Portfolio

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Archives Alive is a volunteer-led 28-month project that is increasing public accessibility to Brighton & Hove's heritage. It has utilised historical text, photographs, audio and print from QueenSpark's own archive and a range of other sources. The thread throughout the entire programme has been to rediscover and/or repurpose archive material, and people of all ages [...]

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We've created a small amount of framed limited edition A3 signed prints of the Brighton's Graphic War graphic novel book project for sale, created by Brighton artist Paul Collicutt.

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

A two year WWI project in which young people aged between 15 - 25 created a fictional, Brighton based WWI Graphic Novel.

Brighton Trans*formed records, in their own words, the lives and experiences of Brighton & Hove’s Transgender community.

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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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With nearly 300 years of history, twenty eight writers and artists, and fourteen fantastical tales featuring unheralded characters and true events from the city’s fascinating history, Brighton:The Graphic Novel is a unique collaborative collection. Featuring pioneering drag queens, doomed pleasure gardens, smugglers, arsonists, obsessed inventors, aspiring actors, corrupt policemen, cantankerous barbers, sea swimmers, hands of death and mysterious sea forces, the stories – complete with historical footnotes – will ensure that you never look at Brighton in the same way again... As Bryan Talbot, 2013 Costa Biography Award winner, says: "This is an original anthology of entertaining and intriguing tales, at times funny, chilling and poignant - a mixture of fact and fantasy, told in a wide and refreshing gamut of illustrative styles, but all firmly rooted in the history and culture of Brighton.”

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.

A collection of letters, diaries, memoirs and other personal papers related to Brighton and Hove.

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 [...]

With tales of Indian soldiers recuperating at the Royal Pavilion, Suffragettes, paranormal legends, conscientious objectors and families torn apart by conflict, Brighton’s Graphic War is a graphic novel which focuses on the impact of World War One on home life. Created by 15 new young writers and artists, the book illustrates the huge social changes that [...]

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 [...]