Last Friends (Old Filth Trilogy)

The entire trilogy is a singular experience. Old Filth, Veneering, Betty, Fiscal -Smith , the lot of them! ! Brilliant! take Jane Austin, mix in some good solid Dickens and add a dollop,of Pat Barker. If you like English novels you'll stay up nights to read through all three books.

Compared to the first two in the trilogy this was a bit of a disappointment. It did fill in some of the missing links in the lives of characters that played minor parts in the other two books, but it is hard to understand the role of the new couple, the poet and his wife. They seemed to come from another book.

I think reading all three of these together works best. Getting the perspective of the same story from 3 different characters is a nice approach. I liked Man in Wooden Hat best of the three. Last Friends was probably weakest of three but all add to the fascinating story line that holds up through each of the different views.

All the books in the "Old Filth Trilogy" are riveting and this one is no exception. Once begun, you will not want to put it down! Jane Gardam has a gift for developing characters and also drawing amazing mental pictures of her subjects. I LOVE her writing style and cannot wait to read more of her books.

Jane Gardam sucks you in with her wonderful characters; this is the final wrap up of the characters and their motivations. After you have read Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat, you must read Last Friends to answer all the mysteries that still remain.

This book, which brings the "Old Filth" trilogy to a conclusion, is an excellent ending to the uniformly brilliant trilogy. Jane Gardam's work is always a great pleasure to read. She is at the same time wittyand sentimental without being mawkish--very unusual in a contemporary novelist

Jane Gardam is always a pleasure to read. This book is different from the others in the trilogy: I found it a tad disjointed but once I'd become involved, I celebrated the whackiness of the characters and their freedom of older age behaviour.

Just finished Last Friends, One of the best trilogies I have ever read. It is quite clever the way Gardam uncovers layers from each previous book in ways that really pull you in. Veneering's character is more fully revealed in this book and it is very worthwhile.

Last Friends is another triumph for Jane Gardam. She has an uncanny ability to involve the readers in the lives of her characters as if they were your friends. Here's hoping she produces another book soon.

Find here all about Veneering and his remarkable background. Understand why he was struck by Betty Feathers. Find out the scoop on that odd character Fiscal-Smith and others to whom you have been introduced in the first two books. Like the previous ones, it is a complete and delightful book in itself. However, it wraps up the trilogy in a manner which will be enjoyed especially by fans of the first two books.