Gardam, Jane: 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.