Britain

Patrick Hamilton

Patrick Hamilton was born in England in 1904. By the late 1920's he was recognized as one of the most gifted and admired writers of his generation. His novels and plays of the 1930's established a wide readership in Britain and America. His play Rope was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock and his play Gaslight was a huge success on the stage before being made into a popular film starring Ingrid Bergman.

Hangover Square is perhaps his best-known work, but his novel The Slaves of Solitude also enjoys great popularity. Patrick Hamilton died in 1962.

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Latest reviews

Giddy & Malevolent By Francine Prose Bob, a waiter at the London pub from which Patrick Hamilton's 1929 novel, The Midnight Bell, takes its title, has saved—from tips, in shillings and pence—eighty pounds. On his days off, Bob likes to stroll past the bank...

— May 19 2008

Whiskey, war, and bad wallpaper Even as you read these words, a Patrick Hamilton revival is well under way in Britain. Can it be drifting across the Atlantic? The recent republication of the novels Hangover Square (1941) and The Slaves of Solitude (1947) suggests that it...

— Jun 20 2007

The author of 'Rope' and 'Gas Light' captures the pathos of everyday British lives. By Tom Beer While reading Patrick Hamilton's 1941 novel "Hangover Square," I began — with alarm — to tally the alcoholic beverages consumed by his protagonist, a sad sack who haunts...

— Mar 7 2007

MYSTERY*FILE The Crime Fiction Research Journal IN THE FRAME, by Vince Keenan You know you’re in the hands of a truly unscrupulous narrator when a priest meeting himfor the first time says, “You’re a bad egg. As bad as they come.” The description suits...

— May 2 2006

Major Minor Hamilton raises his hard-boiled, pulp-fiction world to the level of tragedy. Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square makes almost all other hard-boiled writing seem phony. If Hamilton, who died in 1962, is remembered at all, it’s probably for the movie versions...

— Mar 2 2006