Death of the novelist Jane Gardam, in the eternity of her characters – Liberation
The old Filth is dead, Sir Terence Veneering, his rival, is also buried, as well as Betty, the woman they both loved, and now Jane Gardam disappears in turn. This British novelist, by the qualities of empathy, humor and imagination that she implemented, was as worthy of affection as her characters. Admittedly, we knew it less well than them. But she was theirs. She died on April 28 in Chipping Norton, England, at 96.
Fillth, Veneering and Betty are the heroes of his last novels, a trilogy started in 2004 and finished in 2013. The master of appearances,, The choice of Betty And The Lord Rival (Old Fillth, The Man in the Wooden Hat, Last Friends) were translated by Françoise Adelstain by JC Lattès editions in 2015 and 2016, then gathered the following year in a single volume entitled RAJ orphans (Raj, that is to say the deceased empire). Fillth is a nickname, the acronym of « Failed In London, Try Hong Kong ». Born in Malaysia, parachuted in England at the age of 4 for a decade of nightmare, it was in Hong Kong that Filth made her high magistrate career. The retirement came, he settled in a village in Dorset. His relations with his neighbor Veneering is one of the themes, his grumpy character is another. But it is an authentic eccentric, which is suddenly seen taking the highway for the first time in his life to the north, aboard a venerable sedan. Well placed in the story, jewelry and other objects make excellent bombs. The secrets of Fillth, Veneering and Betty rush unexpectedly into their memories of old apparently accomplished subjects. They tried in vain to put their childhood in key. She is a bad little devil who returns the tapping and hacking the memories of love.
Like many of her English sisters, Jane Gardam will have written for both adults and children. It was in the field of childish public that she made her debut – late – in 1971, with a novel then a collection of short stories. The first French translation was also published by Gallimard Jeunesse (The pony in the snow in 1983). A few words about Jane Gardam’s private life: she will have survived her husband fifteen years, including the profession of « QC » lawyer (« Queen’s Counsel », to advise the king – or the queen – in the countries of the Commonwealth) had advantages and disadvantages. He was absent from long months when his skills were required thousands of kilometers, which left the young mother helpless. But when the last of their three children was educated, Jane Gardam had nothing else to do to furnish her solitude than to put herself at her table, and write.
From 1971 to 2014, she wrote without stopping, something like 35 pounds. The last, The Lord Rivalis populated by a little staggering elderly, who came to the burial of one of their own. Two of them remained stuck an entire night in the sacristy. We still laugh. It was to her characters that Jane Gardam held above all, enriching them with one scene and then another, of contradiction and revelation, until the readers adopt and cherish them.
In France, God overboard (God on the Rocks1978), translated by Suzanne Mayoux, was published by TIME TIERCE in 1990 by Françoise PASQUIER, who then published The lady with cymbals (same translator) at Rivages. The heiress of Robinson was published by editions otherwise in a translation by Cécile Wajsbrot in 1994.
