The West Pier

Patrick Hamilton achieved fame as a British inter war years writer and playwright. The West Pier published in 1951 was the first part of a trilogy now known as the Gorse Trilogy: the final part and Hamilton's last novel was published in 1955. His novels are not much read these days especially his later ones and after reading The West Pier I can't quite understand why this should be so.

The West Pier is set in the town of Brighton on the South coast of England. The novel starts by introducing us two three school friends. Ernest Ralph Gorse who is one of those boys that nobody really likes, a cold, selfish individual who gets by through clever manipulation of others; Ryan a handsome boy with a warm heart and finally Bell who tries to make show more up for his unattractiveness, by his knowledge of literature and art and his affected ways. The boys meet up in Brighton as 17 year olds and hang out together. Gorse has by this time become more street-wise than the other two and when they meet a couple of girls on the West Pier, the beautiful Esther Downes and her plain friend Gertrude Perks, it is Gorse who makes all the arrangements and Ryan who falls in love with Esther.

The novel now settles down over a three weeks time scale to chart the progress of the relationship between Esther and Gorse and Ryan. Much of the book from this point on takes the form of dialogue between the three main characters and Hamilton brings all his skills as a playwright to capture quite brilliantly the gauche, uncomfortable and sometimes gushing conversations. In England, at that time particularly, class prejudice was all important; Esther thinks the three boys are gentleman; a class above her and tries hard to be considered worthy, but at the same time conscious of the fact that she knows more about life in working class Brighton. Hamilton captures these nuances of what the three protagonists considered proper in their behaviour through their conversations. The youths spend their evenings walking between the piers and the large Sea front hotel admiring the view, playing the slot machines and some of them trying to pair up. The boys are on holiday they are at leisure, living in rented rooms and being looked after by maids. The girls are already working for a living, going home to crowded rented flats choked full of family members.

Gorse dominated the proceedings; trying out his skills in manipulating others, showing all the traits of a psychopath. This makes the novel a depressing read, there can be no happy ending, the youthful bounce of Esther and to some extent Ryan is overcome by coming in contact with Gorse who brings disillusionment and perhaps even danger. The novel never becomes sleazy or or down at heel, but in its portrayal of Brighton and its population it is not uplifting. Attitudes towards women and class belong to the inter war years, but it is not surprising to find them in post war Brighton.
It is Hamiltons lively dialogue and flashes of black humour that gives this novel an edge and I rate it at 4 stars. show less

For some reason, the critical consensus seems to have judged Hamilton's later works (the "Gorse Trilogy") as inferior to "Hangover Square" or "20,000 Streets Beneath The Sky". Each to their own: I personally found "Hangover Square" the nearest thing to a bore, but was riveted by this noir-ish account of a ruthless hollow young sociopath and how he moves on his intended victim, an innocent young girl, against the tawdry lights of Brighton seafront. The action moves slowly and with serpentine grace to a horrible finale.