Patrick Hamilton was a popular novelist and playwright in England during the 1920s through the 1950s. He wrote eight novels all with a very smooth and fluid style. His descriptions of environment, events, and characters are perceptive, and his artistic understanding of them is evident in his interpretive comments within the descriptions. The reader will enjoy the intrusive voice of the author in his novels, a technique that can be distracting in less skilled authors.

Hamilton was comfortable writing stories about individuals trapped by circumstances in lives of daily toil, limited funds, memories of wars, restricted hope for the future, illusions of perfect love relationships, and reliance on alcohol to live briefly in an impossibly glorious present.

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is a trilogy including: The Midnight Bell (1929), The Siege of Pleasure (1932), and The Plains of Cement (1934). Published in one volume by the New York Review of Books, the novels describe life in London after The Great War from the points of view of a waiter in a neighborhood public house called The Midnight Bell, a prostitute working the streets near the pub, and a barmaid serving drinks to the mostly well-behaved denizens of the bar.

The Midnight Bell is written from the point of view of Bob, a former sailor and would-be author who has come to realize he does not have the motivation or talent to actually write a book. Hoarding his money and daydreaming through his daily chores in the pub, Bob encounters Jenny, a pretty prostitute, and becomes obsessed with a delusion that he has found his true love in life.

In The Siege of Pleasure, the point of view shifts to Jenny. The reader follows her adventures from her working class origins modeling her neighbors' solid work ethic to dissolution of character as she discovers the insidious hedonism of alcohol. This discovery plus Jenny's physical attractiveness and youth cause her to give up her work ethic and live her life manipulating men like Bob.

In The Plains of Cement, Hamilton changes the point of view to Ella who toils in The Midnight Bell and lives in an uncomfortable room next to Bob above the bar. Unlike Jenny, Ella loves Bob who is friendly but does not return her affection. Ella never misses a day of work even though she sees senseless years of economic hardship ahead.

Each novel is a complete story with persistent attention to detail and consistently good writing. Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is an excellent trilogy with seems similar to two of the author's other great novels, Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude (see my Amazon Customer Reviews).

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is autobiographical and illustrates Hamilton's own obsessions, identification with the working class and the downtrodden, and bleak view of his own life in spite of literary success. I strongly recommend the trilogy to readers and give the work a five star rating. ( )

I'd been wanting to read this book (originally three separate short novels, then published jointly under this title) ever since I saw the BBC adaptation. On reflection, though, it feels the BBC version provided more depth into the characters than the book does, particularly for Jenny in the middle section.

The overuse of Supposedly funny Capitals dotted Here and There turned out annoying pretty soon. ( )

My main motive in reading this book was the milieu, London. I'd also read decent reviews in the broadsheets when discussing neglected authors. I did like Hamilton's portrayal of London life in the pubs and clubs of the 30s where his conversational style really suits the milieu he's describing. Half of me understood the young man's infatuation with the girl and at other times I was saying to myself, get a life. If you're interested in London 30s seediness, it's good. ( )

Brilliantly evocative. Hard lives and times in London ( )

This trilogy begins with "The Midnight Bell" - one of the most achingly tragic stories I've ever read. Bob has money in his pocket and love in his heart, but Hamilton's demi-monde is not a place where either can thrive. The second and third novels, which focus on two of Bob's female acquaintances, lack the empathetic tenderness of the first, but this is worth reading for "The Midnight Bell" alone. ( )