The Man In The Wooden Hat

‘What a lot Jane Gardam knows about love and its accommodations…And how elegantly and intelligently and kindly she writes about the instinctive, tendril-like gropings of one human heart towards another’ Jane Shilling, Telegraph

‘On its own, The Man in the Wooden Hat is funny and affecting, but read alongside Old Filth, it’s remarkable’ New York Times

Filth (Failed In London, Try Hong Kong) is a successful lawyer when he marries Elisabeth in Hong Kong soon after the War. Reserved, immaculate and courteous, Filth finds it hard to demonstrate his emotions. But Elisabeth is different – a free spirit. She was brought up in the Japanese Internment Camps, which killed both her parents but left her with a lust for survival and an affinity with the Far East. No wonder she is attracted to Filth’s hated rival at the Bar – the brash, forceful Veneering. Veneering has a Chinese wife and an adored son – and no difficulty whatsoever in demonstrating his emotions . . .

How Elisabeth turns into Betty and whether she remains loyal to stolid Filth or is swept up by caddish Veneering, makes for a page-turning plot in a perfect novel which is full of surprises and revelations, as well as the humour and eccentricites for which Jane Gardam’s writing is famous.