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(1904-1962) UK author, son of Bernard Hamilton; best known for plays like Rope: A Play, with a Preface on Thrillers (performed 3 July 1929 Strand, London; 1929 chap) and Gas Light: A Victorian Thriller in Three Acts (performed 5 December 1938, Richmond; 1939), whose title became a verb meaning to manipulate a victim so that they doubt their own sanity; and for several acute and supple novels of hopelessness in the UK of the 1930s. The most famous of these, Hangover Square; Or the Man With Two Minds: A Story of Darkest Earl's Court in 1939 (1941), is a split-personality murder mystery without any fantastic elements. His sf novel, Impromptu in Moribundia (1939), is a Satire through which a dreamlike exploration of another planet, where Earth's customs are seen inverted, provides an "upsidedown" distorting mirror; its attacks on modernism in literature are smart but intemperate. [JC]
born Hassocks, Sussex: 17 March 1904
died Sheringham, Norfolk: 23 September 1962
works (highly selected)
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Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 08:39 am on 12 November 2025.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hamilton_patrick>