Iain Hamilton

Iain Bertram Hamilton (3 February 1920 – 15 July 1986) was a British journalist, author and poet.

Hamilton was educated at Paisley Grammar School, and initially worked as a reporter on the Daily Record in Glasgow before heading south to London to work as a staffer on The Guardian. From 1952 he was associated with the weekly journal The Spectator, and after several promotions through the ranks he was appointed Editor in 1962, staying in that position for a year. He was Editorial Director of the Hutchinson group of publishing companies from 1958 to 1962, and after leaving The Spectator became managing director of Kern House Enterprises (1970–5). In addition, he wrote a good many articles for the Illustrated London News and the high-brow current affairs magazine Encounter.

The most widely known of Hamilton's literary works is his biography of Arthur Koestler, published by Secker & Warburg, London, in 1982 (a year before Koestler's death). His other books were:

• Spectrum: A Spectator Miscellany (1956), ed. with Ian Gilmour
• Scotland the Brave (1957)
• Half a Highlander: An Autobiography of a Scottish Youth (1958)
• The Foster Gang (1966), with H. J. May
• Embarkation for Cythera (1974)
• The Kerry Kyle (1980)

He also wrote a play early in his career, The Snarling Beggar (1951).