BOOK DETAILS
Trade paper ISBN-13: 978-1943910007 List Price: $17.99 U.S. Pages: 210 Published: 2015 |
A Hair Divides (1930)
Claude Houghton Book Description
Gordon Rutherford, a young writer, finds himself in a dangerous dilemma when he is the only witness to the accidental death of an acquaintance. Because of the strange circumstances of the case, Rutherford knows that if he goes to the police he will almost certainly be accused of murder. But if he disposes of the body and conceals the accident, he will destroy any chance of proving his innocence. The terrible decision Rutherford is forced to make – and the even more terrible consequences that follow – form the plot of this intriguing novel, a mystery unlike any you have ever read. Claude Houghton (1889-1961) gained a cult following in the 1920s and ’30s with his unusual psychological thrillers and counted Henry Miller, Hugh Walpole, J.B. Priestley, and Graham Greene among his many admirers. This first-ever reprint of A Hair Divides (1930), originally published the same year as his masterpiece I Am Jonathan Scrivener, reproduces the original dust jacket illustration and joins four other classic Houghton novels also available from Valancourt. |
reviews
“Combines originality with intelligence, displaying, particularly, great gifts of imagination and psychological insight … a new type of thriller … one of the best pieces of work in English fiction of recent years … a first class novel.” – Saturday Review
“Surely one of the most original of English writers who have established themselves since the War. In the plainest sense his books are like no one else’s … always the most vivid of story tellers.” – The Times
“One of the most interesting and one of the most important novelists now writing in England.” – Hugh Walpole
“He is an extremely interesting novelist, and a genuinely original one.” – J.B. Priestley
“Surely one of the most original of English writers who have established themselves since the War. In the plainest sense his books are like no one else’s … always the most vivid of story tellers.” – The Times
“One of the most interesting and one of the most important novelists now writing in England.” – Hugh Walpole
“He is an extremely interesting novelist, and a genuinely original one.” – J.B. Priestley
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Claude Houghton Oldfield was born in 1889 in Sevenoaks, Kent and was educated at Dulwich College. He trained as an accountant and worked in the Admiralty in the First World War, rejected for active service by poor eyesight. In 1920 he married a West End actress, Dulcie Benson, and they lived in a cottage in the Chiltern Hills. To a writers’ directory, Houghton gave his hobbies as reading in bed, riding, visiting Devon and abroad, and talking to people different to himself. He added: “I like dawn, and the dead of night, in great cities.” He disliked fuss, noise, crowds, rows, and being misquoted, or being told how much he owed “to some writer I’ve never read”.
Houghton’s earliest writing was poetry and drama before turning to prose fiction with his first novel, Neighbours, in 1926. In the 1930s, Houghton published several well-received novels that met with solid sales and respectable reviews, including I Am Jonathan Scrivener (1930), easily his most popular and best-known work, Chaos Is Come Again (1932), Julian Grant Loses His Way (1933), This Was Ivor Trent (1935), Strangers (1938), and Hudson Rejoins the Herd (1939). Although he published nearly a dozen more novels throughout the 1940s and 1950s, most critics feel his later works are less significant than his novels of the 1930s.
Houghton was a prolific correspondent, generous in devoting his time to answering letters and signing copies for readers who enjoyed his books. One of these was novelist Henry Miller, who never met Houghton but began an impassioned epistolary exchange with him after being profoundly moved by his works. Houghton’s other admirers included his contemporaries P. G. Wodehouse, Clemence Dane, and Hugh Walpole. Houghton died in 1961.
Houghton’s earliest writing was poetry and drama before turning to prose fiction with his first novel, Neighbours, in 1926. In the 1930s, Houghton published several well-received novels that met with solid sales and respectable reviews, including I Am Jonathan Scrivener (1930), easily his most popular and best-known work, Chaos Is Come Again (1932), Julian Grant Loses His Way (1933), This Was Ivor Trent (1935), Strangers (1938), and Hudson Rejoins the Herd (1939). Although he published nearly a dozen more novels throughout the 1940s and 1950s, most critics feel his later works are less significant than his novels of the 1930s.
Houghton was a prolific correspondent, generous in devoting his time to answering letters and signing copies for readers who enjoyed his books. One of these was novelist Henry Miller, who never met Houghton but began an impassioned epistolary exchange with him after being profoundly moved by his works. Houghton’s other admirers included his contemporaries P. G. Wodehouse, Clemence Dane, and Hugh Walpole. Houghton died in 1961.