Last week, I received a text from a friend stating that I had “been found out”. It was linked to an article in this paper by writer and comedian Andy Hamilton about fantasists and a fake Andy Hamilton. Later that day, I received an email about the same article from the Guardian, informing me that I had received a payment for said article. I had indeed been paid for an article written by someone with the same name as me. It would appear that confusion had rained down at there being two Andy Hamiltons.
It’s an easy mistake to make. In the BBC archives sits an episode of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, unaired due to a similar mistake: the then host, Roy Plomley found himself interviewing the European director for tourism for Ontario, Canada, Alistair MacLean. This Alistair MacLean was not the author of Where Eagles Dare, the intended castaway, but a figure unknown to British audiences.
As one half of identical twins, I’m used to being confused for the wrong person. It’s something that has got me out of childhood fights and even had me saved from getting sacked (sacked as me, reinstated as my brother).
Over the last 10 years, I have found myself in the strange position of being able to monetise having the same name as an unrelated Andy Hamilton. People turn up to my talks hoping to hear Andy Hamilton, writer, Radio 4 regular and occasional panel-show guest. Instead, they get Andy Hamilton, midlist author talking about foraging, gin, wild cocktails or beer.
I was first aware of this phenomenon due to an admission from someone who came to see the wrong Andy Hamilton. It was after my first talk to a packed auditorium, standing-room only. I felt elated until this comment left me feeling that I owed my success due to the sharing of a name. It happened again when I was promoting my third book, Brewing Britain. A man informed me that he was there to see Radio 4’s Andy Hamilton. But as my book was about beer, and he liked beer, he stayed. After the talk he bought my book and me a pint.
It was then that I realised I should approach this name-sharing with some humility. I started calling myself and my blog The Other Andy Hamilton. At the start of every talk that I have given since, I offer people the chance to leave if they are there to see another Andy Hamilton, be he the comedian, the darts player, or George Michael’s keyboardist or the builder from Somerset.
It doesn’t just happen to me though: Radio 4 Andy Hamilton once got halfway through an interview before they both realised he wasn’t the jazz saxophonist, Andy Hamilton.
• This article was corrected on 7 November 2016. The late jazz musician, Andy Hamilton was a saxophonist, rather than a trumpeter, as we had it.
