"Old Filth" by Jane Gardam
I hadn't heard of Jane Gardam but read a review of this book somewhere and it sounded very interesting and it was. I really enjoyed it and must read more of her. She is British and has written a lot of novels (two won the Whitbread Prize for fiction, one shortlisted for the Booker) and our library has quite a few.
"Filth" stands for "Failed in London, try Hong Kong" and is about a very successful lawyer who was a "Raj Orphan"...children whose parents were working in the Empire (he was born in Malaysia) and who sent them "home" to Britain at the age of five to avoid getting tropical diseases, then to be educated. An excellent story and a bit of a mystery as well.
