Patrick Hamilton

At the weekend, the Times printed some extracts from the forthcoming “Rough Guide to Cult Fiction“. I wonder whether Patrick Hamilton’s books will be included. In many ways he’s classic cult material: generally snubbed by the literary establishment or regarded at best as a minor talent, drank himself to death, yet wrote in many people’s opinion some of the finest fiction produced between the wars. I read Hangover Square some years ago, then read everything else of his I could get my hands on. My favourite is Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky. Tonight a dramatisation starts on BBC4. It’s the sort of thing the Beeb does well. I like the fact that it’s not on the main two channels, keeping it all in a suitably minor key.