Filth – short
for ‘Failed in London, Try Hong Kong’ – is building his career in Hong Kong.
When he meets Elisabeth, he knows that she is to be his wife. Betty is like
Filth a Raj orphan, growing up in the eastern part of the empire and never
really accustomed to the British lifestyle, she is a free spirit. Nevertheless,
she agrees to marrying this promising young man, even though she hardly knows
him and has a lot of doubts. On the evening of the proposal, she gets to know
Veneering and regrets that she had consented to marry and never leave Filth
only a couple of hours before. Her whole life she will be oscillating between
the two men, enemies in business matters and private life alike, until she
finally resolves to stop lying.
The second
novel in Jane Gardam’s trilogy about Filth and Betty and the fall of the
British Empire. Here we get the opposite side of the story, told from Betty’s
point of view and thus we see a lot of things in a completely different light.
The tone, again, is wonderful and fits the setting perfectly. A novel just to
enjoy and to indulge in.
