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Old Filth was a 'child of the raj'. His earliest memories are of his amah, a teenage Malay girl - not of his mother who is dead, nor his father who can't cope. But very soon he is torn away from the only person who loves him, and sent to be educated at 'Home', where he is boarded out with strangers...What is the terrible secret that the children shared? What exactly happened at the farmhouse in the Lake District from which Filth is rescued by 'Sir' whose 'outfit' is one of the oddest schools in England? Old Filth is funny and heart-breaking at the same time. It is peopled with characters who astonish the reader - monsters, eccentrics, blessings in disguise. Jane Gardam has a unique understanding not only of the human heart but also of the bizarre workings of the minds of the elderly. A touch of surrealism combines with the subtle delicacy of a gifted novelist to make Old Filth a genuine masterpiece.

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.

This collection brings together past and present, probing many and varied lives. The title story examines Jane Austen's love life, while others introduce a trio of Kensington widows, mean-spirited and middle-aged; a stranger, awaited with dread; and the mercurial changes in young love.