Books like Hangover Square

[squoosh]

I loved Hangover Square and am looking for books with a similar tone and setting. London's underbelly in the 1930's/1940's really.

Any suggestions?

All the other Patrick Hamilton books are great - Slaves of Solitude, 20,000 streets under the sky are heartbreaking and hopeless, The Gorse trilogy, although it could do with some editing is worthwhile. All explore the forgotten and the lonely in 1930's/40's London and outer London.

London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins is a good yarn (though not scary like Hangover Square), as is The Avenue and the The Avenue Goes to War by R.F. Delderfield.(Good family sagas, great characters and atmosphere but not really the "underbelly") Of Love and Hunger by Julian McLaren Ross is interesting and set in that period too.

Thanks misty. Have all Hamilton's books on my list so looking forward to getting stuck into them.

Have just put all your other suggestions into my Amazon basket too. London Belongs to Me looks like just the thing I'm after. And I am very fond of a family saga too so the Delderfields sound v appealing.

Great. I discovered these books after reading Patrick Hamilton and wanting to explore more about the interwar years. Persephone Books has a good catalogue of mainly almost forgotten women writers, most writing around this period. Dorothy Whipple is particularly good (We were sisters and Someone at a distance)

London Belongs to Me is one of my all time favourite books. It's more charming than Hangover Square which doesn't have much redemption to it.

In my pursuit of other books in the same vein I also read Bond Street Story by the same author (Norman Collins) and, going further back, A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison which is Victorian but also compelling.

Oh and Angel Pavement by JB Priestley although I didn't get on with that one so well. Definitely right period and right location though and promising characters but somehow it wasn't the book for me.

I've read They Were Sisters misty and loved it. I definitely need to investigate more of Persephone's books.

Thanks for the recommendations Quangle, had never heard of Angel Pavement before, have just bought popped that on the list too!