Patrick Hamilton in general

Hamilton is a pearl of a writer. No one would seriously claim that he is a major 20th Century novelist, but he is a brilliant and diverting minor figure who amply repays reading and re-reading. A stupendous alcoholic who lived mostly in Brighton, he was famous in his time (between the wars) and got rich by the stage successes of Gaslight and Rope, which are now no more than mildly diverting period pieces (Gaslight the film is a classic early talkie, if you like that kind of thing, which most, rightly, don't). But it is the novels which stake his claim. Hangover Square is about a schizophrenic who is driven yet more mad by the contempt of a woman ...