edward Feathers and his wife Betty are Raj orphans - children born in Malaysia but sent back to England around age 5 to be...more

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May 16, 2010

Lisa rated it

I am so happy to have learned of Jane Gardam's books. I read Old Filth, of which I wrote a glowing review. This prequel to that book is equally wonderful. It tells the story of Edward Feathers (Old Filth - failed in London try Hong Kong) and his wife, Elizabeth, their unusual courtship, engagement, and marriage. The story is packed with interesting characters, including Old Filth's powerful, mysterious long-time friend, Albert Loss (Ross, but he can't pronounce R), to his arch-nemesis, Veneering...more

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Feb 26, 2010

Kasa Cotugno rated it

Shelves: britain-scotland

It's not often that I close a book with an audible sigh. This is Betty's story, but it is also the culmination of the story of Edward Feathers as told in Old Filth. If you haven't read that wonderful book yet, read it first before this one. Like the Alexandria Quartet, like Roshomon, both novels should be taken as a whole to give the entire satisfying picture. Threaded through this narrative are snapshots into a future readers of Old Filth will recognize, but which are completed and given th...more

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Jun 19, 2010

Maggie rated it

Gardam continues to amaze me. Bought this book months ago and saved it to savor as an "end of the school year" gift to myself. Devoured in a well-spent Saturday.

A parallel piece to Old Filth, but from Betty's perspective. She is, understandably, more alive in this work than the first, more of a real person with failings, pains and foibles. I would have liked to know more about her life in Shanghai, but am starting to agree with Gardam's way of skirting around it, bringi...more

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Dec 29, 2010

Jan rated it

"The Man in the Wooden Hat" is a prequel to "Old Filth". I finished Old Filth recently and was very happy to discover this more recent book, which tells the story of Old Filth's wife Betty. They are "Raj orphans" and ex-pats living in Hong Kong and then later back in England. Individually, I liked each of these books very much; read in close chronological proximity they were wonderful. Jane Gardam mentions in an Author's Note that "Old Filth" is a charact...more

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Sep 21, 2009

Lauren rated it

Mix feelings. It's Gardam so the writing is impeccable - funny, thoughtful, wonderfully nuanced. And it's Gardam so the characters are dear and infuriating all at the same time. But the short novel is a companion piece to Old Filth and there is something incomplete about it. I am quite sure that the novel would not hold up on its own - it fills in too many gaps in Old Filth.

Curious about Gardam's process here - did she write it afterwards? is it made up of pieces that didn't make it...more

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Oct 16, 2011

Susan G rated it

Like its predecessor book Old Filth, The Man in the Wooden Hat describes the marriage of Edward and Betty Feathers. This book, however, is from Betty's point of view. I read MITWH first, and was amazed to see how different Betty is in her husband's point of view. Definitely recommend reading them both. Gardam writes with a delicate touch, shifting from past to present, letting the reader do some of the connecting of dots as the emotions felt by the characters sink in. Both books are poignant and...more

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Jan 12, 2011

Michele Host rated it

This novel and its companion, "Old Filth," are two of my favorite novels of the past few years. "Old Filth" tells the story of a renowned British barrister who "Fail(ed) in London, Try(ied) Hong Kong," and "The Man in the Wooden Hat" is the story of his wife, Betty, who grew up in an internment camp. I'm giving only the most basic description of the plot(s) because readers should discover all of the ins-and outs, successes and failures, and beautifully-d...more

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Sep 27, 2011

Mary Ellen rated it

Shelves: 2011-fiction

This book is the follow up to "Old Filth". Both books are about an English marriage. "Old Filth" was told from the point of view of the husband and "The Man in the Wooden Hat" gives the wife's side of the story. The characters are interesting and complicated. The novels do need to be read together to fully understand the story of each of their lives. Betty and Filth meet after the war in Hong Kong. Though neither of them are in love with each other when they m...more

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Nov 25, 2009

Ashley rated it

I became wrapped up in Jane Gardam's new book from the first sentence, losing my sense of time to the charm of Raj orphans wandering through Hong Kong after World War II. The book has little in the way of transitions, so I felt lost from chapter to chapter (even though I've read the companion novel, 'Old Filth.') The spareness of the novel and big jumps in time seem intentional but are jarring. It's hard to get too attached to the characters when you just catch glimpses of them. . .nonetheless I...more

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Oct 13, 2011

Sheryl rated it

After reading "Old Filth" I thought I would learn more about Betty and Edward (particularly Betty) by reading The Man in the Wooden Hat, and that was the draw. I did learn more, in a beautifully written and subtle way. And I still wish I could learn more, because Gardam's style doesn't put it right under your nose, you have to work for it. The author's note does mention a third book that is dominated by Edward Feathers, so I will find it. Hard to explain how a story of two people who s...more

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Sep 07, 2009

Alice Meloy rated it

A classy tale of a marriage of an English couple in the Far East, beginning shortly after the Second World War. As a companion novel to Gardam's earlier OLD FILTH, this story examines the couple's courtship and marriage from Betty's perspective. Idealistic and romantic, Betty and Old Filth find their ways through life, carrying secrets from their pasts, back and forth between Hong Kong and England. It's a slim novel that covers a lot of ground, and Gardam's stylish prose gets to the heart of thi...more

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About Jane Gardam

Jane Mary Gardam OBE is a British author of children's and adult fiction. She also reviews for the Spectator and the Telegraph, and writes for BBC radio. She lives in Kent, Wimbledon and Yorkshire. She has won numerous literary awards including the Whitbread Award, twice. She is mother of Tim Gardam, Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford. Jane has been awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize for ...moreJane Mary Gardam OBE is a British author of children's and adult fiction. She also reviews for the Spectator and the Telegraph, and writes for BBC radio. She lives in Kent, Wimbledon and Yorkshire. She has won numerous literary awards including the Whitbread Award, twice. She is mother of Tim Gardam, Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford. Jane has been awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize for a lifetime’s contribution to the enjoyment of literature and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Her first book for adults, Black Faces, White Faces (1975), a collection of linked short stories about Jamaica, won both the David Higham Prize for Fiction and the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. Subsequent collections of short stories include The Pangs of Love and Other Stories (1983), winner of the Katherine Mansfield Award; Going into a Dark House (1994), which was awarded the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award (1995); and Missing the Midnight: Hauntings & Grotesques (1997).

Jane Gardam's first novel for adults, God on the Rocks (1978), a coming-of-age novel set in the 1930s, was adapted for television in 1992. It won the Prix Baudelaire (France) in 1989 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Her other novels include The Queen of the Tambourine (1991), a haunting tale about a woman's fascination with a mysterious stranger, which won the Whitbread Novel Award; Faith Fox (1996), a portrait of England in the 1990s; and The Flight of the Maidens (2000), set just after the Second World War, which narrates the story of three Yorkshire schoolgirls on the brink of university and adult life. This book was adapted for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. In 1999 Jane Gardam was awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in recognition of a distinguished literary career.

Her non-fiction includes a book about the Yorkshire of her childhood in The Iron Coast (1994), published with photographs by Peter Burton and Harland Walshaw.

She also writes for children and young adults. Her novel Bilgewater (1977), originally written for children, has now been re-classified as adult fiction. She was awarded the Whitbread Children's Book Award for The Hollow Land (1981) and is the author of A Few Fair Days (1971), a collection of short stories for children set on a Cumberland farm, and two novels for teenagers, A Long Way From Verona (1971), which explores a wartime childhood in Yorkshire, and The Summer After the Funeral (1973), a story about a loss of innocence after the death of a father.

Jane Gardam is a member of PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She is married with three children and divides her time between East Kent and Yorkshire. (less)

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