Patrick Hamilton in print

Further to my post on Lynne Truss's Times article I went away and had a look to see how much of Patrick Hamilton's oeuvre is in fact in print. I used the BookFind database, which is not infallible, but should be reasonably accurate.
The following are currently in print:

Gaslight : A Victorian Thriller in Three Acts
Constable & Robinson 0-09-450830-5
1975

Hangover Square : A Story of Darkest Earl's Court
Penguin Books 0-14-118589-9
2001

Impromptu in Moribundia
Trent Editions 0-905488-33-4
1999

Rope : Play
3rd ed, Constable & Robinson 0-09-450860-7
[s.d.]

The Slaves of Solitude
Constable 0-09-458720-5
1972

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
Vintage 0-09-928865-6
1999

I'm hampered by not having a scholarly bibliography to hand (is there one?), but using the British Library's catalogues it would appear that the novels out of print are:

Monday Morning (1925)

Craven House (1926)

The Gorse Trilogy, which consists of the West Pier (1952), Mr Stimson and Mr Gorse(1953) and Unknown Assailant (1955)

The plays out of print are John Brown's Body (1930), Money with Menaces (1939), The Duke in Darkness (1942) , The Man Upstairs (1954) and Angel Street (1966)
Maybe the centenary will inspire the publisher to bring out new editions. My priorities would be Craven House and the Gorse Trilogy.

Comments

[Nick Robinson]

Interested to read your comments - I'm currently trying to reissue some of Hamiltons work - just done new ed. of Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky (0099288656) published May 8th

There are two excellent biographies of Hamilton - one entitled "Through A Glass Darkly" by Nigel Jones (1990 - Scribner)) and "Patrick Hamilton - A Life" by Sean French (1993 - Faber) as well as a memoir written by his brother Bruce called "The Light Went Out"

There is another novel out of print - "Twopence Coloured" - written again in the mid-1920's.

The good news is that a 3-part BBC dramatisation of Twenty Thousand Streets is in development (there is an excellent audio interview with the producer, Kevin Elyot on the BBC R3 website) and possibly a film of "Slaves of Solitude"

Just looking at your tastes I wonder whether you've read the great novel "Wide Boys Never Work" by Robert Westerby set among the "Greyhound Gangs" and lowlife of London in the 1930's - well worth reading if you can get hold of a copy

best wishes

Nick Robinson

[Andrew Smaje]

'Angel Street' (1966), as can be seen by the date given to the play, is not a new title by Patrick Hamilton, but an American title for his play 'Gaslight'.
The play has been adapted for american television twice under the title 'Angel Street' in 1946 and 1950, a result of the most famous of 1940 film version (made in the UK as 'Murder in Thornton Square', with Anton Walbrook) was known as Angel Street on its US release, luckily distinguishing it from its 1944 successor with Charles Boyer and, memorably, Ingrid Bergman.

[Tom]

Thanks for the information, Andrew. The cinema never treated Hamilton kindly did it? There was a rumour in Time Out last year that a new film of Hangover Square is in the offing.

[Nick Robinson]

Black Spring Press are reissuing Hamilton's Gorse Trology in June 2007 - great news for all Hamiltonians. Written when the author was in his 50's and deeper into the alcoholism that would kill him, his powers as a writer are waning but the second (and best) novel in the trilogy - Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse - is an absolute must read. The last - Unknown Assailant - is a slight and depressingly half-hearted attempt to complete the work which unfortunately lets it down.
details here -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gorse-Trilogy-West-Stimpson-Assailant/dp/0948238348/ref=sr_1_1/026-0846567-5195639?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1172947864&sr=1-1

[Neil Jackson]

As a confirmed Hamiltonian I have to say I don't find Unknown Assailant half as bad as it's made out to be. There's a bit of tell-tale repetition in the writing style, which I suppose gives a hint of his condition at the time.