Last Friends, Jane Gardam

I was really surprised by how short this book is; I read it in an evening. Silly me, to start a trilogy with the last book! The title says it all: the characters from the previous novels are ancient and tottering on gamely, or dead. I was entranced by the dotty inhabitants of Old Filth’s Dorset village and the back story of pre-war Teesside. Now that I’ve got so interested in Old Filth, Veneering, Fiscal Smith, Dulcie et al I simply must read Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat. Absorbing reading about bizarre characters, just slightly reminiscent of Kingsley Amis’s Ending Up.

Has anyone else read Bilgewater? I really liked it.

I read the book courtesy of NetGalley. To be published 6th March by Little, Brown.