Gerald Hamilton

Gerald Hamilton (c. 1888-1970) was a memoirist, critic and internationalist. Born in Shanghai in the 1880s, but educated at England's Rugby School, he counted amongst his friends such notables as Winston Churchill, Aleister Crowley, Tallulah Bankhead and Christopher Isherwood, who wrote of Hamilton's remarkable personality and frequently shady dealings in his literary memoir "Christopher and His Kind". Churchill had the Communist-sympathizing Hamilton temporarily interned during World War II for his vocal anti-war attitudes. Hamilton had earlier served as the model for Isherwood's character Arthur Norris in his well-known novel "Mr. Norris Changes Trains" (1935) (published in the US as 'The last of Mr. Norris'). Hamilton derived from this the title for his memoir, "Mr. Norris and I", which was published in 1956. A second memoir, "the Way it Was With Me", was published in 1969. Hamilton died in 1970 at the age of 82.

As well as Hamilton's works of autobiography, his other books include "Jacaranda", an account of a trip to South-Africa; "Emma in Blue", about Lady Emma Hamilton and particularly her friendship with Marie-Caroline of Austria while in Naples; and "Blood Royal", a history of Queen Victoria's immediate descendants and relatives in Europe, and the haemophilia that afflicted the family.

Later in his life Hamilton became friends with John Symonds, author and editor, who wrote "Conversations with Gerald" about their acquaintance.

Works

*"Mr Norris and I", Allan Wingate, 1956
*"That Way it Was With Me", Leslie Frewin, London, 1969, ISBN 0090965604
*"Jacaranda", Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1961
*"Emma in Blue", Allan Wingate, 1957
*"Blood Royal", Times Publishing/ Anthony Gibbs & Phillips, 1964

References

*Page, Norman. "Auden and Isherwood: the Berlin Years". Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
*Symonds, John. "Conversations with Gerald", Duckworth, 1974. ISBN 0715608150

External links

* [http://www.redflame93.com/Hamilton.html Gerald Hamilton: A Biographical Sketch of a Friend & Acquaintance of Aleister Crowley]
*worldcat id|lccn-no2003-74060