All Our Books

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This ground-breaking book highlights an important part of Brighton and Hove's LGBT history from the 1950s and 1960s.

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Backyard Brighton is a collection of photographs and reminiscences based on material gathered by Brighton Borough Council with the intention of creating a record of houses that were scheduled for demolition during the 1930s. Originally published in 1988, this was a seminal book for QueenSpark Books, produced in association with the Lewis Cohen Urban Studies Centre. [...]

Blighty Brighton is all about memories of Brighton during the First World War. Through an examination of personal recollections and ephemera such as posters, photographs, pictures, songs, it portrays a collective memory of the city. Photographs are central to this work; for example Brighton Museum, Preston Manor and Brighton Reference Library are all featured pictorially. This [...]

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This new ebook was first published in 1975 and was so popular that it quickly sold out. Brightonian, Daisy Noakes, tells her story from the age of fourteen, when she went into service. She gives us an insight into the life of a woman born and brought up in Brighton. Daisy documents – with humour - her inevitable trials and tribulations in the often physically demanding world that she inhabited during her working life. The autobiography covers her childhood, as one of a family of ten, living in Prince’s Road and Vere Road, and her working days in service in different parts of the town. This is a special insight into Daisy’s world and is a shining example of true grit and fortitude! You can buy copies of the books using Amazon Kindle, Google Play, the Apple store, and otherAndroid outlets - just go to your chosen website and search by title for the books.

First published in 1990, Brighton Behind the Front brings together a collection of Brighton World War Two photographs and reminiscences, documenting how ordinary people were affected by the war. This was a challenging time in British history, giving rise to moving accounts of individual lives set against a society undergoing profound changes. Using personal recollections, contemporary [...]

"Back in the 1950s and 60s what the man in the white coat said, stood …" Pebble on the Beach is the true story of one boy’s ability to survive. Growing up in Brighton, England, Tony was subjected to a childhood of physical and mental abuse - including electric shock treatment at the age of [...]

As intriguing as it is informative, this 2006 book Bangla Brighton gives one of the lesser heard voices in our community a chance to be heard. The contributors speak of making their lives in Brighton, memories of their homeland, culture and customs, their faith, day-to-day struggles, family life and the role of women. Poetic and [...]

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Born in 1916, Margaret Ward describes her life as a ‘winding lane’ because of the many twists and turns it has taken. Her autobiography describes her childhood in Rottingdean, growing up amongst a loving family in the picturesque Sussex seaside village. Her 1988 autobiography brings alive a rural childhood in the aftermath of World War [...]

Margaret Ward was born and brought up in Rottingdean and lived there all her life. This autobiographical book is a sequel to One Camp Chair in the Living Room, published by QueenSpark in 1988. In this booklet Margaret recalls her childhood in Rottingdean in the 1920s, local places and people in the 1930s and life [...]

Joan Parsons writes with enthusiasm about her working life in Brighton, where she was employed for many years as a toilet attendant. She worked in many different areas of Brighton, including The Steine, Clock Tower and the Aquarium, and during the course of her working day she would meet many characters, including homeless people who [...]

Originally produced in collaboration with the Lewis Cohen Urban Studies Centre, this is a sequel to Backyard Brighton incorporating photographs taken by the Environmental Health Department in the late forties and early fifties of houses in Brighton that were scheduled for demolition in the fifties and sixties. Each photograph is accompanied by reminiscences of families [...]

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This is the sequel to Poverty, Hardship but Happiness. Brightonian Albert Paul left school at the age of 14 and began work as a carpenter, rising from the position of apprentice to that of master craftsman. Albert remained in his job throughout his life, in an era when people usually continued to work for one [...]

This comprehensive 1996 account of the fishing industry documents how it has changed since the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, fishing boats landed on the beach and the fish market was actually on the seafront. On a more personal level, Catching Stories is a living record, told in their own words, of [...]

Born in Brighton in 1891, Harry Cowley, known as the ‘Gov’nor’, was a Brighton chimney sweep who later became a local legend. He fought for the rights of the under-privileged; for the homeless and unemployed as well as for market traders and old-age pensioners. Harry also battled against social injustices that he came across in [...]

Working on the West Pier from 1956 to 1970, Daphne Mitchell’s 1996 memoir evokes the atmosphere of the seaside in bygone times. Daphne recalls seaside shows that featured acts such as local stunt man the Great Omani, floating by on a bed of nails. She describes day-to-day life working on the pier, twelve hours a [...]

In his 1998 memoir Ron Cunningham, alias 'The Great Omani', presents tales and adventures from the life of a professional stuntman. Ron’s inspiration was the renowned escapologist, Houdini and in describing the exploits that he undertook as part of his unusual career, echoes of Houdini’s famous tricks can be spotted. Ron once travelled from Hastings [...]

The 1875 directory for East Brighton listed 35 bootmakers, 3 breweries, 19 dress-makers, 15 tailors, 2 watchmakers, 2 tinners, 2 brushmakers and 2 basketmakers. By 1974 they had virtually all disappeared, apart from one jeweller and one costumer. This 1978 book is about shopkeepers and street traders, based on interviews with people whose families had [...]

This work records the reminiscences of three craftsmen who were employed in the Preston Park Works of the Pullman Car Company during the fifties and sixties. As well as giving the reader a flavour of life in the railway engineering industry in those times, it also provides fascinating details of Brighton’s post-war history and some [...]

In 1935, fifteen year old Bert Hollick signed on at Brighton Station for his first shift on a Pullman Train. Working on the midnight shift from Victoria to Brighton including the famous Brighton Belle, he learned to ladle soup from a tureen at seventy-five miles per hour and serve a three-course lunch in a speedy fifty-eight [...]

We’re Not All Rothschilds! Is based around a series of interviews conducted by Leila Abrahams in Brighton and Hove in 1994. The book explores the lives of ordinary working people linked by their Jewish faith. There are fascinating accounts of running Beall’s Cork Shop in Gardner Street, memories of long-gone Brighton shops and discussions around [...]

Born in 1908 at the Marquess of Exeter public house (now the Chimney House), which was run by her parents, Marjory Batchelor spent her working life as a barmaid and pub landlady in and around the Brighton area. Marjory recalls her experiences of growing up and working through two World Wars and beyond in Brighton, [...]

Arthur Thickett’s 1993 memoir is the story of a young man who came to Brighton in the summer of 1970, full of hope and optimism – his goal was to find adventure and ultimately love. On his first day he found digs in Ovingdean, on his second day he walked into a job as a [...]

Marjorie Gardiner’s 1985 autobiography looks at the working life of milliner from 1925 to 1945, including an account of her working life during the Second World War. Marjorie’s story is told in a lively and evocative manner, and describes her experiences as a shop assistant working in a Brighton hat shop, where she met all [...]

This book is about a young boy’s experiences during the Second World War.  A Far Cry from a White Apron - The story of a Brighton Bevin Boy is is a fascinating memoir which describes with poignancy stories of lost youth and a harsh life spent during a turbulent historical period. The content is frank and occasionally disturbing and [...]

Albert Paul was a retired carpenter who lived all his life in Brighton, and he describes in vivid detail the life of a boy brought up in poverty and his struggle against adversity. Poverty - Hardship but Happiness tells the story of a working class boy’s life in the years between 1903 and 1917, from [...]

This 1991 memoir by Lillie Morgan tells an often shocking story of the grinding poverty faced by working people in Brighton during the First World War. As a teenager she was working at a pawnbroker’s in Edward Street and witnessed first-hand the desperate lengths people went to to find the price of a loaf of [...]

One winter in the 1980s, Ernie Mason was at a loose end, so he bought a notebook and began to write his autobiography. This story encapsulates a working-class man’s journey through life over the course of the twentieth century, documenting the many changes that took place in the local environment and in social conditions. Born [...]

In her 1996 autobiography, Janis Ravenett recalls her memories of growing up in Southampton Street in the Hanover area of Brighton, during the years between 1942 and 1955. Janis describes a childhood that was happy and full of fun, living in a house in a close-knit community with few modern conveniences, and tells of the [...]

In this 1989 book, Sid Manville reminisces about his Brighton boyhood between the wars. This first-person account of growing up as one of ten children in Bear Road is a valuable insight into working class family life in Brighton in the 1920s and 30s. Sid recalls local traders and characters, attending Coombe Road School in [...]