New Releases by Jane Gardam

A novel that''s "brilliant on sex, brilliant on bereavement and death, brilliant on god, brilliant on dottiness" from the acclaimed author of Old Filth (A. N. Wilson, Evening Standard). The story of a motherless girl named Faith and her family and close friends, all of whom are determined to see her live a happy life. Faith''s mother died in childbirth; her overworked father cannot raise his child alone; and her unconventional grandmother refuses to acknowledge the child whose birth took away the daughter she loved. And so a motley crew of family and friends converges to see that Faith is brought up correctly. The concerned parties include Faith''s uncle, who runs a commune in northern England; the Tibetan refugees who have moved in with him; and the splendidly bickering paternal grandparents. What ensues is a brilliant comedy of manners set equally amidst high society and low. Faith Fox is a story that explores the wonder of the human heart in all its thunderous eccentricity. Gardam has mastered the essence of age and youth and above all nonconformity. Her memorable characters are sure to delight. "Wonderful, sharply observed, deeply funny." — The Minneapolis Star-Tribune "[A] cleverly wrought British import . . . That Gardam is a virtuoso of structure creeps up on you until you begin to glimpse the outlines of the multiple subplots converging with the satisfying click that reminds you that you''re in the hands of a master." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Hugely funny and deeply moving." — The Atlantic "Pure pleasure." —Anita Brookner, author of The Debut "An endearing story. Gardam''s feisty characters deliver a tale that crackles with charm and energy." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A short story by Jane Gardam from the collection Reader, I Married Him: Stories inspired by Jane Eyre.

Originally published in 1977, Jane Gardam''s Bilgewater is an affectionate and complex rendering-in-miniature of the discomforts of growing up and first love seen through the eyes of inimitable Marigold Green, an awkward, eccentric, highly intelligent girl. The Evening Standard described Bilgewater as "one of the funniest, most entertaining, most unusual stories about young love." Motherless and 16, Marigold is the headmaster''s daughter at a private backwater all-boys school. To make matters worse, Marigold pines for head boy Jack Rose, reckons with the beautiful and domineering Grace, and yanks herself headlong out of her interior world and into the seething cauldron of adolescence. With everything happening all at once, Marigold faces the greatest of teenage crucibles. A smart and painterly romp in the rich tradition of The Hollow Land and A Long Way From Verona, Gardam''s elegant, evocative prose, possessed of sharp irony and easy surrealism makes Bilgewater a book for readers of all ages.

"Pure delight . . . One perfect story after another" from the Whitbread Award–winning author of the Old Filth trilogy ( The Sunday Telegraph). From the inimitable Jane Gardam, whose Old Filth trilogy cemented her status as one of England''s greatest living novelists, comes a collection of short stories that showcase her subversive wit, gentle humor, and insight into the human condition. Gardam''s versatility is on full display, while her sublime grasp of language and powers of observation remain as provocative as ever. "A formidable collection that is at once outlandish and entirely convincing . . . It is Gardam''s gift for the ecstatic, for showing us what a place of wonders is the world and the hearts that dwell in it, that endows this collection with a dangerous and formidable energy, richer and more concentrated than any novel. She gives us miracle heaped upon miracle, and insists that they should each one be handled with care." — The Guardian "Unexpected appearance of figures from the past drive many of these sly, bighearted tales." — The New York Times "Readers will feel lucky to have so much good writing in one place." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Gardam''s preference for short stories shows in this extraordinary collection of great writing." — NewPages Book Reviews "A rich haul from a well of talent." — Kirkus Reviews

"Far more than just another coming-of-age story" from the award-winning author of the Old Filth trilogy ( Bustle). Jane Gardam''s marvelous stories of young girls on the threshold of womanhood— God on the Rocks and Crusoe''s Daughter—have delighted fans and critics alike. These "modern classics" are now joined by a novel that is equally fresh and genuine, comic and touching ( The Independent). Jessica Vye introduces herself with an enigmatic pronouncement: "I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal, having had a violent experience at the age of nine." A revered author has told Jessica that she is, beyond all doubt, a born writer. This proves an accurate prediction of the future, one that indelibly colors her life at school and her perception of the world. Jessica has always known that her destiny would be shaped by her refusal to conform, her compulsion to tell the absolute truth, and her dedication to observing the strange wartime world that surrounds her. What she doesn''t know, however, is that the experiences and ideas that set her apart will also lead her to a new and wholly unexpected life. Told with grace and inimitable wit, A Long Way from Verona is a wise and vivid portrait of adolescent discovery and impending adulthood. "A book to be judged by the highest standards." — The Spectator "A brilliant, witty, and agonizingly true-to-life novel." — The Times Literary Supplement "A fiercely funny and personal book." — The Economist "The qualities for which Gardam is cherished (the quirkiness, the bright-eyed wonder at reality) are already apparent in this early work." — Kirkus Reviews

"The satisfying conclusion to Gardam''s Old Filth trilogy offers exquisite prose, wry humor, and keen insights into aging and death" ( The New Yorker) . While Old Filth introduced readers to Sir Edward Feathers, his dreadful childhood, and his decades-long marriage, The Man in the Wooden Hat was his wife Betty''s story. Last Friends is Terence Veneering''s turn. His beginnings were not those of the usual establishment grandee. Filth''s hated rival in court and in love is the son of a Russian acrobat marooned in the English midlands and a local girl. He escapes the war and later emerges in the Far East as a man of panache and fame. The Bar treats his success with suspicion: Where did this handsome, brilliant Slav come from? This exquisite story of Veneering, Filth, and their circle tells a bittersweet tale of friendship and grace and of the disappointments and consolations of age. They are all, finally, each other''s last friend as this magnificent series ends with the deep and abiding satisfaction that only great literature provides. "[Gardam''s] prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor. She keeps us entertained, and she keeps us guessing. Be thankful for her books. Be thankful for this trilogy, which is ultimately an elegy, created with deep affection." — The Washington Post "Restores us to an era rich in spectacle and bristling with insinuation and intrigue. Vivid, spacious, superbly witty, and refreshingly brisk . . . the story (and the author) will endure." — The Boston Globe "All three Gardam books are beautifully written but it''s a pleasure to note that Last Friends is the most enjoyable, the funniest and the most touching." — National Post

Jane Gardam''s funny and wise masterpiece, reissued with a new introduction by Nina Stibbe ''Old Filth has stayed with me for years'' SATHNAM SANGHERA ''Sharp, humane, generous and wonderfully funny'' HILARY MANTEL ''The last great book I read'' RACHEL WEISZ ''Gardam''s masterpiece'' GUARDIAN Filth, in his heydey, was an international lawyer with a practice in the Far East. Now, only the oldest QCs can remember that his nickname stood for Failed In London Try Hong Kong. Long ago, Old Filth was a Raj orphan - one of the many young children sent ''Home'' from the East to be fostered and educated in England. Jane Gardam''s novel tells his story, from his birth in what was then Malaya to the extremities of his old age. In doing so, she not only encapsulates a whole period from the glory days of the British Empire, through the Second World War, to the present and beyond, but also illuminates the complexities of the character known variously as Eddie, the Judge, Fevvers, Filth, Master of the Inner Temple, Teddy and Sir Edward Feathers.

From the award-winning author of Old Filth. "[A] wonderfully old-fashioned novel . . . This post-Victorian charmer is an engrossing delight" ( People). In 1904, six-year-old Polly Flint is sent by her sea captain father to live with her aunts in a house by the sea on England''s northeast coast. Orphaned shortly thereafter, Polly will spend the next eighty years stranded in this quiet corner of the world as the twentieth century rages in the background. Through it all, Polly returns again and again to the story of Robinson Crusoe, who, marooned like her, fends off the madness of isolation with imagination. In the Guardian''s series on writers and readers'' favorite comfort books, associate editor Claire Armitstead said of Crusoe''s Daughter, "This is the most bookish of books . . . Every time I return to it, I am comforted by its refusal to conform, its wonderful, boisterous bolshiness, and the intelligence with which it demonstrates that we are what we read." "Witty, subversive, moving." — The Times (London) "[A] richly textured novel . . . much occurs on the emotional landscape. We know Polly intimately, and she haunts our imaginations as surely as Crusoe haunts hers . . . a thought-provoking book." — Library Journal "[The] most seductively entertaining of British novelists." — Kirkus Reviews

With her customary accuracy, Jane Gardam reveals the extraordinariness of ordinary people as she deals with the pangs of love- fulfilled or hopeless, sexual or spiritual, tortured or hilarious- in these eleven stories. Paraded here are ladies with a ''thing'' about vicars, strange events happening in ornate downstairs lavatories (and in ornate upstairs ones), and the English abroad, desperate and dotty. The glum and impossible Edna haunts the supermarket- and dispenses an unlikely kiss of life. The younger sister of Hans Christian Andersen''s Little Mermaid declares her sibling ''very silly'' and turns her story on its tail, an old maid forms a curious liason with a tramp, and small moments of temptation fill hotel rooms as histories glance briefly off each other.

Second in the Old Filth trilogy. "An astute, subtle depiction of marriage . . . absolutely wonderful" ( The Washington Post). Acclaimed as Jane Gardam''s masterpiece, Old Filth is a lyrical novel that recalls the fully lived life of Sir Edward Feathers. The Man in the Wooden Hat is the history of his marriage told from the perspective of his wife, Betty, a character as vivid and enchanting as Filth himself. They met in Hong Kong after the war. Betty had spent the duration in a Japanese internment camp. Filth was already a successful barrister, handsome, fast becoming rich, in need of a wife but unaccustomed to romance. A perfect English couple of the late 1940s. As a portrait of a marriage, with all the bittersweet secrets and surprising fulfillment of the fifty-year union of two remarkable people, The Man in the Wooden Hat is a triumph. Fiction of a very high order from a great novelist working at the pinnacle of her considerable power, it will be read and loved and recommended by all the many thousands of readers who found its predecessor, Old Filth, so compelling and thoroughly satisfying. "Funny and affecting . . . It''s remarkable." — The New York Times Book Review "The latest occasion to celebrate Gardam . . . [a] superb novel." —Maureen Corrigan, NPR "Told with quintessentially British humor . . . Gardam''s prose is witty and precise." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) "It''s magnificent. . . . Funny, intelligent and immensely moving." — Kirkus Reviews

These stories mix a sardonic wit with a delicate tenderness and a touch of the surreal. They range from a Victorian mansion, converted into a home for unmarried mothers, to a wartime hospital which is the scene for a job interview in the middle of the Blitz; from ghost stories to a one-night stand - and its ironic punishment - to the tangle of emotions felt by a mother for her daughter.

Kit lives on a farm. Her parents think she''s a bit of a baby, crying at things like beetles or putting her foot in a cow-pat. But Kit can be brave too, as she shows when the fierce bull gets loose. Kit''s most exciting moment though, is when she is invited to London to be a bridesmaid.

A collection of haunting stories___

A collection of short stories. Sister Luke and Sister Reparatrice, out in the convent''s Morris Traveller, have a bizarre adventure; Klaus, who is a stranger to passion, becomes emotional over the delicious food served at a special lunch; a remote Quaker meeting house provides a place of peace for the spirits of a troubled family. In the title story, Going into a dark house, nothing is what it seems, what appears sweet is bitingly hot, and all the reader''s preconceptions are turned on their heads."--Publisher description.

Set in South London, told entirely in the form of letters, this is an exploration of the imagination - the real world and fantasy - of a woman under terrible stress. The book was awarded the 1991 Whitbread Novel of the Year award.

Bridget fears that she will have to give up William, her pony, because bad weather has brought hard times to her parents'' farm. Then William becomes the hero of the hour.

Yound Harry Bateman comes from London with his family year after year to spend the summer at Light Trees Farm in the Cumbrian free country, until he feels that it is his real home.