13 Must-Read Books by the Prolific Jane Gardam

In Gardam’s most famous novel, Sir Edward Feathers, an 80-year-old widower living in quiet retirement in Dorset, finds that without a busy career to occupy his time, he begins to reflect on his past. He cut his teeth in South Asia as a young lawyer, where he received the disparaging nickname, Old Filth, which is an acronym for “Failed in London, Try Hong Kong.” At the time, if someone had a lackluster start in English society, they would travel to the colonies to try to make something of themselves. 

Feathers looking back at his life is not a relaxing activity, however. He’s dredging up old memories of his difficult childhood, from his life in Malaysia with his absent father to his time in a foster care facility in Wales. This sprawling novel also masterfully examines a changing Great Britain as its empire begins to crumble. Old Filth is the first book in Gardam’s trilogy. 

The second book in the Old Filth trilogy examines Feathers’s love life from the perspective of his wife, Betty. Betty, like her future husband, was born to British parents, grew up abroad, and had a traumatic upbringing. During World War II, she and her parents were interned by the Japanese government and her parents perished during their time in captivity. She meets Feathers in Hong Kong and the two souls decide to marry. 

She believes him to be a good man, handsome, and successful, so she’s happy to marry him. Because Feathers is emotionally repressed, Betty marries him expecting a sexless and passionless marriage. The problem is that Betty falls in love with her husband’s chief rival and the story unfolds from there. Like the first novel in this trilogy, this novel covers a lot of ground, from Betty’s childhood to the end of her life in England. 

The final book of the Old Filth trilogy focuses on the story of Edward Feathers’s rival in both his career and in his love life. Terence Veneering’s arrival from the Far East is greeted with instant skepticism in English society, though no one could guess that he was the son of a Russian acrobat and a local girl. His part of this tale explores the dark side of upper-class life in Britain and life during World War II. 

This novel fills in his backstory as well as his full history with Edward and Betty, bringing all three stories to a close. The title of this book refers to the fact that the rivals meet again in the twilight of their lives and explore forgiveness. 

It’s the year 1946 and Great Britain is still coming out of the dense fog of a traumatic war. When three young women in Yorkshire win university scholarships, the entire town celebrates. These “maidens” are on the precipice of great change and this novel zooms in on the summer before they leave for university. 

Hetty, Una, and Lieselotte are all reckoning with different family backgrounds and figuring out who they are. Hetty tries to find her independence through immersing herself in books to escape a controlling mother and a father who is still reeling from fighting in the war. Una falls for a leftist man from a different background and explores her sexuality. And Lieselotte, a Jewish refugee who has been living in Yorkshire with a Quaker family since 1939, finally meets her last surviving relative in California. 

Darker in subject than the Old Filth series, this novel, set between the World Wars, follows 8-year-old Margaret Marsh, her parents, her baby sibling, and her crass nanny, Lydia. Watchful Margaret is wiser than her years, due to the neglect of both of her parents. Her father is a religious zealot who rules the household with an iron fist, while her mother finds herself growing bitter with the life she’s saddled with and is losing her faith. 

Margaret spends a lot of time with Lydia, especially on Wednesdays when they go on long walks to the seaside. Margaret’s father is intent on converting Lydia, which Lydia isn’t interested in. One day, she meets her mother’s childhood friends and learns about a whole other side of her. From there, Margaret’s world begins to crumble. This book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1978.

This coming-of-age novel focuses on the friendship between two boys, Bell Teesdale and Harry Bateman, in rural Cumbria. This area of Northern England boasts its own traditions, dialect, and myths. Bell hails from a farming family and is proud of his culture, which he is eager to share with his friend Harry, a tourist whose family visits Cumbria yearly for vacation.

The two boys make it their personal mission to find ancient lands and uncover myths, like the Egg Witch. They’re also intrigued by a famous author, cleverly called the Household Name, when he decides to stay in the region. Gardam paints a vivid picture of Cumbria and her charming, witty prose makes this book a delight to read. 

Eliza Peabody is feared in her wealthy Surrey neighborhood as the housewife always in everyone’s business. She seems like your average housewife who does a little volunteering on the side at a local hospice at first, but as she writes to her friend Joan, who has left her husband and the country, something is definitely off. 

Told through letters, The Queen of the Tambourine follows Eliza’s descent into madness and reveals how this busybody became unable to cope with reality. Here Gardam draws inspiration from Sylvia Plath and Muriel Spark to examine marriage, gender roles, and suburbia. 

Told from the point of view of a preteen girl during World War II, A Long Way from Verona is a reminder that the pains and struggles of early adolescence can be even more dire than rationing and wartime restrictions. Protagonist Jessica Vye believes wholeheartedly that she is destined to become a writer, a fate she embraces seriously even as she copes with a violent episode from her childhood. This coming-of-age tale stands the test of time. 

Another coming-of-age story by Gardam, Bilgewater follows Marigold Green, a 17-year-old headmaster’s daughter at a private boy’s school. This motherless daughter wades through so many relatable adolescent difficulties without any help from a female friend or guide. This story of young love is witty, funny, and heartwarming. It was originally published in 1976. 

6-year-old Polly is sent to live with two of her aunts in an isolated yellow house by the Irish Sea in 1904. With few companions but many, many books to read, Polly lets her imagination run wild, inspired by Robinson Crusoe, to keep her sanity. She stays in this secluded spot for a total of 80 years as the world rapidly changes around her, exiting the Victorian era, surviving two World Wars, and being forever changed by technology. This novel is so unique and a must-read for book lovers. 

Faith Fox is a quirky, heartwarming comedy of manners about how sometimes it really does take a village to raise a child. Faith’s widower father realizes he can’t handle parenting alone, and Faith’s maternal grandmother refuses to acknowledge her existence, so he ropes in his parents, his brother, and even his brother’s Tibetan refugee neighbors to help raise Faith. 

Gardam’s collection of 14 short stories center on a topic she explored in much of her other work—the Greatest Generation. These stories explore the best and worst qualities of Great Britain’s stoic, mannered, and opinionated generation who lived through and fought World War II. Fans of the Old Filth trilogy will be thrilled to find that Gardam revisits her protagonist Feathers once more as he begrudgingly goes to a lunch in Dorset in his twilight years. 

This hefty collection of short stories spans three decades of Gardam’s writing. Her protagonists range from children to the elderly, and she continues to write about people who are often forgotten by society. Readers will find stories about love, loss, nostalgia, hope, war, loneliness, dreams, and more in this collection.