Interesting facts about a neglected novelist and playwright
1. Patrick Hamilton’s famous fans and champions have included Doris Lessing and Graham Greene. The playwright and author J. B. Priestley was also an admirer of Hamilton’s work, much of which focuses on working-class British life. In 1968, future Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing lamented: ‘Hamilton was a marvellous novelist who’s grossly neglected.’ More recently, Fever Pitch author Nick Hornby has expressed admiration for Hamilton’s novels, declaring Hamilton ‘my new best friend’ when he first encountered his work.