What do you think?
Rate this book
Twopence Coloured
'West Kensington - grey area of rot, and caretaking, and cat-slinking basements. West Kensington - drab asylum for the driven and cast-off genteel!' Patrick Hamilton was acutely conscious that his third novel (first published in 1928) was longer and 'much grimmer' than his previous and well-received productions. Twopence Coloured is the story of 19-year-old Jackie Mortimer, who leaves Hove in search of a life on the London stage, only to become entangled in 'provincial theatre' and complex affairs of the heart with two brothers, Richard and Charles Gissing. This novel, unavailable for many years, is a gimlet-eyed portrait of the theatrical vocation, and fully exhibits Hamilton's celebrated gift for conjuring London - the 'vast, thronged, unknown, hooting, electric-lit, dark-rumbling metropolis'.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1928
About the author
Patrick Hamilton
89 books296 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
He was born Anthony Walter Patrick Hamilton in the Sussex village of Hassocks, near Brighton, to writer parents. Due to his father's alcoholism and financial ineptitude, the family spent much of Hamilton's childhood living in boarding houses in Chiswick and Hove. His education was patchy, and ended just after his fifteenth birthday when his mother withdrew him from Westminster School.
After a brief career as an actor, he became a novelist in his early twenties with the publication of Monday Morning (1925), written when he was nineteen. Craven House (1926) and Twopence Coloured (1928) followed, but his first real success was the play Rope (1929, known as Rope's End in America).
The Midnight Bell (1929) is based upon Hamilton's falling in love with a prostitute, and was later published along with The Siege of Pleasure (1932) and The Plains of Cement (1934) as the semi-autobiographical trilogy 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (1935).
Hamilton disliked many aspects of modern life. He was disfigured badly when he was run over by a car in the late 1920s: the end of his novel Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953), with its vision of England smothered in metal beetles, reflects his loathing of the motor car. However, despite some distaste for the culture in which he operated, he was a popular contributor to it. His two most successful plays, Rope and Gas Light (1938, known as Angel Street in the US), made Hamilton wealthy and were also successful as films: the British-made Gaslight (1940) and the 1944 American remake, and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948).
Hangover Square (1941) is often judged his most accomplished work and still sells well in paperback, and is regarded by contemporary authors such as Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd as an important part of the tradition of London novels. Set in Earls Court where Hamilton himself lived, it deals with both alcohol-drinking practices of the time and the underlying political context, such as the rise of fascism and responses to it. Hamilton became an avowed Marxist, though not a publicly declared member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. During the 1930s, like many other authors, Hamilton grew increasingly angry with capitalism and, again like others, felt that the violence and fascism of Europe during the period indicated that capitalism was reaching its end: this encouraged his Marxism and his novel Impromptu in Moribundia (1939) was a satirical attack of capitalist culture.
During his later life, Hamilton developed in his writing a misanthropic authorial voice which became more disillusioned, cynical and bleak as time passed. The Slaves of Solitude (1947), was his only work to deal directly with the Second World War, and he preferred to look back to the pre-war years. His Gorse Trilogy—three novels about a devious sexual predator and conman—are not generally well thought of critically, although Graham Greene said that the first was 'the best book written about Brighton' and the second (Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse) is regarded increasingly as a comic masterpiece. The hostility and negativity of the novels is also attributed to Hamilton's disenchantment with the utopianism of Marxism and depression. The trilogy comprises The West Pier (1952); Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953), dramatized as The Charmer in 1987; and in 1955 Hamilton's last published work, Unknown Assailant, a short novel much of which was dictated while Hamilton was drunk. The Gorse Trilogy was first published in a single volume in 1992.
Hamilton had begun to consume alcohol excessively while still a relatively young man. After a declining career and melancholia, he died in 1962 of cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure, in Sheringham, Norfolk.
He was born Anthony Walter Patrick Hamilton in the Sussex village of Hassocks, near Brighton, to writer parents. Due to his father's alcoholism and financial ineptitude, the family spent much of Hamilton's childhood living in boarding houses in Chiswick and Hove. His education was patchy, and ended just after his fifteenth birthday when his mother withdrew him from Westminster School.
After a brief career as an actor, he became a novelist in his early twenties with the publication of Monday Morning (1925), written when he was nineteen. Craven House (1926) and Twopence Coloured (1928) followed, but his first real success was the play Rope (1929, known as Rope's End in America).
The Midnight Bell (1929) is based upon Hamilton's falling in love with a prostitute, and was later published along with The Siege of Pleasure (1932) and The Plains of Cement (1934) as the semi-autobiographical trilogy 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (1935).
Hamilton disliked many aspects of modern life. He was disfigured badly when he was run over by a car in the late 1920s: the end of his novel Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953), with its vision of England smothered in metal beetles, reflects his loathing of the motor car. However, despite some distaste for the culture in which he operated, he was a popular contributor to it. His two most successful plays, Rope and Gas Light (1938, known as Angel Street in the US), made Hamilton wealthy and were also successful as films: the British-made Gaslight (1940) and the 1944 American remake, and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948).
Hangover Square (1941) is often judged his most accomplished work and still sells well in paperback, and is regarded by contemporary authors such as Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd as an important part of the tradition of London novels. Set in Earls Court where Hamilton himself lived, it deals with both alcohol-drinking practices of the time and the underlying political context, such as the rise of fascism and responses to it. Hamilton became an avowed Marxist, though not a publicly declared member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. During the 1930s, like many other authors, Hamilton grew increasingly angry with capitalism and, again like others, felt that the violence and fascism of Europe during the period indicated that capitalism was reaching its end: this encouraged his Marxism and his novel Impromptu in Moribundia (1939) was a satirical attack of capitalist culture.
During his later life, Hamilton developed in his writing a misanthropic authorial voice which became more disillusioned, cynical and bleak as time passed. The Slaves of Solitude (1947), was his only work to deal directly with the Second World War, and he preferred to look back to the pre-war years. His Gorse Trilogy—three novels about a devious sexual predator and conman—are not generally well thought of critically, although Graham Greene said that the first was 'the best book written about Brighton' and the second (Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse) is regarded increasingly as a comic masterpiece. The hostility and negativity of the novels is also attributed to Hamilton's disenchantment with the utopianism of Marxism and depression. The trilogy comprises The West Pier (1952); Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953), dramatized as The Charmer in 1987; and in 1955 Hamilton's last published work, Unknown Assailant, a short novel much of which was dictated while Hamilton was drunk. The Gorse Trilogy was first published in a single volume in 1992.
Hamilton had begun to consume alcohol excessively while still a relatively young man. After a declining career and melancholia, he died in 1962 of cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure, in Sheringham, Norfolk.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 5, 2020
I adore Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square (1941) - my favourite novel of all time; The Slaves of Solitude (1947) is superb; I also really enjoyed the first two Gorse novels - The West Pier (1952); and Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse (1953); and Craven House (1926) (the book that preceded this one). I would also heartily recommend the biography of Patrick Hamilton, Through A Glass Darkly: The Life of Patrick Hamilton by Nigel Jones. Since reading Hangover Square, I have been working my way through all of Patrick Hamilton's work.
Twopence Coloured was published in 1928, two years after Craven House which had been well received by both critics and the reading public. Twopence Coloured was out of print, and all but forgotten, until the Faber Finds reissue in 2011. This does not surprise me as Twopence Coloured is the least successful and pleasing book that I have yet read by Patrick Hamilton. I was dismayed that, after the wealth of disparate characters that appear in Craven House, he wrote this baggy, meandering, overlong and slight tale. With the light of hindsight, we know this was a blip in an otherwise upward trajectory, and he was to hit form again with Rope: A Play, and then The Midnight Bell, and then onwards to the peak that was the sublime Hangover Square, via the Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky trilogy.
There are three main reasons why Twopence Coloured is far less successful than Craven House, and the books that were to follow:
1) It's too long. For the first time ever reading Patrick Hamilton, I felt occasionally bored and was tempted to skip ahead. The tale is slight and could have been effectively told in a short story.
2) The lack of social context. Craven House managed to tell an interesting story that highlighted the broader generational conflicts after WW1, along with the social tensions during that era. Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude were to even more perfectly marry social and political comment with compelling drama and wonderfully observational writing about pubs, boarding houses, personal relationships, addiction, love and obsession.
3) Uninteresting characters. The book's two main characters, Jackie Mortimer and Richard Gissing, dominate the story, and yet I felt I never got to know much about either of them. Given the well observed, and perfectly described, characters in Patrick Hamilton's other books, this seems odd and anomalous.
Despite these flaws, the book still has much to recommend it. This is Patrick Hamilton after all. He drew on his experience of working in theatre, and seems to perfectly capture the theatrical milieu - both in London's West End, and the provinces. As always with Patrick Hamilton, the dialogue and humour ring with authenticity, and I have no doubt that much of what is stated in the book was originally heard by Patrick Hamilton.
Despite its unnecessary length, Twopence Coloured has much to enjoy for readers who have come to know and love Patrick Hamilton's work. Newcomers should start with Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude, and then work through the many other highlights of his bibliography before tackling Twopence Coloured.
I'll finish this review with two pieces of trivia associated with the book:
1) Mark from The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society on GoodReads informed me that UK theatre-goers in the early twentieth century could purchase miniature paper replica model kits of the stage set and the characters, and - once home - re-enact the play for friends and family. These model sets were typically available in two versions - black and white and full colour . The vendors would cry, "Penny Plains! Twopence Coloured!". Now you know.
2) Jackie and Richard dine at Booth's Restaurant in Brighton on a few occasions. As a resident of Brighton and Hove I wondered where this establishment used to be. I had not heard of it before. It was surprisingly difficult to find information, however after some intense searching I discovered that Booth's Restaurant aka Edwin Booth & Sons, Pastry Cooks and Confectioners, was located at 69-70 East Street in Brighton from 1870 until at least 1950. The beautiful double fronted Victorian building is still at 69-70 East Street and, at the time of writing, is a hairdressers.
3/5
Twopence Coloured was published in 1928, two years after Craven House which had been well received by both critics and the reading public. Twopence Coloured was out of print, and all but forgotten, until the Faber Finds reissue in 2011. This does not surprise me as Twopence Coloured is the least successful and pleasing book that I have yet read by Patrick Hamilton. I was dismayed that, after the wealth of disparate characters that appear in Craven House, he wrote this baggy, meandering, overlong and slight tale. With the light of hindsight, we know this was a blip in an otherwise upward trajectory, and he was to hit form again with Rope: A Play, and then The Midnight Bell, and then onwards to the peak that was the sublime Hangover Square, via the Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky trilogy.
There are three main reasons why Twopence Coloured is far less successful than Craven House, and the books that were to follow:
1) It's too long. For the first time ever reading Patrick Hamilton, I felt occasionally bored and was tempted to skip ahead. The tale is slight and could have been effectively told in a short story.
2) The lack of social context. Craven House managed to tell an interesting story that highlighted the broader generational conflicts after WW1, along with the social tensions during that era. Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude were to even more perfectly marry social and political comment with compelling drama and wonderfully observational writing about pubs, boarding houses, personal relationships, addiction, love and obsession.
3) Uninteresting characters. The book's two main characters, Jackie Mortimer and Richard Gissing, dominate the story, and yet I felt I never got to know much about either of them. Given the well observed, and perfectly described, characters in Patrick Hamilton's other books, this seems odd and anomalous.
Despite these flaws, the book still has much to recommend it. This is Patrick Hamilton after all. He drew on his experience of working in theatre, and seems to perfectly capture the theatrical milieu - both in London's West End, and the provinces. As always with Patrick Hamilton, the dialogue and humour ring with authenticity, and I have no doubt that much of what is stated in the book was originally heard by Patrick Hamilton.
Despite its unnecessary length, Twopence Coloured has much to enjoy for readers who have come to know and love Patrick Hamilton's work. Newcomers should start with Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude, and then work through the many other highlights of his bibliography before tackling Twopence Coloured.
I'll finish this review with two pieces of trivia associated with the book:
1) Mark from The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society on GoodReads informed me that UK theatre-goers in the early twentieth century could purchase miniature paper replica model kits of the stage set and the characters, and - once home - re-enact the play for friends and family. These model sets were typically available in two versions - black and white and full colour . The vendors would cry, "Penny Plains! Twopence Coloured!". Now you know.
2) Jackie and Richard dine at Booth's Restaurant in Brighton on a few occasions. As a resident of Brighton and Hove I wondered where this establishment used to be. I had not heard of it before. It was surprisingly difficult to find information, however after some intense searching I discovered that Booth's Restaurant aka Edwin Booth & Sons, Pastry Cooks and Confectioners, was located at 69-70 East Street in Brighton from 1870 until at least 1950. The beautiful double fronted Victorian building is still at 69-70 East Street and, at the time of writing, is a hairdressers.
3/5
January 6, 2015
I LOVE Patrick Hamilton but this was one of his weaker novels I felt - loved the mood, theme etc but the descriptions of seedy theatres, rehearsals, thespians was just too lenghty/repetitive for me. However I was intrigued by Jackie and how she weaved her way through the world of provincial theatre so kept reading on as wanted to know how it played out for her.
November 10, 2015
This is a compelling story about the theatre, about people and the dynamics that exist between them. Set principly in London, Jackie, the central character, has decided upon a career on the stage. Hamilton wittily tells her story and that of the people she meets as she moves from one theatrical company to another.
The language is of its time and the characters well drawn with the eccentricities of the theatre people being especially pin-pointed.
The title comes from the 19th century phrase 'penny plain, twopence coloured' which referred to the model theatres that children used to play with at that time. The sets and characters to be used on the model stage being a penny for plain black outlined pieces for the children to colour themselves or ready coloured pieces for more affluent children. So Jackie's journey through her career on stage is for the ultimate but what she actually achieves is quite different.
A great read and another book that I'm really glad I was able to find.
The language is of its time and the characters well drawn with the eccentricities of the theatre people being especially pin-pointed.
The title comes from the 19th century phrase 'penny plain, twopence coloured' which referred to the model theatres that children used to play with at that time. The sets and characters to be used on the model stage being a penny for plain black outlined pieces for the children to colour themselves or ready coloured pieces for more affluent children. So Jackie's journey through her career on stage is for the ultimate but what she actually achieves is quite different.
A great read and another book that I'm really glad I was able to find.
April 11, 2026
Not as good as his other novels, and could have been shortened a bit. However, there are some glimmers of genius, both in the scene with the two drunks on the train and later describing Jackie and Richard at home. Superb, humorous, and touching descriptions which show just how good Hamilton was.
November 14, 2020
I love Patrick Hamilton and Twopence Coloured was the last novel of his I had to read. I’d heard it was a weaker one, but I’d read others described as that and enjoyed them perfectly fine, so imagine my horror when I opened this book.
My first note reads, ‘Oh Patrick, what are you doing?’ He’s been overtaken by Style. Style threatened to get Monday Morning but he successfully fought back but this time, he’s defeated good and proper. Not only are there Ironic Knowing Capitalisations all over the place, his word choice is atrocious, full of needless alliteration, egregious multi-syllables and awkward para-rhymes. When the first page ended, ‘Her misinterpretation of managerial intention was but a preliminary misinterpretation,’ I was worried for the next 350-odd.
Yet, there were still a few proper Hamilton stingers in there, for example, the following description of the main character’s father;
“Jackie’s father is only of interest in this story in so far as he claimed to be immortal, but was not.” The trouble is that there is a desperate sense in the book that Patrick is trying to make every sentence a zinger, and so drowns the genuine zingers out.
Yet… Jackie is a genuinely intriguing character, she’s born and raised in an atmosphere where she gains success and popularity without ever trying and expects this to last throughout her life. This doesn’t make her conceited because she doesn’t realise that it’s not the case for everyone and so she retains a likability as she gets sucked into the lower reaches of the theatrical world.
The depiction of theatrical life is vivid in its scuzziness and I’d expect nothing less from Hamilton. He accurately and hilariously portrays how banal most of the theatrical profession is. The book is at its best laughing at the cheesy lyrics in revue songs, describing an actresses’s style as ‘handkerchiefy’ or describing a battle scene where all the extras die at least twice because it’s the best bit. There was, however, no sense of the buzz that comes with the theatre, none of that excitement and magic that keep people working there and makes hundreds of sad saps (like me) devote time to amateur productions. I assume that’s the point but I still missed it.
The central relationship in the book was between Jackie and Richard Gissing. I can’t say I ever ‘got’ this relationship. Partly, I had been tipped off by the blurb that his brother Charles would enter the picture as a romantic rival, so I was waiting for the relationship to break from that, but I also didn’t see what it was built on. I spent the entire novel thinking the relationship was shallow or phoney and waiting for it to fall apart, so imagine my surprise when he dies of flu and we realise that they really did have an important relationship. The fact that she then went and married his brother didn’t completely unseat my wariness of the original relationship. I think the problem can from Richard’s bland, competent unknowability, I simply didn’t see what he saw in Jackie, especially when the book told me he relied on her… for what?
The book ends with a dilemma, should Jackie carry on the theatrical career she’s had moderate success in, or should she marry Charles. Giving up the stage at this point seems like an admission of defeat and failure, which she does.
“She was a failure. She had the courage to be a failure - the originality to be a failure.” With this letting go of her aspirations and dreams, she feels infinitely happier and goes off to lead a presumably happy life. In some ways this hit hard, I am an aspiring novelist mired in failure and every time I wish to give up it is this failure that keeps me at it. However, Jackie has had some success at in theatre, maybe not astronomical or worldchanging, but she managed to go out and entertain thousands of audiences.. I’ve not had that opportunity yet. It seemed she got to get out whilst ahead while revelling in the freedom of failure. So we leave her having her cake and eating it.
My first note reads, ‘Oh Patrick, what are you doing?’ He’s been overtaken by Style. Style threatened to get Monday Morning but he successfully fought back but this time, he’s defeated good and proper. Not only are there Ironic Knowing Capitalisations all over the place, his word choice is atrocious, full of needless alliteration, egregious multi-syllables and awkward para-rhymes. When the first page ended, ‘Her misinterpretation of managerial intention was but a preliminary misinterpretation,’ I was worried for the next 350-odd.
Yet, there were still a few proper Hamilton stingers in there, for example, the following description of the main character’s father;
“Jackie’s father is only of interest in this story in so far as he claimed to be immortal, but was not.” The trouble is that there is a desperate sense in the book that Patrick is trying to make every sentence a zinger, and so drowns the genuine zingers out.
Yet… Jackie is a genuinely intriguing character, she’s born and raised in an atmosphere where she gains success and popularity without ever trying and expects this to last throughout her life. This doesn’t make her conceited because she doesn’t realise that it’s not the case for everyone and so she retains a likability as she gets sucked into the lower reaches of the theatrical world.
The depiction of theatrical life is vivid in its scuzziness and I’d expect nothing less from Hamilton. He accurately and hilariously portrays how banal most of the theatrical profession is. The book is at its best laughing at the cheesy lyrics in revue songs, describing an actresses’s style as ‘handkerchiefy’ or describing a battle scene where all the extras die at least twice because it’s the best bit. There was, however, no sense of the buzz that comes with the theatre, none of that excitement and magic that keep people working there and makes hundreds of sad saps (like me) devote time to amateur productions. I assume that’s the point but I still missed it.
The central relationship in the book was between Jackie and Richard Gissing. I can’t say I ever ‘got’ this relationship. Partly, I had been tipped off by the blurb that his brother Charles would enter the picture as a romantic rival, so I was waiting for the relationship to break from that, but I also didn’t see what it was built on. I spent the entire novel thinking the relationship was shallow or phoney and waiting for it to fall apart, so imagine my surprise when he dies of flu and we realise that they really did have an important relationship. The fact that she then went and married his brother didn’t completely unseat my wariness of the original relationship. I think the problem can from Richard’s bland, competent unknowability, I simply didn’t see what he saw in Jackie, especially when the book told me he relied on her… for what?
The book ends with a dilemma, should Jackie carry on the theatrical career she’s had moderate success in, or should she marry Charles. Giving up the stage at this point seems like an admission of defeat and failure, which she does.
“She was a failure. She had the courage to be a failure - the originality to be a failure.” With this letting go of her aspirations and dreams, she feels infinitely happier and goes off to lead a presumably happy life. In some ways this hit hard, I am an aspiring novelist mired in failure and every time I wish to give up it is this failure that keeps me at it. However, Jackie has had some success at in theatre, maybe not astronomical or worldchanging, but she managed to go out and entertain thousands of audiences.. I’ve not had that opportunity yet. It seemed she got to get out whilst ahead while revelling in the freedom of failure. So we leave her having her cake and eating it.
March 4, 2016
An early novel by Patrick Hamilton, out of print for many years, about Jackie Mortimer, a young woman from Hove determined to be an actress. A successful playwright, Hamilton knew the dramatic milieu well - from London's West End stage to the less exotic world of regional theatre. While 'Twopence Coloured' strips the acting life of most of its glamour, it is relatively upbeat in comparison to Hamilton's later work, combining professional satire of with a touching, if slightly cynical romance. Hamilton's lugubrious style is certainly an acquired taste, but while 'Twopence Coloured' may not be considered one of his major novels, it is certainly among the most enjoyable.
November 29, 2020
All of Hamilton's fiction is too long up to, I think, The Plains of Cement, when he finally outgrows a weakness for flashy indulgent passages. In Twopence Coloured, the first three hundred pages could be cut by at least half, and all the comic capitalisation with it. But the second part is far stronger and there are signs of the writer Hamilton would become -the wholly unsentimental viewpoint, the sharp ear for dialogue, the exuberant prose. And of course his instinct at the end of chapters to kick his characters when they’re down: “In such a way did this long period pass for Jackie, and she came out of it a wiser, and more jaded, and less happy young woman.” If you’re new to Hamilton, I would start with his masterpiece The Slaves of Solitude; for fans Twopence Coloured is well worth getting.
July 9, 2021
I really enjoy this author and have now read most of his novels. I found this one much too long, however could see the way his future novels developed. The railway journey Jackie took at the start of the book was in a class of its own. Well worth reading this section on its own.
January 6, 2023
A decent offering from Hamilton, but a bit slow-paced, and I couldn't help longing for a few more humorous boarding house scenes like we get in his other books.
February 17, 2024
Probably not the best Hamilton to start with. Not much happens at all!
March 7, 2025
Patrick Hamilton is a favorite, but this one disappoints. Try Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, Hangover Square, or The Slaves of Solitude instead.
January 7, 2026
one of the better early Hamilton's. You can see flashes of the brilliance he was to develop in 20,000 streets but he can't sustain it throughout the book
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews