Anthony Walter Patrick Hamilton (17 March 1904 – 23 September 1962) was an English playwright and novelist.
He was well regarded by
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
and
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator.
His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...
, and study of his novels has been revived because of their distinctive style, deploying a
Dickensian
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
narrative voice to convey aspects of inter-war London street culture. They display a strong sympathy for the poor, as well as an acerbic black humour.
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing (; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British-Zimbabwean novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remain ...
wrote in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' in 1968: "Hamilton was a marvellous novelist who's grossly neglected".
His two most successful plays, ''
Rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...
'' and ''
Gas Light
''Gas Light'' is a 1938 thriller play, set in the Victorian era, written by the British novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton. Hamilton's play is a dark tale of a marriage based on deceit and trickery, and a husband committed to driving h ...
'', were made into famous films: Alfred Hitchcock's ''
Rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...
'' (1948) and the British-made ''
Gaslight
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either direct ...
'' (1940), followed by the 1944
American version.
Life and works
Hamilton was born on 17 March 1904, at Dale House, in the
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
village of
Hassocks
Hassocks is a large village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. Its name is believed to derive from the tufts of grass found in the surrounding fields.
Located approximately north of Brighton, with a populatio ...
, near
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, to (Walter) Bernard Hamilton (1863-1930), a writer and non-practising barrister, and his second wife, Ellen Adèle (née Hockley; 1861-1934), who wrote as "Olivia Roy". His parents were pretentious and snobbish; Bernard Hamilton thought himself to be "a great writer although the few books he penned- soppy romances and some hotchpotch of religion and spirituality- were mediocre at best", "frequently boasted about his genealogical table", and "pretended to be the rightful heir to the throne of Scotland", and Ellen "treated her domestics with haughtiness" and "attempted to breed her children as members of the high society". Due to his father's alcoholism and financial ineptitude, the family spent much of Hamilton's childhood living in boarding houses in
Chiswick
Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...
and
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...
. His education was patchy, and ended just after his fifteenth birthday when his mother withdrew him from
Westminster School
(God Gives the Increase)
, established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, head_label = Hea ...
. His first published work was a poem, "Heaven", in the ''
Poetry Review
''Poetry Review'' is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Emily Berry. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Motion and Maurice R ...
'' in 1919. His sister Lalla, acted under the name of
Diana Hamilton and starred in
Sutton Vane
Sutton Vane (born Vane Hunt Sutton-Vane; 9 November 1888 – 15 June 1963) was a British playwright best known work for ''Outward Bound (play), Outward Bound'' (1923), which was filmed twice and was still being performed eight decades after its ...
's ''
Outward Bound
Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...
''.
After a brief career as an actor, he became a novelist in his early twenties with the publication of ''Monday Morning'' (1925), written when he was nineteen. ''Craven House'' (1926) and ''Twopence Coloured'' (1928) followed, but his first real success was the play ''
Rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...
'' (1929, known as ''Rope's End'' in America).
''The Midnight Bell'' (1929) is based upon Hamilton's falling in love with a prostitute and was later published along with ''The Siege of Pleasure'' (1932) and ''The Plains of Cement'' (1934) as the semi-autobiographical trilogy ''
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
''Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky'' is a 2005 BBC television serial depicting the intersecting lives of three working-class Londoners in the 1920s. The series is based on the trilogy '’20,000 Streets Under the Sky'’ by British author P ...
'' (1935).
![Gaslight 1944 trailer(3)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Gaslight_1944_trailer%283%29.jpg)
Hamilton disliked many aspects of modern life. He was disfigured badly when he was run over by a car in the late 1920s:
Michael Holroyd
Sir Michael de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (born 27 August 1935) is an English biographer.
Early life and education
Holroyd was born in London, the son of Basil de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (a descendant of Sir George Sowley Holroyd, Justice of the King' ...
, in his introduction to the 2010 Vintage edition, says that this accident took place in January 1932 when Hamilton was walking with his wife and sister along Earls Court Road the end of his novel ''
Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse'' (1953), with its vision of England smothered in metal beetles, reflects his loathing of the motor car. However, despite some distaste for the culture in which he operated, he was a popular contributor to it. His two most successful plays, ''
Rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...
'' and ''
Gas Light
''Gas Light'' is a 1938 thriller play, set in the Victorian era, written by the British novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton. Hamilton's play is a dark tale of a marriage based on deceit and trickery, and a husband committed to driving h ...
'' (1938, known as ''
Angel Street'' in the US), made Hamilton wealthy and were also successful as films: the British-made ''
Gaslight
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either direct ...
'' (1940), the 1944 American
adaptation of ''Gaslight'', and
Alfred Hitchcock's
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
''
Rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...
'' (1948).
''
Hangover Square
''Hangover Square'' is a 1941 novel by English playwright and novelist Patrick Hamilton. It follows the schizophrenic alcoholic George Harvey Bone and his tortured love for Netta Longdon in the months leading up to the Second World War. Subtit ...
'' (1941) is often judged his most accomplished work and still sells well in paperback, and is regarded by contemporary authors such as
Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair FRSL (born 11 June 1943) is a writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, recently within the influences of psychogeography. Biography Education
Sinclair was born in Cardiff in 1943. From 1956 to 1961, he was educate ...
and
Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William ...
as an important part of the tradition of London novels. Set in
Earls Court
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...
where Hamilton himself lived, it deals with both alcohol-drinking practices of the time and the underlying political context, such as the rise of
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
and responses to it. Hamilton became an avowed
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, though not a publicly declared member of the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
. During the 1930s, like many other authors, Hamilton grew increasingly angry with capitalism and believed that the violence and fascism of Europe during the period indicated that capitalism was reaching its end. This encouraged his Marxism and his novel ''Impromptu in Moribundia'' (1939) was a satirical attack on capitalist culture.
During his later life, Hamilton developed in his writing a misanthropic authorial voice which became more disillusioned, cynical and bleak as time passed. ''
The Slaves of Solitude'' (1947) was his only work to deal directly with the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and he preferred to look back to the pre-war years. His ''
Gorse Trilogy
The ''Gorse Trilogy'' is a series of three novels, the last published works of the author Patrick Hamilton. The stories follow the anti-hero Ernest Ralph Gorse, whose heartlessness and lack of scruple are matched only by the inventiveness and p ...
'' – three novels about a devious sexual predator and conman – are not generally well thought of critically, although Graham Greene said that the first was 'the best book written about Brighton' and the second (''Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse'') is regarded increasingly as a comic masterpiece. The hostile and negative tone of the novels is also attributed to Hamilton's depression and disenchantment with the utopianism of Marxism. The trilogy comprises: ''The West Pier'' (1952); ''Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse'' (1953), dramatized as ''
The Charmer'' in 1987; and in 1955 Hamilton's last published work, ''Unknown Assailant'', a short novel much of which was dictated while Hamilton was drunk. ''The Gorse Trilogy'' was first published in a single volume in 1992.
Hamilton had begun to consume alcohol excessively while still a relatively young man. After a declining career and melancholia, he died in 1962 of
cirrhosis of the liver
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
and kidney failure, in
Sheringham
Sheringham (; population 7,367) is an English seaside town within the county of Norfolk, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East''. . The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban Distr ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
. He was married twice, firstly to Lois Marie Martin in 1930, and a year after divorcing Lois, to Lady Ursula Chetwynd-Talbot (a novelist who wrote under the pseudonym Laura Talbot) in 1954.
A collection of Hamilton's manuscripts and correspondence can be found at the
Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
br>
Bibliography
Novels
* ''Monday Morning'' (1925)
* ''Craven House'' (1926, revised edition 1943)
* ''Twopence Coloured'' (1928)
* ''The Midnight Bell'' (1929)
* ''The Siege of Pleasure'' (1932)
* ''The Plains of Cement'' (1934)
* ''
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
''Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky'' is a 2005 BBC television serial depicting the intersecting lives of three working-class Londoners in the 1920s. The series is based on the trilogy '’20,000 Streets Under the Sky'’ by British author P ...
'' (1935 – trilogy of ''The Midnight Bell'', ''The Siege of Pleasure'' and ''The Plains of Cement'')
* ''Impromptu in Moribundia'' (1939)
* ''
Hangover Square
''Hangover Square'' is a 1941 novel by English playwright and novelist Patrick Hamilton. It follows the schizophrenic alcoholic George Harvey Bone and his tortured love for Netta Longdon in the months leading up to the Second World War. Subtit ...
'' (1941)
* ''
The Slaves of Solitude'' (1947)
* ''
The West Pier
The ''Gorse Trilogy'' is a series of three novels, the last published works of the author Patrick Hamilton. The stories follow the anti-hero Ernest Ralph Gorse, whose heartlessness and lack of scruple are matched only by the inventiveness and pa ...
'' (1952)
* ''
Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse'' (1953)
* ''Unknown Assailant'' (1955)
Stage plays
* ''
Rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...
'' (1929)
* ''The Procurator of Judea'' (1930; unpublished)
* ''John Brown's Body'' (1931; unpublished)
* ''
Gas Light
''Gas Light'' is a 1938 thriller play, set in the Victorian era, written by the British novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton. Hamilton's play is a dark tale of a marriage based on deceit and trickery, and a husband committed to driving h ...
'' (1938), also known as ''Angel Street''
* ''
The Duke in Darkness
''The Duke in Darkness'' is a 1942 play by Patrick Hamilton. A psychological drama set during the French Wars of Religion, it was first staged on 7 September 1942 at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. It ran for 72 performances (8 October â ...
'' (1943)
* ''The Governess'' (1946; unpublished)
* ''Caller Anonymous'' (1952; unpublished)
* ''The Man Upstairs'' (1953)
* ''Miss Roach'' (1958; unpublished)
* ''Hangover Square'' (1965; unpublished)
Radio plays
* ''Rope''. BBC National Programme, 18 January 1932. Adapted from the stage play qv
* ''Conversation in a Train''. BBC Regional Programme. 2 June 1936
* ''Money with Menaces''. BBC National Programme, 4 January 1937
* ''To the Public Danger''. BBC National Programme, 25 February 1939
* ''Gas Light''. BBC Home Service, 24 November 1939. Adapted from the play qv
* ''This is Impossible''. BBC Home Service, 27 December 1941
* ''The Duke in Darkness''. 17 April 1944. Adapted from the stage play qv
* ''The Governess''. BBC Home Service, 1 November 1948. Adapted from the stage play qv
* ''Caller Anonymous''. BBC Home Service, 7 March 1952
* ''20,000 Streets Under the Sky''. BBC Radio 4, 17 Nov 1989
Recent revival
Hamilton was the subject of a special season of films in March 2005 at the
National Film Theatre
BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute.
Hist ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, and continuing the strong revival of interest in his work the British TV channel
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
screened an adaptation of ''
20,000 Streets Under the Sky
''20,000 Streets Under the Sky'' is a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by Patrick Hamilton.
The three books are ''The Midnight Bell'' (1929), ''The Siege of Pleasure'' (1932) and ''The Plains of Cement'' (1934). They focus on three of ...
'' in September 2005, reshown on
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 in January 2006, alongside a documentary account of his life. The adaptation was released on DVD in 2007. A one-man show about Hamilton's life appeared in the Edinburgh Festival in 2014 and the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2015 and in London, written and performed by Mark Farrelly and called ''The Silence of Snow: the Life of Patrick Hamilton''.
References
Further reading
*
Hamilton, Bruce. (1972) ''The Light Went Out: The Life of Patrick Hamilton'', Constable,
* Jones, Nigel. (1991) ''Through a Glass Darkly: The Life of Patrick Hamilton'', Scribners,
* French, Sean. (1993) ''Patrick Hamilton: A Life'', Faber and Faber,
External links
Patrick Hamilton Collectionat the
Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
Black Spring PressNew publishers of The Gorse Trilogy and Craven House
Constable & RobinsonPatrick Hamilton's original UK publisher, and current publisher of ''The Slaves of Solitude''
New York Review of Books ClassicsAmerican reissues of ''Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky'' and ''The Slaves of Solitude''
a review in th
TLS 16 May 2007
* —Review of ''The Slaves of Solitude''
* A biography can be found a
www.allmovie.com*
*
* —Review of ''The Midnight Bell''
* —Article on Hamilton's screen adaptations
Article on Hamilton revivalEssay on Hamilton's treatment of London pub culture"The lost worlds of Patrick Hamilton" D. J. Taylor's introduction to the Gorse Trilogy fro
TLS 16 May 2007.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Patrick
People educated at Westminster School, London
People from Hassocks
Alcohol-related deaths in England
1904 births
1962 deaths
Deaths from cirrhosis
Deaths from kidney failure
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
British male dramatists and playwrights
English male novelists
People from Sheringham
20th-century English male writers