The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton

 The Slaves of Solitude is one of Hamilton's key novels, alongside Hangover Square and Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky.   Published in 1947, it is set three or four years later, after America has joined the war but before D-Day.   The London Blitz has forced Edna Roache and thousands out of the capital but, in her case, only as far Henley-on-Thames or, as Hamilton calls it, Thames Lockdon.   Always a renter or lodger, she finds refuge Rosamund Tea Rooms, which has become a boarding house for the duration.  There, she shares with the old, the fading, the spinsters like herself.   A former schoolmistress, Roach is currently a publisher's reader, and so long as she commutes daily she is content.   But when her employer says she can work from home, the problems of communal living, the daily grind of despondency, becomes overwhelming.

To start with, things are looking up.   Edna has a friend, the ex-pat German, Vicki Kugelmann.   She even has an admirer, Lieutenant Pike, an American GI.   She also has an enemy of sorts, the bombastic bachelor Mr Thwaites, whose whims and eccentricities dominate at the Tea Rooms.   Then Vicki moves in and slowly takes over.   She charms Mr Thwaites, catches the eye of Lieutenant Pike, slowly but surely excluding Miss Roach.

The title is not only catchy, it is accurate.   War and its retrictions has transformed a whole class of people from active participants in society to passive slaves of solitude.  For such people it is not a case of cheer up and carry on; all they can do is endure.   For Roach everything changes when she challenges the convention and stands up for herself.    Then she is able to escape, returns to London, and comes back to life.   At the end of the day The Slaves of Solitude is a comic novel, and an excellent example of what a comic novel can do.

Through a Glass Darkly - Nigel Jones

Through a Glass Darkly is the life of Patrick Hamilton.  Patrick Hamilton was a hugely successful author from the get-go, achieving bestseller status while still in his twenties.  He was even more successful as a playwright.  His stage thrillers Rope and Gaslight are still staples of commercial theatre around the world and both made famous movies.

But for all his success Hamilton's life was essentially tragic.  He was horribly injured in a road accident in January 1932 shortly after a controversial broadcast of Rope on the BBC.  He suffered extensive injuries and had to undergo early plastic surgery to repair the damage to his face.  He was 27 years old and was never entirely free of pain thereafter.  He drank to numb the pain - or perhaps he inherited the trait from his truly repellent father; in any event he was soon an alcoholic and drink finally did for him thirty years later.  He married twice but had sexual hang ups, including bondage, which led him to use prostitutes.  Yet he still turned out successful novels almost to the end of his life.  The plays alone would have been enough to sustain him, had it not been for his expensive distractions.

Nigel Jones is a skilled biographer of literary figures - his biography of Rupert Brooke was reviewed on this blog about six months ago.  Of the two, I actually prefer this.  Hamilton's sister-in-law gave him access to material never seen before, and Jones's descriptions and analyses of the books and plays add to the enjoyment.  I enjoyed Hangover Square when I was 19 and now I want to read it again.