THE CENTENARIES OF two notable British writers, Graham Greene and Patrick Hamilton, fall this year. Everyone has heard of Greene, and you might expect he would be the one to make a fuss about. Yet apparently not. Liam Browne, literature organiser of the Brighton Festival, wanted to celebrate both novelists and their connections with the city. 'Much to my surprise, there was very little interest in Greene, whereas everyone wanted to talk about Hamilton', says Browne. So a posse of distinguished literary fans, including Doris Lessing, Michael Holroyd, Lynne Truss, D J Taylor and Sean French, will be beside the seaside in May to discuss Hamilton's work, while Greene is left out in the cold.

The sales of Hamilton's novels have never matched those of Greene's - indeed, only one, Hangover Square, is currently in print (Penguin). He is better known for his finely crafted plays Rope (filmed by Hitchcock in 1947, with James Stewart) and Gaslight (filmed in 1939, with Charles Boyer and Ingrid