Patrick Hamilton

Patrick Hamilton was a British writer who produced several novels which were turned into films. One of them was the Hitchcock thriller Rope and the Victorian thriller, Gaslight. He also wrote a trilogy of books about a serial killer, based loosely on Neville Heath, the protagonist is called Gorse.. and he likes to strangle women. THis was televised in the 1980s as The Charmer. He was born in Sussex in 1904, his parents were both writers, but not very successful. They were pretentious and snobbish, giving him a dislike of "proper" society. His father was an alcoholic and because of this, the family were not well off, and he had to leave his public school, giving him a sketchy education. He himself became an alcoholic in later life. One of his novels, Hangover Square, published in 1941, was about an alcoholic man George Bone and his hopeless love. He liked London and most of his works are set there, Dickens was an influence on him. He was part of the literary pub scene, and was more successful as a writer than his father had been though he has never achieved much critical sucess. Another novel is Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, which is set in London, and covers three characters whose lives are intertwined.. Bob is a barman in a pub. He falls in love with Jenny a young prostitute who sometimes visits the pub, and Ella, the barmaid who is rather plain and is in love with Bob but is courted by a fussy difficult older man. Hamilton's works are increasingly bleak as he grew older and drinking became more of a problem for him. The Charmer novels are about a very unattractive character and his vision of life seemed to become more unhappy and depressing which may account for his lack of success. He was sympathetic to Marxism as a younger man but became more sceptical of it as he grew older. He felt sympathy for the poor and hostility towards capitalism, but he began to dislike modern life more and more. Dickens was a big influence on him but he lacked Dickens' vitality as a writer. He died in his 50s, having been married twice. More to follow-