Viva Brighton Issue #71 January 2019

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VIVA
B R I G H T O N
#71. JAN 2019
EDITORIAL
...........................
.......................
Viva Magazines is based at:
Lewes House, 32 High St,
Lewes, BN7 2LX.
For all enquiries call:
01273 488882.
Every care has been taken to
ensure the accuracy of our content.
We cannot be held responsible for
any omissions, errors or alterations.
I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year but,
with things the way they are, that feels a
little glib. The news is full of uncertainty
and isolation, Brexit woes and parliamentary
discord. We live in a time of hyper-connectivity
and yet the rise of loneliness is headline news.
It’s possible that some of us speak to Alexa (or
another disembodied digital assistant) more
than we do to the people who live next door.
We can have thousands of ‘friends’ but very
little connection. Something has gone wrong.
I found out in the making of this magazine that
more than 40,000 people live alone in the city.
Not all of them are lonely, of course, but some
of them will be. So, in a gentle act of solidarity,
we’re starting 2019 with a reminder of the
power of connecting – in a very real way – to
the people around us. Our ‘good neighbours’
issue is dedicated to just some of the people
who are going out of their way to make time
for others. Not FaceTime but face time. A
coffee shop making food for the homeless.
People offering friendship, food, clean laundry,
bike rides, or the comfort of a lullaby.
Just reading about them is good for the soul
and – a University of Sussex study has shown –
doing a kind act for someone else can make us
feel good too, and that warm glow of altruism
can be infectious. So, why not do yourself a
favour and do something nice for someone
else? Reach out. Make a connection.

HURSTPIERPOINT COLLEGE

VIVA
B R I G H T O N
THE TEAM
.....................
EDITOR: Lizzie Lower lizzie@vivamagazines.com
SUB EDITOR: David Jarman
PRODUCTION EDITOR: Joe Fuller joe@vivamagazines.com
ART DIRECTOR: Katie Moorman katie@vivamagazines.com
PHOTOGRAPHER AT LARGE: Adam Bronkhorst mail@adambronkhorst.com
ADVERTISING: Hilary Maguire hilary@vivamagazines.com
Sarah Jane Lewis sarah-jane@vivamagazines.com
ADMINISTRATION & ACCOUNTS: Kelly Mechen kelly@vivamagazines.com
DISTRIBUTION: David Pardue distribution@vivamagazines.com
CONTRIBUTORS: Alex Leith, Alexandra Loske, Amy Holtz, Andrew Darling, Ben Bailey,
Cammie Toloui, Charlotte Gann, Chloë King, Chris Riddell, JJ Waller, Jacqui Bealing,
Jay Collins, Joda, Joe Decie, John Helmer, John O’Donoghue, Lizzie Enfield, Mark Greco,
Martin Skelton, Michael Blencowe, Nione Meakin, Robin Houghton and Rose Dykins
PUBLISHER: Becky Ramsden becky@vivamagazines.com
Please recycle your Viva (or keep us forever).

CONTENTS
...............................
Julian Trevelyan, Standing Figure with Ace of Clubs, 1933. Photograph Mike Fear
courtesy Jerwood Collection © The Julian Trevelyan Estate
Bits & bobs.
8-27. Matt Johnstone’s helping hands are
on the cover, Alexandra Loske tells a tale
of two statues, and community champion
Charlie Jordan is on the buses. Elsewhere,
JJ Waller introduces us to Seven
Dials’ Darren; Joe Decie’s neighbours
are unnervingly quiet; John O’Donoghue
reviews Mick Finlay’s latest Arrowood
book, and Alex Leith enjoys a pint in
good company at the Good Companions.
Plus there are great things going on at
Impetus, cats seeking laps at Raystede,
and much more besides.
My Brighton.
28-29. Brighton Table Tennis Club
co-founder Tim Holtam on table tennis
and community cohesion.
55
10
31
Photography.
31-37. ‘I’ve always felt I needed to explore
my surroundings.’ Alexis Maryon
trains his lens on neighbourhoods near
and far.
Columns.
39-43. Lizzie Enfield knows who’s who
and what’s what on her block; All’s (too?)
quiet on John Helmer’s home front, and
Amy Holtz guards her personal space.
On this month.
45-53. Ben Bailey rounds up his pick
of the gigs; Abigail’s Party is at The
Theatre Royal; conductor and cellist
Thomas Carroll leads the Brighton
Philharmonic Orchestra; Trevor Beattie
Photo by Akexis Maryon
....6 ....

CONTENTS
...............................
brings his Magic Lantern Show to The
Keep, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars
make minimalist music at the Dome.
Plus, we find out who’s on the bill at the
Lewes Speakers Festival, and bone up
on the behind-the-scenes collection at
The Booth Museum with photographer
Tim France.
Art & Design.
55-63. A Julian Trevelyan retrospective
at Pallant House Gallery, Cityzen social
housing architects, plus, just some of
what’s on, art-wise, this month.
The way we work.
64-69. Good people doing good things.
Adam Bronkhorst photographs some
community-minded folk at work.
Food.
71-75. We sample fusion tapas at
Pabellón; (almost) discover the secret
of a killer vegan Reuben at the Coffee
Counter; make the rounds with the
Sussex Peasant, and just a taster of the
new year’s food news.
Features.
77-87. You’re never too old for a bike
ride at Cycling Without Age; we meet
two young women who are keeping our
parks in play; find out about the mobile
showers and laundry services offered
by Hygiene For All; meet a choir who
attend the bedsides of the dying, plus
we’ve scientific proof from the University
of Sussex that doing good makes
you feel good.
Wildlife.
89. Some neighbours are just too close
for comfort. Michael Blencowe gets all
up in your face.
Inside left.
90. Rugby Road peace party, 1919.
Starlings III by Jackie Morris
59
....7 ....

THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST
.......................................................
This month’s cover is the work of Matt
Johnstone, who’s been an illustrator since
graduating with a degree in Graphic
Design from Central St Martins in 2005.
“The thing I’m probably best at is creating
detailed scenes out of lots of elements,”
says Matt when I ask him how he describes
his work. “Whether it be a face made up of
objects, or an imaginary landscape full of
people doing different things, I’ve always
loved images that you can look into and
discover things. When I was younger, I
liked Where’s Wally?, adventure puzzle
books and Asterix.”
Matt starts his designs with an old-school
pencil sketch which he traces in ink before
scanning into Photoshop to play around with
the colours. “My work didn’t used to be so
bright – I used to restrict it to a limited colour
palette inspired by old comic books – but
recently, I’ve been choosing much bolder,
brighter colours that you wouldn’t necessarily
put together. I like to use them all at once!”
His love of detail and colour come together
with mesmerising effect on our cover:
there’s a lot going on. “I wanted to create
a face of a community-minded person,
built up of lots of elements to do with
helping out, carrying shopping, gardening,
painting... It was nice to have an open brief
and to take my time.”
....8 ....

MATT JOHNSTONE
......................................................
“When I’m working on commercial briefs,
the client usually has a strong idea of what
they want, and there’s not always the time
to work in as much detail as I’d like. I
regularly illustrate a piece in the Guardian
sports section, and with that, I’ll get a brief
at ten in the morning, and I need to get it
back to them by three in the afternoon. I
have to work quickly, but I’ve got used to
it. It used to be written by Russell Brand,
and he would file his copy really late in
the day, so I’d get the brief about an hour
before the paper went to print. That was
the toughest deadline I’ve had.”
As well as the Guardian, Matt illustrates
for a number of magazines, creates
illustrated maps and, most recently, has
designed a record cover for dance label
Size Records. Represented by illustration
agency Jelly London since 2007, he’s also
created murals for offices, covered the
walls of boardrooms with illustrations
for advertising pitches, and drawn at live
art events, something which he enjoys.
“I’m inspired by the people that I meet at
those events. I’ve done quite a few live art
jobs where you get to meet lots of other
artists, which is nice because working as
an illustrator can be quite solitary. My
work is usually very considered, but when
you draw at a live event like that, you’re
working more instinctively, which gives
you fresh ideas.” You can see more of
Matt’s work at mattjohnstone.co.uk LL
....9 ....

TRIPS AND BOBS
...............................
SPREAD THE WORD
‘Look what l found blossoming
on a hedge in Princes Street
Gardens, Edinburgh!’ writes
Iain Cameron Williams, who
lived in Brighton for ten years
until 2017. He’s been doing
some research recently and
took us along on a trip to
Edinburgh, en route to Orkney,
‘taking in the Highland
air, sampling rare varieties of
haggis, swimming naked across
Lochs, scaling treacherous
cliffs and slaying fearsome
dragons, all in the pursuit of
the sixth Magpie – GOLD’.
Blimey. I wonder what he was
researching?
And here’s Brightonian, Bec
Mannall, sporting the Sicilian
cap whilst on a break in Palermo
back in October. A quick
read of our larder-themed October
issue makes the perfect
appetiser to all the delicious
grub on offer in Sicily.
Keep taking us with you and
keep spreading the word. Send
your photos and a few words
about you and your trip to
hello@vivamagazines.com
JOHN MILLER DESIGNS.CO.UK
“We are overjoyed
with the design and craftsmanship...”

HAPPY NEW YEAR
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ON THE BUSES #45: CHARLIE JORDAN (ROUTE 7)
Charlie Jordan is remembered as a person who dedicated his life
to the improvement of other people’s.
Born in Cape Town, he grew up in Durham and began studies
in Law and Fine Art, and worked as a stage manager in London,
before settling on his true calling of community development. He
came to Brighton in the early 80s to run the newly formed charity
PACT (People and Churches Together – now Impact Initiatives).
A ‘whirl of social innovation’, he also supported and nurtured the
Hangleton and Knoll community project; the city’s first hostel for
homeless teenagers; a scheme to assist disabled people into work,
and advice and housing support services for young people.
In 1997 he negotiated the purchase of a convent to set up the Brighton & Hove Emmaus community
in Portslade, then the largest of the organisation’s now 34 centres in the UK that provide a supportive
community and employment for formerly homeless people. He went on to serve as chairman
until 2008 and was made an international ambassador for the Emmaus movement.
A tireless social entrepreneur, he realised that re-mortgaging some Brighton property could fund the
establishment of a new community, and was working to set up Hastings & Rother Emmaus when he
died suddenly, of a heart attack, in September 2009. He was 61.
Emmaus Hastings & Rother opened in 2011 and today supports more than 20 formerly homeless people.
Illustration by Joda @joda_art
....11....

CURATOR’S CITY
...............................
View of the Old Steine in c.1834 © Royal Pavilion & Museums Brighton and Hove
GEORGE AND VICTORIA
UNLIKELY NEIGHBOURS, IMMORTALISED IN BRONZE AND STONE
Brighton is peppered with monuments to Queen
Victoria, but relatively few acknowledge the
impact King George IV had on the town. This
might just be indicative of how the two were
judged in respect of their morals and behaviour.
Near the north entrance to the Pavilion Estate
uncle and niece stand as silent statues, just a
stone’s throw from each other.
George is just to the east of the North Gate of
the Pavilion, represented by a bronze sculpture,
commissioned from Sir Francis Chantrey, a leading
portrait sculptor of his time, who also made
the equestrian figure of George in Trafalgar
Square, London. A second cast of our statue was
erected in Edinburgh, and a marble version dominates
the Grand Staircase in Windsor Castle.
When George first saw the plaster model in
1827 he exclaimed, ‘Chantrey, I have reason to be
obliged to you, for you have immortalised me.’
The Brighton copy was unveiled in 1828, but
not where you see it now. Until 14 March 1922
George was in central place on the Old Steine,
looking towards the sea. He was moved to make
way for the war memorial by John W. Simpson,
inscribed with the names of 2,600 Brighton men
and women who died in World War I. George’s
sculpture was apparently well received, as the
Brighton Gazette from 7 January 1875 reported,
quoting a contemporary source: ‘The posture
is easy, but commanding, and full of dignity, the
action such as we should conceive His Majesty
would use on receiving company at a levée.’
....12....

CURATOR’S CITY
...............................
Victoria, who ascended
the throne in 1837, was
famously disapproving of
her disreputable Uncle
George and Brighton, and
quickly decided to disassociate
herself from both,
selling the entire Pavilion
Estate in 1850. The town
tried hard to please her,
welcoming her with lavish
ceremonies on her few
visits, but to no avail. Even
after she left, they kept
erecting monuments to
her, like the one pictured
right by Carlo Nicoli,
placed in the Victoria Gardens when they were
opened in 1897, to commemorate the Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee.
Photo by Alexandra Loske
If the relationships
between each monarch and
Brighton were complex,
so was their relationship
with each other. It is quite
amusing seeing them
immortalised in stone and
bronze, in close proximity
to each other and to the
Royal Pavilion. It looks a
little bit like a stand-off or
staring competition, albeit
unintended. Disrespectful
seagulls often perch
on both monarchs, and
Victoria frequently sports
a traffic cone for a hat, an
indicator of wild nights in central Brighton.
Alexandra Loske, Art Historian and Curator,
The Royal Pavilion
© James Gray Archive
....13....

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JOE DECIE
...............................
....15....

'Fantastic place, full of beautiful magazines. I just love this shop.’
the world of great indie mags is here in Brighton.
22 Trafalgar Street
magazinebrighton.com
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BITS AND PUBS
...............................
PUB: THE GOOD COMPANIONS
Painting by Jay Collins
If you’re ever
anywhere near the
Good Companions
pub (at 132 Dyke
Road, just off Seven
Dials) make sure that
you walk beyond the
entrance, Hove-side,
to get a good view of
the pub’s handsome
chimney-gabled
facade. It’s no surprise
the building is listed in
Pevsner’s Architectural
Guide to Brighton.
Legend has it – and
this is probably
apocryphal – that the Companions first opened
its doors on September 3rd, 1939, the day that
WW2 broke out. It was certainly founded that
year, purpose-built by Tamplins Brewery on a
site that had previously housed a primary school.
Tamplins’ architect was Arthur Packham, also
responsible for The Brunswick, in Hove, and
Grand Central, near Brighton Station. Pevsner
suggests that he built it in a style ‘which owes
much to the late C17 English Renaissance’.
It’s fascinating checking out the recently restored
interior, with its ornately framed oblong
windows, and it’s curly-wurly friezes. Little
expense, it seems, was spared giving the interior
its classical / medieval look. A huge circular bar
dominates the space; ornate chandeliers hang
from the high ceiling.
Tamplins, of course, was taken over by Courage,
and now the pub is in the hands of Brighton
pubco Indigo, which also runs The Cow, up the
road, and a dozen or so
other local pubs. Indigo
specialise in serving
ales from Sussex
breweries: on my latest
visit, on a Monday
evening in December,
I sample a fine pint of
Gun Brewery Red Ale,
as I ponder the menu.
I go for piri-piri
chicken breast with
baked spiced rice,
slaw and corn cob;
my companion goes
for ‘market fish of the
day’, which turns out
to be mackerel. It looks lovely and fresh, served
with steaming garlicky new potatoes.
While we’re waiting for the food, I take a look
at the large function room upstairs, where I’m
asked: ‘are you here for the lindy-hop?’ Scores
of people are moving in line, as if mesmerised
by the Dad’s Army-era music, on a large wooden
floor. It’s like stepping back to 1939.
A second pint is in order, and I talk about what
I know of the pub: for many years during and
after the war it was run by Cllr Harry Ford,
who was, I’ve read, responsible for a significant
change in the design of police uniforms. At
closing time, he would shout ‘January, February,
MARCH’ as a signal for everyone to leave. We
don’t wait till last orders – it’s a school night –
but if I lived round these parts, I reckon the bell
would regularly toll for me, after I’d washed
down whatever the ‘market fish of the day’ was,
with several pints of local ale. Alex Leith
....17....

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JJ WALLER
...............................
“Darren has been selling the Big Issue at Seven Dials for well over nine years,”
JJ Waller tells us. “For me, he epitomises the idea of a good neighbour. When
Darren’s mobility scooter was stolen, locals set up a crowd funding page to
raise the money on a deposit for a new electric bike. Darren brings a unique
and personable positivity that contributes significantly to the community. He is
hugely liked and respected. We are lucky to have a good neighbour like him.”
....19....

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BITS AND BOGS
...............................
MAGAZINE OF THE MONTH: MAYDAY
Looking back, we have been
very lucky with our family
neighbours. They’ve all been
quirky but they have all been
good. The couple who painted
their front room without
dusting or wiping down the
woodwork so the paint simply
trapped flies underneath it?
They were great. Or the couple
who kept track of all the rubbish
we were throwing into our
newly hired skip and came and
transferred it all to their garage? They were
great, too.
Since we have been in Trafalgar Street, we have
had good neighbours, too. A big shout out to
Coffee@33, without which I can’t start the day.
But Bread and Milk, Trafalgar Wines, Fold, The
Dental Practice and Mange Tout all deserve a
shout, too. Our near neighbours have helped us
in ways big and small.
In these days of travel and social media, ‘neighbours’
takes on a different meaning, of course.
Some of my best friends are people who live
hundreds and thousands of miles
away. It doesn’t matter. I feel
close to them, we support each
other and we have plans in place
for upcoming visits. We are all
everyone’s neighbours now.
Mayday is a magazine for those
kind of neighbours. It’s the
kind of magazine that feels like
the transcript of a conversation
good people from very
different places might have if
they sat down to work out how
to preserve their global neighbourhood for the
future. The current issue ranges far and wide but
includes a look at coffee in different cultures, the
digital landscape, living simultaneously online
and off line, sustainable fashion, plus book recommendations
and a crossword. And that’s not
even the half of it.
Good neighbours support each other, put up
with each other and create security for us. It’s a
tough ask for a single magazine to do all those
things but Mayday is a good place to start.
Martin Skelton, Magazine Brighton
TOILET GRAFFITO #48
If you are going to do the antisocial thing and
write on the toilet wall, at least let it be an
uplifting read. Good news is hard to come by
lately but it seems that this cubicle is worth
seeking out. But where is it?
Last month’s answer: The Basketmakers Arms
....21....

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BITS AND BOBS
...............................
CHARITY BOX #33: IMPETUS
At Impetus, we believe
everyone matters and no one
should feel socially isolated or
lonely. We’re a people-powered
charity with over 400 volunteers
working across Brighton and
Hove providing life-changing
services including befriending,
and social prescribing, where we help people
identify the right community groups and services
to support their (non-medical) wellbeing.
There are more than 44,000 people living
alone in the city and while not all of those
people will be lonely, some will be. And loneliness
is a big problem. We work with around
1,000 people each year and 70 per cent of them
say it’s the hardest aspect of their lives. These
are people who may have a long-term illness,
or a disability. They may have all sorts of other
challenges but they consider loneliness to be the
biggest problem they face.
Our Neighbourhood Care scheme provides
one-to-one social support to help alleviate
some of that loneliness. Our befrienders will
go to someone’s home for an hour a week and
just spend time with that person. In some cases
it can be as simple as having a cup of tea and
watching daytime TV together. Sometimes that
will be the only company that person has had all
week. It can make a huge difference.
When people volunteer for our befriending
scheme, they go through a very thorough
interview process and appropriate checks before
being matched with someone. We want
people to get on. Different volunteers bring
different skills and attributes: we have two students
who visit an elderly lady and she loves it.
She says it lifts her to have young people in the
house. Another volunteer has
great IT skills from a previous
career and goes into people’s
homes to help them with their
computers.
Our befriending scheme is
the UK’s largest and is our
longest running flagship service.
Last year we won the Queen’s Award for
it. Our other big service that’s expanding rapidly
is social prescribing – what we call Community
Navigation. That operates in partnership with
GP surgeries across the city. We help people
identify the right groups and services to support
their non-medical wellbeing. It could be directing
someone to mental health services or directing
them to something more community-based.
It’s very much about working with that person to
find out what they need.
We always need more volunteers. We particularly
need more people for our befriending
service in Hangleton and Knoll and in Portslade,
and we’re looking for volunteers anywhere in
the city for our Community Navigation scheme.
Ideally, they will be individuals with great communication
skills and experience in supporting
and connecting people, but we’re keen to hear
from anyone who is interested.
What makes a good volunteer? I think the
biggest thing is natural compassion. Many of
the people we befriend are elderly or may have
a disability or long-term illness so it’s important
that our volunteers are empathetic and patient.
People will have different reasons for coming
forward but often it’s because they want that
feeling of doing something really good for
someone else. As told to Nione Meakin by Head of
Fundraising Karen Hunter bh-impetus.org
....23....

BITS AND MOGS
...............................
CATS SEEKING LAPS #8
Purrfect Cat Seeks Human to Own
Name: Diva
Age: 9 months
Occupation: Kneady Lap Master
Me: Everyone says I’m demanding, but I’m
really just a super-friendly kitty who wants
to be around you and on you a LOT. I mean,
why wouldn’t you want to cuddle me all day?
Love me, stroke me, let me warm your lap but
then, sorry, I might suddenly decide I’ve had
enough and give you a little swipe of my paw,
because sometimes a girl needs her space. As
my name suggests, I’m funny that way. But
mostly I’ll follow you around wanting to play
and be worshipped.
Interests: You. Me. Your undivided attention.
Seeking: Comfy home with doting humans
and possibly a friendly dog to cuddle and play
with. Must be available at all hours to open
doors for me.
Dislikes: Cat flaps, closed doors, screen time.
Words and picture by Cammie Toloui
cammietoloui.com / Insta: @cammie669
Find Diva and her friends at Raystede Centre
for Animal Welfare. raystede.org

BITS AND BOOKS
...............................
SPOTLIGHT BOOKS
OPEN FOR ENTRIES
Inventive. Hidden.
Compelling. Unrecognised.
Challenging.
Unheard. Beautiful.
Ambitious.
Brighton-based charities
Creative Future,
New Writing South
and publisher Myriad
Editions have announced an open call for a
new publishing initiative – Spotlight Books:
small books with big ideas.
They’re seeking the best unpublished poets
and fiction writers from under-represented
backgrounds – those who face barriers due
to mental health, disability, neurodiversity,
LGTBQ+ or BMER backgrounds, as well as
those who are homeless or in temporary accommodation,
carers, care-leavers, offenders,
ex-offenders or survivors of abuse.
Six writers will be selected, supported to
polish their manuscripts and further their careers,
and be published in individual 64 page,
A6 books with international distribution.
They’ll also be invited to read their work at a
launch event in early 2020, and receive longterm
support for their writing.
Manuscripts of fiction (8-10,000 words) and
poetry (40-45 pages at about 20 lines per
page) should be submitted by midnight on
Sunday the 24th of February 2019. Entry is
free. Writers can submit via the website, by
post or in person at Community Base, 113
Queens Road.
For full rules and further information see
creativefuture.org.uk/small-books
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DIG
MEET SOME
OF BRIGHTON
& HOVE’S
EARLIEST
RESIDENTS
AT BRIGHTON
MUSEUM’S
NEW
ARCHAEOLOGY
GALLERY
THIS CITY
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Royal Pavilion Garden
Brighton BN1 1EE
Open Tue-Sun 10am-5pm
Closed Mon, 25 & 26 Dec
brightonmuseums.org.uk
03000 290902
Admission payable
Members and Brighton
& Hove residents free
THE
ELAINE EVANS
ARCHAEOLOGY
GALLERY OPENS
26 JANUARY
2019

BITS AND BOOKS
...............................
BOOK REVIEW: THE MURDER PIT
Mick Finlay’s Arrowood
novels are based on a simple
premise: ‘London society take
their problems to Sherlock
Holmes. Everyone else goes
to Arrowood.’ Simple, but
very clever. For Arrowood
is the complete antithesis of
Holmes in nearly every way.
Fat to Holmes’ thin, truculent
rather than mercurial,
flatulent instead of repressed.
Arrowood, in short, is something
of a monster.
But then perhaps Holmes is
equally monstrous. Personally,
I’ve always thought there
was something inhuman
about him. But Finlay’s Arrowood is all too human,
as this second novel featuring his ‘investigating
agents’ demonstrates. The stories are told
by Barnett, Arrowood’s muscle and chronicler.
They both live in the Borough, a slum Finlay
brings to vivid life, in the late 1890s. Where
Watson is the bumbling accomplice to the genius
Holmes, Barnett is in many ways a much abler
man than his master. And readers of Book 1 will
know that Finlay has gone out of his way to give
Arrowood’s man depths Watson singularly lacks.
The Murder Pit, Book 2 in what looks like being a
long running series – Finlay’s two book deal was
recently renewed – starts with an invitation to
visit the Barclays, a couple whose daughter, Birdie,
they’ve not heard from ever since she married
into the Ockwell family, farmers down in rural
Catford. What perhaps makes the case unusual
is that Birdie has Down’s Syndrome, and as Arrowood
and Barnett try to find out why Birdie is
so reluctant to have any contact with her parents,
they uncover a murky world of
asylums, Poor Law committee
members, and the well to do
who have a vested interest in
concealing their crimes, if not
their prejudices.
For The Murder Pit explores
themes that are still with us,
not least the stigma experienced
by the mentally ill and
those who have learning disabilities.
In Victorian England
both were ‘treated’ in asylums,
there being no distinction
between conditions. It’s here
that Finlay’s writing rises to
something greater than the
simple pleasures of Holmes
and his little puzzles.
Towards the end of the novel a magistrates’
enquiry is held, and this whole sequence contains
scenes of great power that speak to some of our
present malaises. I’m obviously skirting around
just what these malaises are as I don’t want to
give the game away, but as I read these passages
I couldn’t help thinking of today, not 1896, when
the novel is set.
The Murder Pit, then, is historical crime fiction,
but Finlay uses this genre as a way of commenting
obliquely on our own times as much as on
the glorious past. Now that the rights have gone
to TV – Kathy Burke’s production company
is busy at work preparing scripts for the small
screen – I hope these nuances won’t be lost. Why
not curl up by a crackling fire with The Murder
Pit and see for yourself? And if you’ve not read it,
start with Arrowood. You’re in for a treat.
John O’Donoghue
The Murder Pit, Mick Finlay, HQ, £8.99
....27....

INTERVIEW
..........................................
Photo by Adam Bronkhorst, adambronkhorst.com
....28....

INTERVIEW
..........................................
MYbrighton: Tim Holtam
Director and co-founder of the Brighton Table Tennis Club.
Are you local? I’ve been here for 15 years,
so no, but Brighton is definitely my home. I
grew up in London and my cousins moved
here from Hackney in the early 80s, so we
were always down here as kids. Then I came
here for university in 2005 and managed to get
a job as a lifeguard on the beach. I had such
a great couple of summers, I thought ‘this is
somewhere that you’d never want to leave’.
How did the Brighton Table Tennis Club
come about? As a kid, I played table tennis at
an amazing club called London Progress, so
I knew what table tennis could do for young
people. When I met (BTTC co-founders)
Harry McCarney & Wen Wei Xu we knew we
wanted to set something up for local kids at the
Brighton Youth Club. We were always quite
ambitious about what we wanted to do with
BTTC, but we never expected this. Now we’re
being looked at as a model of inclusive sport.
Who uses the club? Hundreds of people each
week: sixth formers, people aged 60 and over,
people with dementia, primary school kids,
refugees, traveller families, adults with learning
disabilities and loads more. We run outreach
sessions in Mill View Hospital, and Down View
and High Down prisons. There’s a view of
Brighton that it’s all kushty, but it’s becoming
increasingly apparent that there are people
who are being left behind and forgotten about.
We’re interested in reaching out to the fringes
of the city and giving them a seat at the table.
What do you like most about the city?
There’s so much great stuff coming out of
Brighton. I love the work going on at Gig
Buddies, everyone and everything to do with
The Bevy, St John the Baptist School who gave
us this building to use, The Real Junk Food
Project, Pro Baristas, Stoneham Bakehouse,
Park Life... People are doing amazing things.
So many people have come forward to help,
chipping in and volunteering. I’ve never felt
more supported.
What don’t you like about the place?
There’s a lot of social inequality. The visible
homeless problem upsets me and the fact that
people who are from here cannot afford to
stay here.
Where’s your favourite place in the city?
Here! The Brighton Table Tennis Club
in Upper Bedford Street. It’s an amazing
community where everyone is playing their
part. The way to make a resilient community
is to give people a sense of belonging and
allow them to make a positive contribution.
This place has given people friendship and
connections. It’s about social cohesion and
bringing people together. It’s got everything
and nothing to do with table tennis.
Where would you live if you didn’t live
here? Brighton is the greatest city in the
world. [BTTC coach] Harry Fairchild told
me that when I moved to Bristol in 2015, with
Ingrid, who’s now my wife. I talked her into
coming back within a month. Brighton’s a
special place. I’m not sure there is anywhere
else like it. Interview by Lizzie Lower
brightontabletennisclub.co.uk
....29....

BRIGHTON
PHOTOGRAPHY
It ain’t what you view,
it’s the way that you view it.
Unique photography of Brighton and the South Downs
brightonphotography.com | 52-53 Kings Road Arches | 01273 227 523
Short talks on dementia and latest research. Hands-on demos and
discussions. Free for all members of the public.
Date: Thursday 31 st January 2019
Venue:
Time:
American Express Community Stadium
Sussex Skills Solutions Lounge
2:30pm – 5:00pm
Talks 3:00 – 4:00, Activities 4:00 – 5:00
For further information please contact:
L.C.Serpell@sussex.ac.uk or C.M.Pegasiou@sussex.ac.uk
Free parking and good transport links: http://bit.ly/get-to-AMEX
Tea, coffee and refreshments provided.
Registration: http://bit.ly/dementiaAMEX or call 01273678057

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Alexis Maryon
‘Don’t go in with any preconceptions’
Art was always my
favourite subject, and
I ended up going to
art school. But I was
hospitalised by myalgic
encephalomyelitis [ME]
and when I’d come
through that, I found
I couldn’t draw, the
perspective was all wrong.
A wise lecturer suggested that I give photography
a try instead.
It took me ages to learn my way around the
darkroom, but I persevered, taking a course at
the London School of Printing. I was encouraged
by the fact that a lucky shot I took – of a couple
of my mates in focus, with the background
blurred – got published in i-D Magazine.
I was very taken by an exhibition I saw at The
Barbican by the photojournalist W Eugene
Smith, a great exponent of the photo essay. I’ve
also been influenced by Robert Frank, author
of The Americans. And, when it comes to colour
photography, William Eggleston. Oh, and the
paintings of Edward Hopper.
For a bit I was in a semi-successful band,
The Rhythm Posse, and music has always been
a subject I’m fascinated by. I’ve done over 100
album covers and portraits and publicity shots of
countless musicians. But it’s not just been music:
photography has provided me with a good living
for 30 years, and enabled me to travel the world.
I’ve always felt I needed to explore my
surroundings. My first neighbourhoodorientated
photo essay – which became a book
– was of the Bristol Estate, near where I live in
Kemp Town. It started with a shot I took behind
the hospital while I was walking my dog, and
went on from there.
I spent a lot of my
time on the estate. A
photographer with a dog
seems much less dodgy
than a photographer
on his own. Everyone
got to know its name. It
helped me meet people:
I spent an awful lot of
time chatting.
It’s important to know what NOT to
photograph, when you’re covering a place like
the Bristol Estate. People have preconceptions
about the area, and I didn’t want to accentuate
them. In fact there’s one picture that got into the
book, of a young lad, leaning against a car door,
looking hard. That troubles me, because he was
actually a really nice kid. I was struck, in all the
time I spent on the estate, that there’s a lot more
good than bad in people.
I’ve also published a book of photos taken in
Newhaven, a town that has a brutal honesty and
an intensity of light and darkness that draws me
back and back again to take photos. I originally
wanted to capture the trawlers and the fishermen,
but I started going deeper and deeper into the
town itself, and found it to be a rough diamond,
full of interesting and inspiring characters.
I love the ferry, and hopping across the
Channel. I’m currently doing a project on
Dieppe.
If I have any advice to give other
photographers doing similar projects, it’s this:
don’t go in with any preconceptions, and don’t
judge people. Your best tool? An open mind.
As told to Alex Leith
alexismaryonphotography.com
....31....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos © Alexis Maryon
....32....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos © Alexis Maryon
....33....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos © Alexis Maryon
....34....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos © Alexis Maryon
....35....

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Our home care packages are tailored to suit individual
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Providing Quality Home Care in and around Brighton & Hove

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos © Alexis Maryon
....37....

COLUMN
.........................
Lizzie Enfield
Notes from North Village
Illustration by Joda (@joda_art)
“There’s one of my neighbours with his children,”
I say to a friend as we wait on the platform at
Lewes railway station.
She expects a brief acknowledgment, not the
round of hugs and kisses and “where’ve you
been?” and “what are you up to?” that ensues.
They’ve been to the cinema to see the
documentary about a group of factory workers
from East Kilbride who grounded General
Pinochet’s jets of destruction in Chile.
“Nae Pasaran,” says my neighbour who is
originally from Glasgow himself.
“Was it subtitled?” I ask, a little vaguely.
“The Spanish was,” he says. “And some of the
Glaswegian too.”
This answers my question and for the rest of the
train journey home, he chats away – subtitled!
I get the gist of most of it. My friend is surprised
by the level of knowledge of each other’s lives.
“Do they live next door?” she asks.
I say no, at the other end of the street, but we live
in a street which is uber-neighbourly: we have a
street party, a rolling dinner party, neighbourhood
watch scheme and a block email list. We turn
out for ninetieth birthdays and weddings and
funerals. The street is perhaps peculiar in its
level of neighbourliness but not in its make up of
Brighton-ish residents.
From the corner of my street it goes like this:
musician, actress, proper job, writer, writer,
proper job, and musician.
My next-door neighbour is a writer. We compare
Amazon rankings as we hang out the washing.
Next door but two is a drummer and but one
a saxophonist. My daughter plays the trumpet.
When the windows are open you can hear them
all playing, never from the same hymn sheet but
in a curious disharmony which does not reflect
the harmony of the street. We need a street
meeting to sort out their musical arrangements.
Maybe that can be on the agenda for the next
street party-planning eve.
Further down the road there’s the ubiquitous
stretch of therapists and paths that can be
found in most Brighton neighbourhoods:
hypnotherapist, physiotherapist, psychotherapist,
homeopath, osteopath, and psychopath…
It’s a properly mixed community. There are yoga
teachers and actual teachers too and even one
or two people whom I know very little about or
don’t actually know at all.
“That must be hard for you,” says my friend,
the implication being I am perhaps a little too
inquisitive.
“It’s nice though,” she adds. “Like something
from the fifties. I hardly know anyone who lives
in our street, let alone anything about them.”
“Aye, we like a right wee blether for sure,”
my neighbour agrees as we are about to part
company. “Gled tae meet ye.”
My friend smiles and asks what he does.
I tell her he’s retired now. His wife is a language
teacher. The kids are linguists. They’d have been
able to translate Nae Pasaran, nae problema.
“From Spanish.”
“Yes,” I reply. “And obviously…”
....39....

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Restaurant Café & Bar
Next to Lewes station
Just 11 mins from Brighton
lewesdepot.org
Depot, Pinwell Road, Lewes 01273 525354

COLUMN
...........................................
John Helmer
Incident
Illustration by Chris Riddell
I’m trying to write this column when the
phone pings, drawing my attention to a news
story in the Argus. Armed police have been
called to an address in Portland Road, Hove,
where someone is throwing ‘items’ out of
the window of a flat above Fresh Pizza. A
passer-by talks of a smashed plant pot. This
is of interest because it’s just down the road
from the flower shop where my wife works
as a florist.
‘U ok hun?’ I text her.
She is OK. In fact the road-closure caused by
the incident has produced an uptick in sales:
‘People are coming out of their houses to see
what’s going on.’
‘… Buying flowers being a natural response
to disturbances of the peace of course,’
I reply. ‘“Oh my god he’s throwing stuff
out of the window … mmm, look at those
hyacinths: just what I need to assuage my
shock over this troubling street incident …”’
‘Police still there,’ she texts back – and texts
the same three words at half-hourly intervals
in response to my requests for updates.
‘A bit of narrative development would be
nice.’
‘I’m trying to work you know.’
I feel this answer a little insensitive in the
circumstances. Just yesterday was the last
at my own place of work. This morning
I am celebrating my blissful release from
urgent deadlines by responding to an urgent
deadline for this column.
The doorbell rings and it’s a taxi driver.
“You’re 20?”
“No, three.”
“Why does it say 20?” He gestures at a hand
lettered sign taped to the window.
“That was our number in the street advent
calendar: 20th of December. All our
neighbours do it. The number of the house
is three.” I point to the skylight above me
where the word THREE is etched in glass.
He goes away again, shaking his head.
Somehow, I’ve managed to forget just how
much staring out of the window is involved
in literary production – something you
can’t get away with in an office. Over the
years I’ve perfected this trick of tapping
my fingers lightly on the keys while gazing
intently at the screen to disguise these spells
of inanition that are a necessary prelude,
I like to tell myself, to flashes of writerly
inspiration. Now, with no need to dissemble,
my features slump into a mask of stupefied
vacancy.
“Don’t look like that, you’ll scare the dogs,”
says Kate, returning home. “A
46-year-old man has been
arrested on suspicion of
threatening to kill someone
after a seven-hour standoff.
He’s in custody. How’s
the column going?”
“It’s not.”
“What’s the theme?”
“Good neighbours.”
“Any ideas?”
“None.”
“Don’t worry.
Have a cup of tea,
walk the dogs:
something will
come.”
....41....

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COLUMN
...........................
Amy Holtz
The truth is, I’m a Minnesotan
There’s a lot of
entertainment to be had
from witnessing the lunge
and misfire of a doublecheek
kiss.
I’m not sure why it tickles
me so much, but I watch
these encounters with a
forensic, Attenboroughesque
fascination.
Just now, a lady’s squeals
are piercing the air as
she attempts to pull
towards her a tall bearded
man who – trapped in
her arms – is juggling
a carton of soy milk and a baguette. His eyes
dart to his phone, looking at it as though it has
malfunctioned in its purpose of beaming him up
and transporting him several streets away as he
nervously responds to her high-pitched queries.
He clutches his bike helmet closer only to have
it – oh no – mash into his ribs, trapped between
them, as he slowly, reluctantly lowers his right
cheek. It’s early evening but I swear the glimmer
in this lady’s eyes could light a highway. She’s
done it though: she’s in range of the second
cheek and it’s not long till the sound of the
violently enthusiastic smooch ricochets around
The Lanes like wet thunder.
Of course, this is the prescribed behaviour
of the acquainted in public but, unlike the
manifold unspoken anglicised transactions I
irritably participate in (like, say, waiting for
someone to come aaalllll the way down the
stairs before you can take your turn), this is
one ritual I resist. Though I do take a perverse
pleasure in watching someone warily weigh me
up and calculate the distance between us, and
whether I’ll welcome
their advances or run,
shuddering, as this poor
man only wishes he could
if he could hide, like me,
behind his lack of cultural
sophistication.
Because where I come
from, we don’t like to
touch each other that
much. I suspect it’s
because we walk around
half the year in lots of
layers: puffy mittens,
ski jackets, balaclavas.
There’s not a lot of skin
to aim for, so instead we go for the universal
symbol of hello – the rainbow wave (or, if we
like you loads, the heavy-rain-windshield-wiper
wave). In summertime, this becomes the high
five, as we run into you at the Twins game, or
at the lake, done with our free hand as we pass
you an icy can of Grain Belt with the other.
We Minnesotans love the high five and, for my
own part, I’m trying to get you guys to like it
too. (With a mixed uptake. Closely related and
interchangeable with the thumbs up, which
makes you all chuckle for some reason.)
For someone we haven’t seen in a while, there’s
the seldom deployed back-slapping bearhug;
a sweaty encounter that lasts, on average, for
twelve minutes, generally followed by a nap,
because of the emotional and physical toll. A
tête-à-tête for only the hardiest Minnesotans
and nearly as taxing as your double-kiss business.
Honestly, I’m full of admiration for such
arduous, full-contact daily encounters. But for
now, you’ll mostly see me heckling from the side
of the ring.
....43....

BOYZONE
Fri 15 Feb
THE X FACTOR LIVE
Tue 19 Feb
Try something different
this New Year
BRIGHTON TATTOO
CONVENTION
Sat 23 & Sun 24 Feb
PETER ANDRE
Wed 13 Mar
Tue 15 Jan
Bang on a Can All-Stars
Leading New York ensemble perform Brian Eno’s
ambient classic Music for Airports and more
box office 0844 847 1515 *
www.brightoncentre.co.uk
*calls cost 7p per minute plus your phone
company’s access charge
Thu 31 Jan – Sun 3 Feb
Sandi Toksvig Live!
With her new show National Trevor
‘Laden with laughs’ (Guardian)
Sat 2 Feb
Pavel Kolesnikov
One of classical music’s fastest rising stars
‘A poet of the keyboard’ (Guardian)
Fri 15 Feb
YAMATO
The Drummers of Japan
An exhilariting evening experiencing the
energy of the Japanese taiko drum
Book now
01273 709709
brightondome.org
Pictured: Pavel Kolesnikov © Eva Vermandel

MUSIC
..........................
Ben Bailey rounds up the local music scene
PERCH
Sat 12, Hope & Ruin, 7.30pm, £6/5
Chris Mitchell’s previous
group Fat Bicth seemed
to run aground about
five years ago (possibly
because he got tired of
trying to explain the band name), but by then
he’d already planted the seeds that became
Perch. What was once a Myspace solo project
has turned into a dynamic four-piece band with
a unique approach to the territory of art rock.
Shades of 90s groups like Sebadoh are melded
with breakdowns and vocal lines that wouldn’t
seem out of place on a Canterbury prog record.
Their new album, No Step, sees the band flex
their melodic muscles, allowing room for a
certain looseness within some highly structured
songwriting. Support comes from I’m Being
Good, Broker and Owte.
THE PERFECT
ENGLISH WEATHER
Sun 13, Brunswick, 7.30pm, £5
Wendy and Simon Pickles, enjoying a break from
their long-running indie outfit The Popguns,
have released another understatedly gorgeous
album as The Perfect English Weather. Like its
predecessor, Don’t You Wanna Feel the Rain? is a
collection of wistful songs built around jangly
guitar and gently melodic vocals. The Popguns
often had a nice everyday twist to their lyrics, so
it’s no surprise to find Wendy now singing about
things like travel, work and parenting. There’s
even a song in which her joy at watching her
daughter dance at a festival slides into a softly
nostalgic reverie about her own youth. This
album launch gig sees TPEW playing live with a
full band for the first time.
Photo by Matt Condon
HAGAR THE WOMB
Fri 18, Prince Albert, 8pm, £7
Originally formed with an all-female line-up just
one week before their first gig in 1981, Hagar
the Womb reunited after a compilation of the
band’s music came out in 2011. Thus the current
line-up, which includes members who’ve since
decamped to Brighton, has now lasted longer
than their first incarnation in the 80s. Although
Hagar the Womb emerged from the politically
austere anarcho-punk scene of the time, they
were always the feminist jokers of the pack.
Thankfully for fans, their shambolic silliness
remains intact. Hardcore punks Combat Shock
also reformed quite recently and play support
alongside local folk-punk stalwarts Pog who will
probably outlive them all.
TIM KEEGAN
Fri 18, Brunswick, 8pm, £5
Although he might
be best known
in the UK for
the sombre indie
albums he released
with Departure
Lounge at the turn
of the century, Tim Keegan has been writing
songs in one guise or another for thirty years.
This special show is a retrospective of his music
across the decades – from his first band Railroad
Earth in the 80s, through his stints playing with
Blue Aeroplanes and Robyn Hitchcock to his
more recent solo stuff. Last year he supported
Nouvelle Vague on a string of tour dates, but he’s
also often found playing old-time country at a
weekly residency he runs on Worthing seafront.
We’re promised a bunch of musician friends, old
treats and special guests.
....45....

ILLUSTRATED TALK
.............................
Magic Lantern Show
19th-century psychedelia
One of the most famous magic lantern slides
is the one of a man swallowing rats. The
man is asleep in bed; his beard rises and falls;
he snores. Then, you turn a handle, and a rat
creeps up the counterpane towards his mouth.
When the man breathes out, the rat goes back.
Eventually the man swallows it, with a huge
gobbling noise. That’s why the Victorians knew
it as a ‘magic’ lantern. In an era when your
brightest lighting was oil lamps or candles and
the only coloured images you’d see were stained
glass windows, here were brightly illuminated,
coloured images – and they moved!
I became interested in magic lanterns as a
student. I’ve always liked the photography of
the Victorian era but photographs on paper
were far too expensive for me. Back then you
could buy magic lantern slides – photographs
from the 1880s / 1890s on glass – in boxes
outside junk shops. I picked some up and that
was it.
I’ve been collecting for around 40 years now.
I’ve got all sorts. The vast majority of these
slides were educational or religious. They were
very popular with the temperance movement.
Then there’s life model slides, which are the
Victorian equivalent of soap operas and feature
posed characters, with a printed reading that
goes with the slide, against a painted backdrop.
I’ve got slides of children playing on The
Level and some of the first Brighton scouts
in 1910 – a rather poignant image of an array
of young boys who would become the war
generation. I have quite a few of Brighton pubs.
There’s one I particularly like of The Tavern on
Boundary Road and coming out is a lady, head
down, with her ceramic jug of beer.
In the first half hour of my show I focus
on the artistry of early hand-painted slides
dating from the 1820s. Then I move into the
comic ‘slipper slides’. A typical one might be
a John Bull-type man holding a pig’s head on
a plate. You pull the slip and swiftly his head
ends up on the plate and the pig’s head on his
shoulders. I always finish with chromotropes set
to electronic music. A chromotrope is a static
glass slide with a painted pattern on it, and two
other slides that rotate against each other. Don’t
let anyone tell you psychedelia was invented in
the 1960s!
I have one slide of people on Brighton
beach, the chain pier in the background –
so it’s around 1823. There’s a baby with a
huge bonnet that you only see from the back
and next to him is his mother. Just at the point
the shutter is pulled, her attention has obviously
been caught by the photographer and she’s
looked over her shoulder at the camera. You
look her straight in the eyes. That’s what I love
about magic lanterns – it’s the closest I’ll ever
come to time travel.
As told to Nione Meakin
Trevor Beattie’s Magic Lantern show is at The
Keep on Jan 30th, 5.30pm, £5. thekeep.info
....46....

MUSIC
.............................
Bang on a Can All-Stars
Return of the musical minimalists
Brian Eno, Philip
Glass and Steve
Reich are among
the musicians whose
work is showcased
in Bang on a Can’s
concert at Brighton
Dome this month.
Michael Gordon,
who co-founded
the New York ensemble over thirty years ago
explains why minimalist music is reaching a
wider audience than ever before.
In 1987 we put on a concert that was twelve
hours long. Julia Wolfe, David Lang and I
put it on together, and it started at two in the
afternoon and ended at two in the morning.
We called it the Bang on a Can Marathon, not
really thinking about it being more than a
one-off event. That twelve hour format seemed
to attract a lot of people, including John Cage,
and that’s how we started. It was pretty far off
the radar of music, not stuff that was easy to
find at the time.
We came to Brighton sometime in the mid
90s on our first UK tour. We asked some of
the standout performers from the marathons if
they would travel with us and go give concerts.
We’re happy to be coming back. There are
a couple of musicians still in the group who
played at that concert. The other members
have come and gone, but the six instruments
have remained the same. The sound lives in
a kind of suspended world between chamber
music and a full-out band.
It’s a programme of highlights and special
treats. In the 90s we arranged Brian Eno’s
classic ambient music tape piece, Music for
Airports, for live
instruments, and we’re
going to be doing the
first movement of that.
Being able to hear Eno
live is always great.
There’s also a piece by
the British composer
Steve Martland that’s
really rousing and
sounds a lot like a band. And there’s some Philip
Glass which is very intimate and beautiful and
more like chamber music. It’s rounded off with
work by Steve Reich and Meredith Monk, both
New York composers who are icons of minimal
music.
Since the fall, the group has been
everywhere from Argentina to Russia. The
thing that’s interesting is that an audience
has really developed over the last couple of
decades for music that’s in between the cracks.
Experimental rock groups and film scores have
started being a lot more creative with sound
and I think the idea of what music is has slowly
evolved. People are a lot more open. And the
rate at which you can jump around on the
internet and hear things is just amazing.
We’ve definitely seen the change. When
we started with that twelve hour concert, we
were kind of like, what can we do to attract
people’s attention? And now, and it’s... well,
wow! There are a lot of groups and a lot of
young composers, and there’s more optimism
about the future of music. Minimal music,
amplified experimental music, has in a certain
sense found its place on the roster. People are
listening. As told to Ben Bailey
Brighton Dome, Jan 15th, 7.30pm.
Photo by Peter Serling
....47....

Nymans
The Lost Words
An exhibition of original artwork from the
book 'The Lost Words' by Robert
Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Daily
events and activities inspired by the book
will run throughout January and
February. Details on Nymans website.
Call 01444 405250 for details
nationaltrust.org.uk/nymans
#nationaltrust
When you visit, donate, volunteer or join the National Trust, your
support helps us to look after special places for ever, for everyone.
© National Trust 2018. The National Trust is an independent registered charity, number 205846. Photography © National Trust Images\Kingfisher by Jackie Morris.

THEATRE
.............................
Abigail’s Party
Director Sarah Esdaile
Jodie Prenger as Abigail
The most famous version of Abigail’s
Party is the one starring Alison Steadman,
recorded by the BBC in 1977. Did you watch
this again, before embarking on the project,
or did you avoid it? I watched it. I think it’s
important to embrace it rather than run away
from it. And I think all the actors have been
able to watch it, and process it, and still make all
their own choices and interpretations.
Have you kept its setting in the 70s? Of
course! I wouldn’t have dared not to. That’s what
a lot of people are expecting. It’s a little like the
Rocky Horror Show, in a way. People even have
Abigail’s Party parties. And all the contextual
references are from that pre-Thatcher era of
the mid-to-late seventies. But there’s a modern
relevance, too.
It must have been fun collecting together
the props for the set… Well that’s not my job,
of course, but we’ve had great fun working with
all those browns and beiges and oranges. And
you hear people coming out saying ‘we had one
of them’, or ‘my mum had one of those’…
And the music! Of course. Everyone comes
away singing Demis Roussos’ Forever and Ever.
I’ve come to like it, actually. It’s become a guilty
pleasure…
Beverly, the hostess, is the anchor of the
play… She’s a very interesting character,
because, of course, she’s unbearable, and, of
course, she’s a monster. But I always say to my
actors that nobody in real life thinks that they
are a monster, they’re only trying to mask pain
and insecurity. And I think that Beverly is
desperately unfulfilled, with no children, having
given up her job. And desperately unsuited to
life as a suburban housewife… I mean, she can’t
even cook. And so she’s trying to micromanage
what little she does have control of.
Mike Leigh is famous for his
improvisations… do you encourage your
actors to improvise? Well, Mike encouraged
his actors to improvise in order to come up with
the original script, which is what we are working
from. We have made some minor tweaks, which
he’s approved. And we’ll make some more. One
thing we’ll do is to improvise a scene to work
out what happens when the two male characters,
Tony and Laurence, go offstage to investigate
what’s going on at the teenage party down the
road. How, for example, did Tony get wet? The
audience won’t see this, but we need them to
be able to smell the tension between those two
actors, when they come back.
I understand you have a family connection
with the Theatre Royal in Brighton… My
grandfather, David Land, bought the theatre
in 1984, when I was 14. I watched play after
play there: I saw Lauren Bacall, and Charlton
Heston, and Deborah Kerr. It’s full of ghosts for
me, in a very positive way. It’ll be something of a
homecoming.
Alex Leith
Theatre Royal, Jan 10th-19th.
....49....

FESTIVAL
.............................
Lewes Winter Speakers
A feast of speakers
Former teacher Marc
Rattray is the force
behind the Lewes
Speakers Festival,
which he first
started back in 2011,
inspired, he tells me,
by the Charleston
Festival and Hay
Festival. “I began by
running a speakers’
society at the school where I worked – that gave
me a taste for it. Then, I started a public one in
Lewes in the summers. I also had a background
in events – so knew something of what I was
doing. It grew from there.”
This January, on the programme, are speakers
as prominent as Simon Jenkins, Peter Hain,
James O’Brien and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.
(On a light note, I was drawn to the idea of
Lynne Truss’s ‘Constable Twitten’ – though
the Brighton described is not one we would
recognise in 2019: ‘Brighton, 1957. Inspector
Steine rather enjoys his life as a policeman by
the sea. No criminals, no crime, no stress.’)
So, how are speakers chosen? Marc laughs.
“People often assume the programme is
carefully crafted, and of course it is to an
extent. But the reality is you have to ask an
awful lot of very busy people: they’re either
available or they’re not.”
He’s pleased with this January’s line-up of
sixteen. “Yes, it’s quite a strong programme,
and this year there’re also a couple of new
things I’d like to highlight: we’re doing a
wine-tasting, from the Fine Wine Importers in
Lewes; and we’re also incentivising a younger
audience. Any university or school student
who’s interested in attending should email us
in advance and we’ll
set aside half-price
tickets.”
The Speakers Festival
has grown over the
years: Marc now also
orchestrates them
in Chichester and
Winchester. So why
did he start in Lewes?
“For one thing, it was
local”, he says. “But it’s also a great setting. The
people in Lewes are politically active. Some
festivals shy away from that, and end up solely
‘literary’. No need in Lewes.”
I wonder if this is the moment to raise the
vexed question of Katie Hopkins’ inclusion a
year ago? “It was very unfortunate”, Marc says.
“If the festival stands for anything, it stands for
free speech – and she was on the schedule to
talk about her autobiography, not politics – but
I didn’t anticipate the ensuing violence, and it
was awful. It was organised violence brought
into the town – although of course, some locals
did also turn out to demonstrate.”
The Speakers Festivals are all about stimulating
discussion, he says. “They’re a great forum
– people leave really stimulated, and that’s
what it’s all about. Of course, there’s a charged
atmosphere in the UK at the moment: we all
know this. But events like ours are about getting
people to discuss things in a reasonable way.
Hopefully they help.” Charlotte Gann
25th, 26th and 27th in the All Saints, Lewes.
All Festival passes cost £75 and individual event
tickets £12.50. If you buy 2 or more tickets
together they are £11 each, or £10 each for
3. There are various other pricing options.
lewesspeakersfestival.com
....50....

CLASSICAL
.............................
Thomas Carroll
and the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
One of the first things I notice
about cellist and conductor
Thomas Carroll is his unusual
accent. He tells me he grew
up on the Gower peninsula in
Wales, but after studying at
the Yehudi Menuhin School in
London he spent six years in
Austria. That, plus a whirlwind
of international touring ever
since, has put paid to any sense
of a Welsh lilt.
This month he’s in town
as guest conductor of the
Brighton Philharmonic
Orchestra for what he thinks
is either the fourth or fifth time. “I always look
forward to playing with the Brighton Phil,”
he says, “and the Dome is such a wonderful
venue.” He sounds excited, and understandably,
as the programme showcases three of his
favourite pieces.
First up is Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony No.
1, “a fantastic opener”. Although it was written
in 1917, the piece has the feel of something
composed over a hundred years earlier. “It’s an
amazing mix of the twentieth century and more
traditional classical style,” explained Thomas.
“But it’s not pastiche – Prokofiev is imagining
he’s Haydn and thinking ‘what would Haydn
write if he were alive in 1917?’ He has a lot of
fun with it. The piece only lasts fifteen minutes
or so but packs a mighty punch.”
The central performance of the afternoon will
be Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor. I asked
him about playing the solo while simultaneously
conducting the orchestra. Isn’t that quite a
challenge? Carroll admitted that directing from
the keyboard or violin is relatively common,
whereas conducting from the
cello is less straightforward.
Then again, he performed the
Schumann last year with the
Orpheus Sinfonia (the London
ensemble of which he is the
Principal Conductor), and “it
went incredibly well”. Robert
Schumann’s wife Clara was a
composer in her own right,
and a fabulous pianist. The
pair were famously close,
and the slow movement of
the concerto features a duet
between the cello solo and
the orchestra’s principal
cello, usually interpreted as a ‘private’ love
letter from Robert to his wife. It’s a small but
touching detail.
And what of the Mendelssohn? Is his work
enjoying something of a revival at the moment?
“There was a time when he was considered
an inferior composer to, say, Beethoven
or Brahms,” says Thomas. “But for me
Mendelssohn is definitely one of the greats. I
think this piece (the Symphony no. 3) pairs well
with the Prokofiev – his sense of melody, the
beautiful landscape painting in the music...”
Prokofiev wrote his first symphony in his
twenties, Mendelssohn began writing his third
when he was just twenty, inspired by his first
trip to Scotland. The music has the panache and
confidence of youth. So there’s something for
everyone to enjoy? “Absolutely – if you’ve never
heard the Prokofiev, you’re in for a treat – it’s
like unleashing the champagne cork!”
Robin Houghton
Brighton Dome, Jan 20th, 2.45pm
brightonphil.org.uk
....51....

EXHIBITION
.............................
Skeletal
The Scaffold of Life
Tim France is more used to photographing
bands for album covers, and lifestyle features
for magazines, but lately he’s been taking a very
close look at bones at the Booth Museum.
I’ve had an interest in skulls and bones since
childhood. I first visited the Booth Museum
when I moved down from London a few years
ago. I was struck by the amazing display of
osteology – or bones – and so I approached
them about photographing the collection.
Lee Ismail, the Curator of Natural
Sciences, suggested another project and
showed me ‘back stage’ to the store rooms
where they have a huge amount of stuff that
is hardly ever seen. It’s a bit like a scene from
Raiders of the Lost Ark, with crates and boxes
full of bones and birds. There are cupboards
and cupboards and cupboards of stuff.
I began cataloguing the osteology
collection so that it can be viewed online.
....52....

EXHIBITION
.............................
Only 5% of the collection is ever on display. I
started with the primates and there were a lot of
really small, quite mundane bones to document
but, as I went from cupboard to cupboard, I kept
coming across these gems. As I opened boxes
I found marvellous skulls, of primates, birds
and reptiles, and I felt that there was another
project in it. As I’ve shot the hundreds of images
for the catalogue, I’ve also selected 30 skulls to
photograph for exhibition-quality prints, ten of
which are on display at the museum.
The skulls are beautiful, impressive things, so
I approached them like I would a portrait job.
On Thursdays, when the museum is closed to the
public, I set up a table-top studio in the gallery
with a backdrop and lights, and work with the
curators to set up the subjects.
The baboon skull was the stand-out one
from the primate collection. It looks like an
alien. The turtle is awesome too, it’s absolutely
enormous. If you look into the skull, it has
the texture of polystyrene to keep it light and
buoyant in the water.
I’ve been cataloguing for a year now and I’ve
only just finished the primates. I’m going on to
the birds next, which is probably going to take me
the rest of my life. My favourite is the Hornbill.
It is so other-worldly. You can really see how
amazing nature and evolution are, to get a skull
that big to be light enough to fly. It’s a massive
honeycomb lattice of tiny bits of bone. This
project is a fascinating study of nature as architect.
I just love it.
As told to Lizzie Lower
Skeletal: The Scaffold of Life continues until the
23rd of January
timfrance.com / brightonmuseums.org.uk/booth
The Booth Museum is open Monday-Saturday
10am-5pm (closed 12-1.15pm), Sunday 2-5pm.
Closed Thursdays. Admission is free. Behind the
scenes tours can be arranged for groups of between
5-15 people and cost £15 per person. Call Visitor
Services on 03000 290900.
....53....

Prized
Possessions
26th January – 24th March 2019
An exhibition, Petworth, West Sussex
Booking: 0344 249 1895 | nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-portrait, 1635 ©National Trust | Registered charity no. 205846
Dutch
Masterpieces
from
National Trust
Houses

ART
.............................
Julian Trevelyan, Bolton Mills, 1938. © Bolton Council. From the Collection of Bolton Library and Museum Services / The Julian Trevelyan Estate
Focus on: Julian Trevelyan
Comprehensive retrospective?
An artist who is about to be the subject of a
major exhibition will often be described as being
puzzlingly, and unjustifiably, neglected. And often
there is precious little evidence of such neglect.
But in the case of Julian Trevelyan, an exhibition
of whose work opened at Pallant House in Chichester
in October, they may have a point. Partly,
this is because his work came to be eclipsed by
that of his wife (not often you can say that!), Mary
Fedden. The Pallant House show, thirty years after
Trevelyan’s death, may well redress the balance.
The hang is broadly chronological. It’s divided
into five main sections: early life and artistic
adventures in Paris; the Mass Observation project;
work inspired by travels abroad; life at Durham
Wharf in Hammersmith, the cluster of Thamesside
buildings that Trevelyan and his first wife, the
potter Ursula Darwin, stumbled across in 1934,
and where he was to spend the rest of his life;
finally the etchings that he concentrated on after
a serious attack of meningitis in 1962 limited his
arm movements, making his paint brushes difficult
to wield effectively.
Over one hundred works are on display, which
backs up Pallant’s claim that this is ‘the first comprehensive
retrospective of the artist in over 20
years’. Even so, there are some curious omissions.
No engagement, for example, with Trevelyan’s
involvement in the Artists’ International Association
and his passionate feelings about the Spanish
Civil War. After all, Trevelyan was one of the four
British Surrealists to don the Neville Chamberlain
....55....

ART
.............................
Julian Trevelyan, Standing Figure with Ace of Clubs, 1933. Photograph Mike Fear courtesy Jerwood Collection
© The Julian Trevelyan Estate
Photo by Sandra Lousada
masks, designed by F.E. McWilliam,
and, thus attired, to take part in the
1938 May Day march, sporting top
hats and walking canes and, occasionally,
bestowing Nazi salutes on the
watching crowds.
A lavishly illustrated book on Trevelyan
has been ‘published on the occasion
of the exhibition’. This seems to be,
increasingly, an inadequate substitute
for a properly researched exhibition
catalogue. Two examples of the ensuing
confusion must suffice.
Apart from the striking self-portrait, on
loan from the National Portrait Gallery,
the first exhibit the visitor sees is
a Map of Hurtenham. Hurtenham is the
fascinating imaginary town Trevelyan
created, later adding a Town Guide to
the map. The caption next to the map
reads 1917. And the book of the exhibition
says ‘17 November 1917’. Yet
there is a 1914-1918 street on the map.
....56....

ART
.............................
There’s a Trotsky Crescent, a Lenin
Road – surprising choices perhaps for a
seven year old. And yet the date in the
book is so specific.
Then there’s a 1983 etching and aquatint.
Skyscrapers, a large red moon,
New York? Most of Trevelyan’s titles
are simple – Manhattan, for example.
But this one’s called Adultery with
Secretaries. Why? A catalogue might
have told us.
Still, it’s a fascinating show, complemented,
as usual at Pallant, by excellent
back-up displays – a room of Mary
Fedden’s works; prints by Norman
Ackroyd, one of Trevelyan’s pupils. And
then there’s a revelatory exhibition devoted
to the German immigrant, Karl
Hagedorn (1889-1969), ‘Manchester’s
first Modernist’. Now he really is a
neglected artist. David Jarman
Julian Trevelyan: The Artist and his
World, is at Pallant House Gallery until
10th February.
Julian Trevelyan, Washing Day, Freetown, 1942. Private Collection. © The Julian Trevelyan Estate
Julian Trevelyan, Self-Portrait 1940 © National Portrait Gallery / The Julian Trevelyan Estate
....57....

THE BOOK OF BARE BONES
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Creative courses
Our popular creative courses for adults
provide a lively and diverse mix of high
quality workshops for beginners and art
lovers as well as aspiring and practicing
artists. Skills are taught by professional artists
in a creative and supportive environment.
phoenixbrighton.org

ART
....................................
ART & ABOUT
In town this month...
‘David Bellingham is an artist of near total obscurity, who scratches a
living making and mending,’ reads the intriguing press release. ‘His work
is occasionally to be found in the regions but it does not stay long and
is hard to spot. He does his best to keep a low profile. You will not have
heard of him before and you may never hear of him again.’ There’s a
chance to catch a rare sighting of the elusive Glasgow-based Bellingham
at Phoenix Brighton this month: they start 2019 with an exhibition of his
work, curated by David Shrigley. Driving School opens on the 19th and is
described as ‘lessons in unlearning and relearning, undoing and redoing
and unmaking and remaking’. Join Bellingham and Shrigley for a free tour of the exhibition on Saturday
the 19th at 2pm, when things may (or may not) become clearer. Continues until the 24th of February.
Will Blood’s The Book of Bare Bones
Pop-up Shop takes over BRUSH for the
month of January. Brighton-based artist
Will began drawing skeletons of favourite
cartoon characters in late 2013 and
since then he’s been unable to stop. The
illustration series features 200 characters
and counting, and the pop-up shop
includes books, pins, original drawings,
stickers and more. From the 4th of
January until the 3rd of February. Open
Fri-Sun 12-6pm.
[thebookofbarebones.com]
© The National Gallery, London. Bought with contributions from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and
The Art Fund and Mr J. Paul Getty Jnr (through the American Friends of the National Gallery, London), 1922
....59....
If you are quick
you can still see the
sixteenth-century
masterpiece, A
Lady with a Squirrel
and a Starling
(Anne Lovell?) by
Hans Holbein
the Younger.
Reckoned to be
one of his most
engaging and
beautiful works,
it is on display at the Brighton Museum & Art
Gallery until the 6th, its last stop on the National
Gallery Masterpiece Tour. Also
continuing at the museum – and
also finishing on the 6th – is
the exhibition of original
illustrations from Raymond
Briggs’ much loved picture
book The Snowman. Free
with Brighton Museum
admission, residents &
members free.
© Snowman Enterprises Ltd 2017

ART
....................................
Out of town
Jane Pitt
Max Gill: Wonderground Man continues at
Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft with an
exhibition of vibrant maps and posters by the
well-known illustrator, map-maker, architect
and decorative artist. From the 5th, alongside
the Gill exhibition, interdisciplinary artist
Jane Pitt will create a new temporary fourmetre-high
window with the title Maunder
Maps. ‘Maunder’ is an old Sussex word
meaning ‘to wander about thoughtfully’ and
the window – and accompanying work in the
Wunderkammer – will describe the ‘shifting
layers of the museum’s inside-outside space’. Continues until 28th of April.
Dr Grace Pailthorpe (surgeon/psychoanalyst/
artist) and Reuben Mednikoff (artist) began
collaborating in 1935. From that year until
their deaths (in 1971 and 72 respectively),
they lived and worked together, producing
a huge body of work that included vivid and
wildly experimental paintings and drawings,
often paired with in-depth psychoanalytic
interpretation, autobiography, poetry and short
stories. In so doing, they developed a creative
process that combined scientific study with art,
Surrealism with psychoanalysis, coining the term
Psychorealism to describe the practice. A Tale of Mother’s Bones – the most significant exhibition of their
work in almost 20 years – continues at De la Warr Pavilion until the 20th of January.
Grace Pailthorpe, The Blazing Infant, April 20, 1940
43.1 x 57.7 cm, Oil paint on hardboard, Tate: Purchased 2016
Seaford’s creative collective SCIP has announced plans to create
an ambitious arts event, to be hosted at the South Hill Barn on
Seaford Head in the summer. The Green Show will showcase
new artworks by more than 40 of the UK’s best-known illustrators,
as well as moving image, creative workshops and a lecture
programme, all exploring themes of climate change, landscape and
nature. To find out more about SCIP and how you can support the
event, visit wearescip.co.uk/justgiving
....60....

ART
....................................
Further afield
Starlings III by Jackie Morris
From the 19th, the gallery at Nymans hosts an exhibition of original artwork from The Lost Words,
the extraordinary ‘modern spell book’, written by renowned author Robert Macfarlane and
illustrated by Jackie Morris. ‘Jackie and I have always thought of The Lost Words not as a children’s
book but as ‘a book for all ages’ – or perhaps a book for children aged 3 to 100,’ writes Macfarlane.
‘We wanted it to be quite unlike any other book that exists: to catch at the beauty and wonder – but
also the eeriness and otherness – of the natural world.’ The book celebrates the relationship between
language and the living world with sumptuous, gilded illustrations throughout. The original artwork
will be on display in the gallery at Nymans, accompanied by a series of events to inspire both adults
and children to reconnect with the natural world. Continues until June 2nd.
Prized Possessions, an exhibition of more than twenty Dutch paintings, is at Petworth House and Park
from the 26th. This is the final stage of a major National Trust exhibition bringing together Dutch
seventeenth-century paintings by some of the finest masters of the ‘Golden Age’ from National Trust
collections around the country. The show is especially relevant to Petworth, which holds major Dutch
paintings in its collection and reflects the Dutch influence of King William III and Queen Mary in its
design and decoration, including spectacular wood carvings
of fruit, flowers, trophies and game by Anglo-Dutch master
carver Grinling Gibbons. Andrew Loukes, the House
and Collections Manager for Petworth House and Park,
describes the exhibition as an ‘opportunity to see these
Dutch masterpieces at the Duke and Duchess’s English
‘Versailles’, steeped in influences of the Golden Age and
inspired by the Baroque palaces of Europe’. Continues
until the 24th of March. [nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth]
Cows on a Riverside Pasture, Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691).
Oil on panel © Lord Egremont
....61....

DESIGN
....................................
Cityzen
“Design with good intentions”
Brighton architecture practice, Cityzen, is a bit
‘out of the box’.
Founded in 2010 by engineer and architectural
technologist John Smith and sustainability
assessor Charlotte Smith, Cityzen are known by
some industry clients as ‘the geeks’.
Focusing on ‘design with good intentions’,
Cityzen bridge the gap between concept and
construction: they make a design work from
initial sketch to completion, counting other
architects among their clients.
A particular specialism is modular construction
using shipping containers – a technology John
researched at university. With Ross Gilbert of
developers QED, John was consulted on the
Richardson’s Yard development in Brighton. The
pioneering housing project has led to several
more, including two large social housing blocks
in Ealing, West London.
Container homes save councils money because
they are able to own their own assets instead
of paying for hostels and B&Bs. The largest
Ealing site houses 288 people, the majority
families, for a mid-term period. It took just
ten months from initial drawings to tenants
moving in, and even more extraordinarily,
the properties can be dismantled quickly,
transported, and rebuilt elsewhere.
“They’re not a perfect fix,” explains Charlotte.
“They’re a temporary solution for the situation
....62....

DESIGN
....................................
we are in, but the big picture is, you’re giving
someone their own bathroom, their own
kitchen, their own front door. It’s such a
powerful thing, that I think the rest of us just
really take for granted.”
Container housing attracts attention. Some
celebrate its capacity to help solve a big
problem in an economic and sustainable way,
but critics suggest it is unhomely. Cityzen
explain that the key is in good property
management and community building.
Temporary homes have to meet the same
regulations as permanent housing, and the
Ealing apartments are ‘better insulated, better
heated and better performing’ than much of the
existing housing stock in Brighton.
“When I was at Ealing Council,” says John, “I
was told that people would just turn up to their
front desk with two carrier bags and say, ‘I need
a home’. They were having up to 200 people a
week doing that. They needed to do something.”
Richardson’s Yard was built using student
accommodation units that had already been
designed and fitted-out in the Netherlands.
The newer projects are made from containers
manufactured to Cityzen’s specifications. As
a net importer, the UK doesn’t often return
its ‘empties’, so considering the reuse value
prevents surplus from sitting around unused.
“They’re a cheap commodity,” says John.
“They’re good, usable things… I say to people
to think of it as a metal-framed building, not
a container.” Indeed, the business of designing
factory-manufactured housing is a growth
industry with unique complexities that both
inspires and challenges designers.
It’s something Cityzen is working on, but it will
be a while before we see any more big-scale
modular builds in Brighton. In the meantime,
John and Charlotte will happily work on
anything that tests their skill. Their recent
Grade II listed development in Ditchling won
awards for heritage protection and design.
“We really like a technical challenge…” explains
Charlotte. “The thread that runs through our
practice is complexity. We’re not really phased
by anything.”
Interview by Chloë King
cityzendesign.co.uk
....63....

IS SHARED
OWNERSHIP
FOR YOU?
FIND OUT AT OUR BRIGHTON
SHARED OWNERSHIP EVENT
19 th January, 11am - 4pm
at Artisan, Davigdor Road, Hove BN3
A unique opportunity to find out how Shared Ownership works and if you can
own a new home in Brighton. All welcome to join us for a specially brewed
artisan coffee & pastry provided by The Flour Pot Bakery and Small Batch
Coffee. No appointment required.
Pop in and have all your questions about Shared Ownership answered and find out if you are
able to purchase a new home in one of our exciting new developments.
A smarter, faster and more attainable way to buy the home you’ve always dreamed of in the
neighbourhood you love.
Our sales team and financial advisor look forward to welcoming you.
Artisan Show homes reopen 2nd January, Wed, Fri & Sat, 10am - 4pm, Thurs, 12pm - 8pm
www.shosales.co.uk
0300 030 1042
Eligibility criteria applies.

THE WAY WE WORK
This month, Adam Bronkhorst has been out photographing five communityminded
folk who spend their time doing good and making time for others.
We asked them: where’s your home from home?
adambronkhorst.com | 07879 401333
Jocelyn Read, Food Matters/Kitchen Kickstart
“West Wittering Beach.”

THE WAY WE WORK
Catherine O’Sullivan, Little Green Pig
“The library.”

THE WAY WE WORK
Victoria Smith, Gig Buddies
“With my dog, Snowy.”

THE WAY WE WORK
Michael Cullum, Artspace
“The Downs.”

THE WAY WE WORK
Andrew Coleman, Surfers Against Sewage
“In the ocean.”

39 Kensington Gardens, North Laine
www.barneysdeli.com
speciality coffee vendors
Here today, for your enjoyment
White & Black Drinks, hot or iced - Hot Chocolates
Butterscotch Milsches - Loose Leaf Teas - Natural Sodas
Retail packs and ground coffee to take away
Our food is plant based

FOOD
.............................
Pabellón
Town centre tapas
There is something of Ming
the Merciless about Tristan
as he licks the last of the
thick black squid ink from
his fingers. His hands are
covered in sauce from his
Gambas a la Plancha: huge
prawns, with their shells
on, drizzled with prawnshell
infused oil (for extra
prawniness) and served with
a spicy squid ink sauce. It
is evidently a dish worth
savouring. We’re at Pabellón,
the tapas bar at the bottom of
North Street, and the second restaurant opened
by the people behind Circo (formerly Señor
Buddha), at Preston Circus. If you’ve never been
there, you should go. They’ve been cooking
up delicious fusion tapas, cleverly combining
Spanish and East Asian flavours, since 2015.
If you have been there, you’ll know that it’s tiny
but, at Pabellón, the team has got a much bigger
playground. Their new premises, located around
the corner from the Pavilion’s India Gate, is
about four times the size, with room for around
30 diners at tables and a dozen more at the long
bar. It’s smart too, with dark blue walls, cool
but comfortable upholstered leather chairs and
dark wooden tables. Behind the huge bar, the
chefs wield multiple pans, turning out plate after
plate from the open kitchen. The atmosphere
is lively with music, the chatter of diners and
Spanish calls from the kitchen all adding an air
of authenticity. (No Spanish tapas bar that I’ve
ever visited has been a place for quiet dining.)
We visit on a Thursday night soon after the
restaurant has opened, and the place is full.
There are, of course, lots of
tasty morsels for the omnivores
– calamari, sardines, seared
scallops with Jamón Ibérico,
various tortillas, with dishes
priced from £7 to £14 – but,
aside from the giant gambas
this evening we are working our
way through the ‘planta’ section
of the menu. We order spinach
croquetas, papas arrugadas
con mojo rojo, patatas bravas
bomba, charred baby gem
lettuce, beetroot medley, and
goat’s cheese tostada. They are
big enough to share, and my favourite is the
patatas bravas bomba; huge croquette-like balls
of fluffy potato, with a spicy sauce at their centre
and covered in a crispy, fried coating, served
with tofu aioli. Delicious.
But, let’s be honest. Tapas is really all about the
meat and fish, and I suspect that the big flavours
are to be found elsewhere on the menu in dishes
like soy-blackened cod with Wakame seaweed
and sesame salad, and sticky pork ribs with
Korean BBQ sauce and pickled chilli.
We finish our meal with bunyols de vent:
traditional Catalan doughnuts, which are – as
the name suggests – as light as air. They are
dusted with icing sugar and drizzled with a dark,
bitter, chocolate, spiked with chilli and ginger:
the Asian twist tempering a dish that might
otherwise have been too sweet. Like so many of
the other dishes on the menu, it’s a clever – if
sometime curious – marriage of cuisines, like
churros from Chiang Mai.
Lizzie Lower
13 Pavilion Buildings. pabellon-brighton.co.uk
....71....

RECIPE
.............................
Photo by Alex Leith
....72....

RECIPE
.............................
Vegan Reuben
The Coffee Counter owner Hayden Maze on how to make the
best vegan version of this American sandwich classic
I used to work for a charity helping people
with various disadvantages to set up their own
businesses. Some of them gave me a challenge:
would I be able to set up my own business, with
only £250 behind me?
The result was The Coffee Counter, which I
started up in a little space in Vine Street five
years ago; we got too big for that space, because
we wanted to do food as well, and now we’re on
Church Street.
For me it’s all about setting up an inclusive
community. And I mean inclusive, which is why
I’ve been trying out feeding the homeless for
free every Monday.
It started like this: every morning I go for a long
walk with my daughter, and she asks me the
sort of questions eight-year-olds ask. Why isn’t
that man sleeping in a house? What does he
eat? Why isn’t anyone helping him? I just make
enough to get by, but I thought if I opened
up the café on my day off – Monday, when it’s
normally shut – and ask people who can afford
it to contribute money on a crowdfunding site,
maybe we could offer food and drink to the
homeless. And it’s worked: as long as people
keep contributing, we’ll keep doing it.
We’re not an entirely vegan establishment,
but we do like catering for those who don’t eat
animal products, and when a mate of mine went
to New York a while ago I got him to source a
vegan Reuben, and to describe to me down the
phone what it tasted like.
I’m a self-taught chef, but I’ve got a lot of
experience (I ran a bar in Shoreditch which did
food and worked my way across Australia in
kitchens) so I’m good at trial and error! It took
ages to get this one right, and since I’ve started
selling it, I’ve been pestered by people asking
me to let them into the secret of the recipe. I’m
not going to give everything away, but here are
the basics.
Getting the right bread is important: I always
use the Real Patisserie in Kemp Town, which
is for me easily the best baker in town. For this
sandwich, either a medium-cut white sourdough
or chewy brown. Other ingredients, without
giving too many of our secrets away, are: Taifun
smoked tofu; sauerkraut; chickpea mustard
mayo; tabasco; vegan Worcester sauce; vegan
Russian dressing; cracked black pepper; some
‘secret’ spices; and two types of high-quality
vegan cheese. It’s important to get this right:
poor quality vegan cheese tastes like stale
Wotsits. You can source all these ingredients
locally. We use HISBE and Infinity Foods,
among others.
We cook everything on a hotplate, but you can
use a skillet, or a frying pan. Here are some tips:
make sure that the toasted bread is evenly and
entirely covered by the tofu; melt the cheese
on top of the sauerkraut, not directly on the
surface; carefully layer the ingredients, cut the
sandwich into thirds… then stack and serve!
We do the traditional version too, with
pastrami, but this one’s proved just as popular.
By all means try it at home: if you want some
inspiration, you know where we are…
As told to Alex Leith
The Coffee Counter, 25 Church Street
justgiving.com/crowdfunding/hayden-maze
....73....

FOOD
........................
The Sussex Peasant
A lorryload of local produce
“You can do the
Thursday morning
run with me. I’ll
pick you up at 6.15
in Seven Dials.”
“Um… OK.” The
man I’m meeting
is Ed Johnstone
(pictured left),
the founder and
owner of The
Sussex Peasant, the
company that sells entirely local produce from
a horsebox that’s been converted into a mobile
market stall. You might have seen them in Jubilee
Square, where they pitch up on a Friday. Or
maybe in front of the Pepperpot in Queens Park
(Saturdays), outside the Chimney House pub in
Prestonville (Sundays), or in Hassocks (Mondays).
This isn’t even an early start for Ed, who
founded the company last July, and now employs
three colleagues to help him run what is soon to
become a two-truck operation. “Some mornings
it’s 4am,” he says, after I’ve hopped into the
white van he uses to pick up produce.
He tells me his story as we drive westwards, and
I scribble notes in the dark. He’s been wanting
to set up his own food-related business for ages,
but it wasn’t until he saw a dilapidated horse-box
for sale a couple of years back, that his business
plan came to him.
“It’s quite simple, really. Everything we sell from
the lorry – fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy and
fish – is produced or caught in Sussex. Eighty
five per cent of the produce is organic. Most of
the producers we deal with are small, family-run
outfits. And you can be sure that what you buy
is super fresh: what we’re collecting today, we’ll
sell over the weekend. The vegetables are practically
straight out of
the ground.”
The next couple of
hours see us drive
round the Sussex
countryside, picking
up mushrooms
in Thakeham, a
variety of organic
vegetables in
Cuckfield, eggs in
Danehill, flowers
in Fletching and milk, cream and yoghurt in
Plumpton. On each occasion, Ed has a little chat
with the producer about how things are doing.
“A lot of our customers like to know where the
food they’re buying has come from, and we can
tell them that precisely, because we’ve personally
picked it up,” he continues, back in the van.
“We’ve been going properly a year, now, and
we’ve doubled our sales, which is nice because
our producers are starting to grow more stuff for
our increasing needs.”
The company name came to him in a flash.
“Peasants weren’t landowners, and they sold
their produce off the back of a cart on market
day, which is more or less what we’re doing,” he
says. “And everything we sell has been produced
in Sussex.”
It’s a beautifully simple model: cutting out the
need for a shop, or even a warehouse, adds guaranteed
freshness, and lowers costs: “some things
we sell are cheaper than you’d get them in the
supermarket.” And all built from scratch, on a
shoestring budget. Impressed? There’s more to
come. That second truck is just the start of it: Ed
has already registered the ‘Peasant’ brand name
in every county in England. Alex Leith
thesussexpeasant.co.uk
....74....

A-news bouche
Olivia Wall (aka Wild Cultures) is hosting
several workshops on making your own
fermented foods throughout January at The
Snug, in Stoneham Park. The highly focused,
‘intensive but simple’ workshop will teach you
how to make traditional German Sauerkraut,
Kimchi, Real Dill Pickles, Probiotic Ginger
Beer and much more.
Attendees will leave with
their own jar of sauerkraut
ready to ferment and
information sheets with all
of the steps and recipes.
wildcultures.co.uk
If you’d like to start 2019 in a physically healthier
mode – after a Christmas merriment splurge
perhaps – then you can ease yourself in with a
combination of Pilates, Wellbeing & Brunch.
This is precisely what’s on offer in a new series
of monthly wellbeing meet ups, which feature a
dynamic but low impact Pilates class followed by a
nutritious brunch, hosted
at Upstairs @ Six Yoga
Studio, 19th Jan, 9.30am
to 12.30pm.
katiespong.com
Coffee connoisseurs might want to visit The
Queensbury Coffee House, with exclusively
blended ‘Gold Goat’ coffee that can only be
found in their Hove & Guildford branches.
Named after boxing’s ‘Queensbury Rules’ in
honour of Shoreham-born co-owner Marcus
Eaton’s profession, the
new coffee house can be
found in Hove’s Barker
and Stonehouse store.
queensburycoffee.co.uk
Joe Fuller
....75....

FEATURE
....................................
Cycling Without Age
The right to have wind in your hair
Cycling Without Age’s jaunty
red trishaws have been cruising
around our city since the
charity’s inception just over
a year ago. We spoke to Elly
Hargreave (pictured right)
about its mission – the right to
have wind in your hair!
When I first heard about
Cycling Without Age, I
thought, ‘I don’t want to just
sit back, wishing we had that
cool Scandinavian idea here.’
So, I went for it. When granted
the license for Brighton, I
learned others were interested;
Duncan, now Maintenance
Manager, saw the idea on a
TedTalk and was trying to
start it with his friend, Craig.
I tracked down Duncan and
by 11am that same day we
decided to launch the charity
together. Two (long) months
later, we did just that. Our two
bikes take elder passengers
out several days a week, all
year-round.
One thing that struck us
was just how many people
we take out are in slippers
– they don’t need shoes,
because they rarely, if ever, go
out. We focus on care homes
in Brighton, where two out
of three people are living
with dementia. Most of our
passengers are in their 80s and
90s; they sit ‘up front’, inviting
community interaction, which
helps improve their wellbeing.
It’s brilliant fun, we cover four
to eight miles each ride – to
the seafront, parks or even
allotments. That freedom you
get by bike, with the wind in
your hair, is wonderful.
It’s all about our passengers’
reactions and getting to
know people. In return, we
get a good education in history.
One passenger was a Land
Girl – we didn’t know until
her third ride. I remember,
too, taking Pauline out for the
first time – quiet and timid,
she can seem lost at times
– quite common for people
living with dementia. Coming
across a dog walker (they’re
the friendliest!), I asked if we
Photo by Graham Carlow
....77....

FEATURE
....................................
Photo by Chris Harrison @christoph.harrison
....78....

FEATURE
....................................
Photo by Chris Harrison @christoph.harrison
could introduce their dogs to
our Very Important Passengers
(VIPs). I heard Pauline say,
‘Ooh I love dogs!’. That was
the first time I’d heard her
speak. There’s magic you just
can’t predict. In the heartfelt
way our passengers say, ‘It’s
marvellous!’, or ‘I feel back in
the land of the living’, with
their eyes lit up. It keeps us
motivated. It’s an incredible
thing being out with elders on
the bikes – everyone smiles.
The Brighton community
helped us to fund both bikes
– and have been brilliantly
supportive ever since. Our
goal, now, is to be sustainable,
to be here for the passengers
who’ll need us in the coming
years. We’ve got a long waiting
list for pilots, so now we’re
looking for local companies
to sponsor 100 rides and,
of course, donations. Each
passenger ride costs £17.
We also need bike storage in
Brighton, as they’re currently
in a leaky garage! It can be
tough as a tiny charity but
Cycling Without Age fits
Brighton beautifully. People
who stop and chat to us, truly
make our passengers’ day.
That’s really special.
As told to Amy Holtz
Follow @cwabrighton
Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram or visit
cwabrighton.org.uk
....79....

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INTERVIEW
.............................
Park Life
Co-founders Evie Martin and Cailtin McCarthy
Photo by Rose Dykins
What’s the story behind
Park Life? Caitlin: Just
over a year ago, we were on
tour performing with Miss
Represented [an arts collective
of artists, support workers
and young women who face
challenging life situations].
Evie was saying there are no
decent parks in East Brighton.
Someone asked if we’d thought
about setting up a campaign.
We started planning in January
[2018] and we had our first
public meeting in May. In the
summer, we ran an event called the Big Picnic,
where about 500 Whitehawk residents came
along for live music, a barbecue and garden
games in the park. We were out there speaking
to people and getting signatures for our petition.
Evie: Miss Represented had good connections;
one of them knew a park designer. We’ve had
meetings with the council – they’ve said we’ve
got the money, £163,000, and there is a new
park coming. Phase two will be about getting
match-funding to build our ideal, beautiful park.
What’s wrong with Whitehawk’s parks?
Evie: They’re basically inadequate. A lot of the
equipment has been there for years, and it hasn’t
been thought through properly. We felt like a
lot of the decisions were being made by people
who don’t care as much as we do, who aren’t
from the same generation as us.
Caitlin: I don’t take my son to the park at the
Crew Club because the equipment there is
really old and dangerous. It’s got all these frames
but no swings. There are holes in the ground,
benches that are just slats of wood, graffiti from
the 90s! To get to any decent
parks, you have to get on a bus.
What have you learned
about parks across Brighton
& Hove? Caitlin: We’ve
noticed things other parks have
that ours don’t, for example,
toilets and sandpits. I do think
we get labelled for being an
estate. But you get problems
in every area, no matter where
you live.
Evie: One thing that’s come
up, is that Whitehawk is ‘not
a destination’. But it’s my
destination – I live here! I think if our area
did have nicer parks, people would look at us
differently. And I think that’s why people don’t
mind funding us. We’re two young Whitehawk
girls speaking up. It hasn’t happened in a very
long time.
What does the future hold for Park Life?
Evie: We’re working with the council to draw up
the park plans and finish our consultation, so that
the new Middle Park will be finished by the end
of 2019. I’d love to improve Whitehawk’s Top
Park too. And for Park Life to keep organising
events. So many people came out for the Big
Picnic because it wasn’t about raising money, it
was about bringing the community together.
How else have local people responded?
Caitlin: Now, the community comes to us for
things they’re concerned about, because they
don’t feel like they’ll be heard if they speak
directly to the police or the council. We pass
their concerns on to our contacts at the council,
and we’re on their side. Interview by Rose Dykins
bhparklife.org.uk
....81....

MY SPACE
.............................
Hygiene For All manager Mark Allwright, Photos by Adam Bronkhorst
Off the Fence
Hygiene for All
Brighton charity Off The
Fence is bringing showers
to the homeless through a
game-changing mobile unit.
Fundraiser Donna Williamson
tells us how.
In 2017, UK-wide survey the
Homeless Count showed that,
after accommodation, the
second biggest issue facing
homeless people was maintaining
good hygiene. People
were getting ailments that are
preventable – things like foot
pain, tooth decay, heart problems.
66 per cent of the people
surveyed reported with one or
more preventable health conditions
and 34 per cent said that
this condition made it difficult
to hold down a job or keep up
with simple everyday activities.
The risk of death was increased
eight-fold in people who experienced
these conditions.
We came up with the idea
of taking hygiene out to
the homeless – we called the
project Hygiene For All. The
first thing was our hygiene vans,
which we stock with sleeping
bags, food, clothing, emergency
care and sanitary products and
take out on the streets. Then
....82....
we added the laundry van,
which is fitted with two washing
machines and two dryers so
people can wash and dry their
clothes and bedding while they
wait. The water comes from fire
hydrants and empties through
the normal drainage system. We
use special cables to plug in to
power and if that isn’t possible
we have generators we can use.
The idea came from Orange
Sky, an Australian charity that
was the first to launch mobile
laundry vans. It did really well
there and since we launched our
vans, we’ve been contacted by

MY SPACE
.............................
lots of other homelessness charities
asking how to set up their
own. Now we’re seeing similar
vans throughout Europe.
In August this year we
launched our shower van,
which has two showers accessed
by two separate doors, and a jet
wash to clean it down afterwards.
Most homeless people
find it very difficult to access
free showers. Homeless shelters
and drop-in day centres are limited
and often very crowded. We
do four-hour stints three times a
week, offering up to 30 showers
per session. We also provide
bath mats and shower gel.
We know the vans are making
a big difference to people’s
lives and in lots of different
ways. The packs of feminine
hygiene products we give out
have helped bring more women
through the doors of Antifreeze,
our drop-in day centre. Women
tend to keep a low profile on
the street because they’re very
vulnerable. But when we see
people, we can help them.
We also offer haircuts and
beard trims with barbers who
come in every two weeks and
we give out clothing. We have
a whole hall of jackets, coats,
trousers and jumpers for people
to choose from. Being able to
choose some clothes or take a
shower may not seem like a big
deal. But when someone doesn’t
have access to these things it
can have a huge effect on their
health and their self-esteem.
As told to Nione Meakin
offthefence.org.uk
....83....

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INTERVIEW
....................................
Companion Voices
Singers for the end of life
“We walk into the
room, humming,” says
Erika, “and then we
sing. There are three of
us, sometimes four. We
usually sing for about
twenty minutes, rarely
more than half an hour.”
I’m in Erika’s living
room, with her and
Judith Silver, the founder
of Companion Voices, a
group – or more accurately a network of groups –
dedicated to singing at the bedside of people who
are soon to die.
“It all started with a conversation in Brighton,
five years ago, between me and my old friends
Havva and Yvonne,” says Judith, a professional
musician, who has been working with choirs and
other singing groups for over twenty years, and
who coordinates the Companion Voices network
from her home in Hertfordshire.
She had long been aware of the Threshold
Choirs, a US organisation with a similar remit;
she contacted its founder, Kate Munger, who has
remained helpful and supportive, but decided
that she wanted to create a different repertoire
and model which would sit better with her own
and perhaps others’ ‘British sensibilities’. “In
terms of repertoire, something more… oblique.”
“It’s important to make clear that we’re not a
choir,” she continues, “and what we’re delivering
is not a performance. It’s much more intimate,
a gentle singing experience, with a few people
around a bedside.
“I’ve drawn from a big pool of songs,” she
continues, “and have chosen simple ones, from
a range of traditions. There are a lot of lullabies,
and songs are often in a language other than
English, so the beautiful
sound can wash over
the person who is being
sung to without needing
to be understood.
They tend to be on the
gentle side, but a lot
of it is adapting to the
moment.”
It should be made clear
here that the singers
only do a ‘sing’ when
they are invited to, and while donations to help
fund the group are always welcome, the singers
are not paid for their services.
But there are benefits, of course. “Being part
of a learning group can be rewarding and
satisfying, and the members of the group are
very supportive of one another. Close-knit and
trusting relationships are formed,” says Erika.
Singers meet up monthly; as well as in Brighton
there are groups in Frome and Watford, with
new groups in Weymouth and Cambridge due
to start in early 2019.
“The name of the group was carefully chosen,”
Judith continues. “We are companions to
one other, but also offer companionship to
those who are suffering.” She stresses that the
experience can be extremely valuable to the
loved ones of the dying person, too.
Sometimes that person is asleep, or unconscious,
other times they are alert and compos mentis.
What can they hope to get, I ask Judith, out of
the experience of being sung to? “Hopefully a
feeling of not being alone. A sense of comfort.
Above all, a washing over of wellbeing.” AL
If you are interested in joining the singing group
or reserving their services for yourself or a loved
one, visit companionvoices.org
....85....

INTERVIEW
....................................
The warm glow of kindness
Research from the University of Sussex
The next time you have the urge
to pick an argument with your
neighbour over their untidy front
garden or their choice of music at
4am, try smiling at them instead.
Even if you don’t feel they deserve
it, and you may have no hope of
getting anything quite so nice
back, simple kind gestures can be
enough to activate parts of your
brain that will, quite literally, give
you a warm glow.
Psychologists at the University
of Sussex undertook a major new
review of studies that looked at what happens
inside our brains when we act out of genuine
altruism (when there’s nothing in it for us) and
strategic kindness (when we have something to
be gained).
By examining the fMRI brain scans relating to
more than 1000 people making kind decisions,
they found that, while both sorts of kindness
activate the reward networks of our brains
(including a region known as the striatum),
altruistic acts with no hope of personal
benefit led to other regions of the brain (the
subgenual anterior cingulate cortex) becoming
even more active.
“This major study sparks questions about
people having different motivations to give
to others: clear self-interest versus the warm
glow of altruism,” says the study’s lead Dr
Daniel Campbell-Meiklejohn, Director of the
university’s Social Decision Laboratory.
“The decision to share resources is a
cornerstone of any cooperative society. We know
that people can choose to be kind because they
like feeling like they are a ‘good person’, but also
that people can choose to be kind when they
think there might be something
‘in it’ for them, such as a returned
favour or improved reputation.
“Some people might say that
‘why’ we give does not matter,
as long as we do. However, what
motivates us to be kind is both
fascinating and important. If,
for example, governments can
understand why people might
give when there’s nothing in it for
them, then they can understand
how to encourage people to
volunteer, donate to charity or
support others in their community.”
While the study shows what was happening in
the cerebral cortex of individuals performing
kind acts, the study’s co-author, PhD student Jo
Cutler (pictured), points out that the altruistic
behaviour of others can also be infectious.
“A key theory in neuroscience suggests
that seeing someone else show an emotion
automatically activates the same areas of our
brain as if we experienced that emotion for
ourselves.
“A kind act to make someone who is sad feel
better can also make us feel good – partly
because we feel the same relief they do and
partly because we are putting something right,”
she adds.
“Although this effect is especially powerful
for people we are close to, it can even apply
to humanitarian problems such as poverty or
climate change. Getting engaged with charities
that tackle these issues provides a way to have a
positive impact, which in turn improves mood.”
In terms of neighbourly relations, the outcome
is almost always good. They might even turn
down the volume for you. Jacqui Bealing
....87....

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WILDLIFE
....................................
Fig. 1 The Face Mite (Demodex folliculorum)
Illustration by Mark Greco
Face mites
I got you under my skin
I like to think that the majority of us are good
neighbours to the wild animals we share this
planet with. We feed the birds, grow flowers in
the garden for bees and butterflies. But if wildlife
gets too close or, heaven forbid, enters our houses
we’re reaching for the fly spray, mouse poison
or a rolled up newspaper. I get plenty of people
complaining to me about home-invading wildlife
as if I’m some sort of envoy for the animal
kingdom. Yet while they moan on and on about
clothes moths in their wardrobe, I just stand there
smiling, reassured by the knowledge that these
people have wildlife living right under their noses.
Well, to be more precise, right in their noses.
Okay, I warn you now: after reading this article
some of you will be scouring your face with a
Brillo pad. But it’s time to face the facts about
your face. It’s crawling with animals. You, yes
you, have face mites. And there’s no ‘might’ about
it – research has shown that 100% of adults have
them. Our faces are one big nature reserve for
mites; from your mountainous nose and skin
pore caves to your eyelash jungles. In fact our
faces are home to two different species. Demodex
folliculorum thrive in your eyelashes while Demodex
brevis lurk in your pores. They’re feeding
on dead skin cells and oils but don’t harm us – a
commensal parasite.
Before you run to the bathroom mirror, these
guys are tiny. I’m not going to lie to you, they’re
not pretty (unless you think a microscopic 8-legged
slug is pretty) and under really high-powered
microscopes they look like something you’d
encounter in a galaxy far, far away. But whether
you find them cute or not they’re a part of you.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (along with a
whole bunch of Demodex folliculorum).
The egg and larval stages last two weeks and
you’ll probably be relieved to hear that the adults
live for just five days and then die. And it’s right
about here you’ll realise that these things are
CONSTANTLY MATING ON YOUR FACE.
You can scrub and scrub but you can’t wash away
the hard truth: you’re just a mammal. And like
dogs, cows, orangutans and meerkats we’re the
perfect hosts for a range of parasites.
Personally, when I go to bed at night, I start to
imagine Clarence the Demodex, climbing from
his pore, going for a wander across my cheek
and hoping to meet a girlfriend. But he meets
his nemesis Evil Arthur and a mite fight ensues
until… well, you get the idea. There’s hundreds
of these little adventures happening on your face
every night. Sweet dreams. Michael Blencowe,
Senior Learning & Engagement Officer, Sussex
Wildlife Trust
....89....

INSIDE LEFT: RUGBY PLACE, KEMP TOWN. 24TH JULY 1919
.....................................................................................
‘It was as if a call had come from the far-flung
battlefields on which British troops have shed
their blood – from the shrapnel-seeded meadows
of the Somme, to the shambles of the Salient,
from the burning sands of Palestine, to the dizzy
heights of the Asiago, from the fever-haunted
banks of the Tigris, to the ghostly gullies of
Gallipoli.’ So reported the West Sussex Gazette on
July 20th 1919, commenting on the celebrations
throughout Sussex on Peace Day.
Although the Armistice had been declared back
in November 1918, the Treaty of Versailles
wasn’t signed until June 28th 1919. To celebrate,
the government ordained a Bank Holiday on
Saturday July 19th of that year, ‘with a view
to the widespread and general celebration of
Peace’. It is worth noting that for many in that
era, Saturday would have been a working day.
There was a vast parade in London, featuring
15,000 soldiers and watched by hundreds of
thousands of spectators, culminating in the unveiling
of Edwin Lutyens’ (prototype, wooden)
Cenotaph Memorial.
Brighton had its own Victory March, with amputee
veterans leading the way in charabancs, and
able-bodied soldiers marching behind. Thousands
lined Marine Parade to watch, including
many Londoners who had crowded onto trains
from Victoria. A meal was served for the veterans
on the roof of the Aquarium, followed by a
firework celebration on the Palace Pier.
There were street parties all around the country
– known as Peace Teas – where neighbours came
together to celebrate the peace that had finally
been made official after four bitter years of war.
Brighton, obviously, was no exception. This
picture shows the celebrations in Rugby Place, in
Kemp Town, a few days later, on the 24th. The
three-storey Victorian houses in the background,
with their interestingly shaped door and windows,
still stand.
It’s a beautifully framed shot, presumably before
the street party began, with the expectant
neighbours, many of the children in fancy dress,
framed by the chap in the hat and the tea girls
on the left. We know that it rained that day, but
nevertheless imagine it must have been quite a
party around the trestle table, especially for the
kids, many of whom couldn’t have remembered
anything but the hardships of war. But perhaps
not as wild a party as in some of the neighbouring
towns: in Uckfield, for example, we’re told
by the Mid-Sussex Times, the townspeople danced
round a burning effigy of Kaiser Wilhelm. AL
....90....

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