The Man Who Was Norris: The Life of Gerald Hamilton

Originally blocked from publication for legal reasons in the late 1970s, Cullen’s fascinating biography explores the life of “chameleon” Gerald Hamilton (1890–1970), the inspiration for the title character of Christopher Isherwood’s novel Mr. Norris Changes Trains. Described, even by friends, as a “wicked” man, Hamilton could be as nasty as he was charming. He befriended Isherwood, was jailed for gross indecency, and meticulously chronicled his homosexual dalliances. Hamilton was also an anti-Semite, a suspected spy for the French, and a German sympathizer imprisoned by his own government during both world wars. He was frequently in debt and bankrupt twice. But to many, Hamilton was an oddly charismatic, if enigmatic, eccentric. Cullen presents his colorful subject as a master of witty bon mots and recounts lively, gossipy anecdotes about Hamilton’s conversion to Catholicism (made, according to Hamilton, mostly to shock his anti-Catholic father), friendships with the likes of Lord Alfred Douglas and Aleister Crowley, and stint as a body model for a Winston Churchill statue. The book’s parts prove greater than the whole, but readers will still be pleased to have met the scandalous Hamilton. (June)