Viva Brighton Issue #64 June 2018

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LOCAL LITERATURE ............................... BOOK REVIEW: THE BRIGHTON MERMAID BY DOROTHY KOOMSON This is the time of year when we start to think about summer holidays and what books to pack for the beach. They’ve become something of a genre in themselves, beach reads. They have to be page turners: light enough in terms of style to pick up and put down while we sip our cocktails at the bar; dark enough in terms of subject matter to contrast with the Club Tropicana lifestyle of sun, sea, and sangria. The Brighton Mermaid is an early contender for the kind of summer novel I mean. The fact that it starts on a beach – our very own pebbly strand – puts it in beach read territory as surely as if it had chucked a towel on the sun lounger. But is this a novel to go in the luggage or one to leave at the airport bookstand? The story starts in 1993 when two teenage friends, Nell and Jude, find a body washed up on the shore. Like them, she’s a young black woman, not much older than they are, a charm bracelet and a tattoo of a mermaid with the words ‘I am Brighton’ inked on her arm the only clues to her identity. Shortly after the girls find the body, Jude disappears. When the police draw a blank, Nell takes on the search for The Brighton Mermaid’s identity and hopes her investigation will also lead to her missing friend. This quest will take decades, and she will experience police brutality, a dodgy cop trying to fit her father up for the murder, her sister Macy’s OCD (triggered by the traumas that ensue) and a world which gradually reveals itself to be a much darker place than the one she thought it was. Those who are close to her are not what they seem, and everyone is keeping secrets, secrets that will prove dangerous to Nell, and in the end threaten her life. One of the pleasures of the novel was seeing familiar local landmarks leap out of the book’s pages. Whether it was streets I know well, such as George Street in Hove, pubs like The Cricketers, or features such as the Peace Statue, I was both in a place that was very recognisable, and a place transformed by the dark imaginings of (local resident) Dorothy Koomson. Koomson was Richard and Judied for her third novel, My Best Friend’s Girl, which was chosen as one of the Summer Reads of 2006. Twelve years later The Brighton Mermaid, with its short chapters, multiple narrators, timeframes that switch backwards and forwards from 1993 to the present, and a few places in between, has all of the classic elements of the big beach novel. It adds extras depths to the whodunnit in terms of characterisation and emotional impact, and races to a conclusion that had me turning the pages as if they were on fire. Pack it with your sun cream and dream darkly of home. John O’Donoghue Century, £12.99 ....27....
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Page 4 and 5: VIVA B R I G H T O N THE TEAM .....
Page 6 and 7: CONTENTS ..........................
Page 8 and 9: THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST .......
Page 10 and 11: SPREAD THE WORD Here’s Maria Andr
Page 12 and 13: ADVERTORIAL Harney & Wells SPECIALI
Page 14 and 15: CURATOR’S CITY ..................
Page 16 and 17: Independent 3 screen cinema Restaur
Page 18 and 19: BITS AND BOBS .....................
Page 20 and 21: Sussex Community Festival Join us f
Page 22 and 23: LOVEBN1FEST SUNDAY 5TH AUGUST PREST
Page 24 and 25: Bright and fresh studio to LET in t
Page 28 and 29: Photo by Adam Bronkhorst, adambronk
Page 30 and 31: 'Fantastic place, full of beautiful
Page 32 and 33: PHOTOGRAPHY .......................
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Page 37 and 38: Photo © Andrew Unwin
Page 39 and 40: COLUMN ...........................
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Page 43 and 44: COLUMN ...........................
Page 45 and 46: MUSIC .......................... Be
Page 47 and 48: COUNTRY SHOW ......................
Page 49 and 50: COMEDY ............................
Page 51 and 52: MUSIC .............................
Page 53 and 54: LITERATURE ........................
Page 55 and 56: ART ............................. G
Page 57: ART ......................... gener
Page 60 and 61: ART ...............................
Page 62 and 63: DESIGN ............................
Page 64 and 65: PRODUCED BY ROOSTDESIGN.CO.UK Conte
Page 66 and 67: THE WAY WE WORK April Williams, The
Page 68 and 69: THE WAY WE WORK Eva Hellqvist, Oh S
Page 70 and 71: FOOD ........................ The B
Page 72 and 73: RECIPE ............................
Page 74 and 75: A news bouche 吀䠀䔀嘀䔀
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INTERVIEW .........................
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St. Johns is a school and college f
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MY SPACE ..........................
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MY SPACE ..........................
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LOWDOWN ON... .....................
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BRICKS AND MORTAR .................
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ANIMAL RESCUE CENTRE We rescue, reh
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INSIDE LEFT: HOVE LAGOON, 1960s ...
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1 Malling Street, Lewes, East Susse
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Viva Brighton Issue #64 June 2018

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