It's Time to Read!

Brighton is a city on the South Coast of England: The town has an exciting heritage and for my dissertation I am looking at how history can use fiction, with Brighton as my example. I have read many novels that have featured Brighton – some good, some very bad, and I’ve read a lot of [...]

Synopsis: As teenagers Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a tragic event. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed ‘The Ice Cream Girls’ by the press and were dealt with by the courts. Years later, having led very different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record [...]

Synopsis: Robertson Blossom welcomes Caroline Woolfit, a non-smoking vegetarian and wannabe new age traveller into his smoking and meat eating Brighton household. Her new housemates – drum roadies and gay pensioners – have stories of flying babies, reefer madness and Antarctica to tell. I only got as far as page 30 of this book. Story-wise: [...]

Waterstone’s Synopsis: A simple trip to Brighton turns into a summer of adventure for Cassandra Paxton when she encounters the enigmatic Lord Deverill. She believes him to be a friend of her dead brother, but she soon finds that there is more to him than meets the eye. Lord Deverill is hiding a secret, and, [...]

This novel sees Val Andrews writing a Sherlock Holmes mystery. In this book Holmes comes out of retirement and solves a murder in Brighton. A woman has gone missing and a man has mysterious turned up at the Royal Pavilion but there are no signs of forced entry. The police are clueless and as a [...]

Waterstone’s Synopsis: Cass Bainbridge is being stalked. New job, new home, new life. Cass has moved to Brighton to start over as a lecturer at the university. But she’s already acquired some unwanted baggage. Someone’s watching her & they’ve even taken photos. She’s being followed, too. And then there are the anonymous and threatening emails [...]

Synopsis from Waterstones: 1995, and at a party in Bedford, Mary meets Jack and Neal, a pair of hipsters and self-confessed Beats’ stuck (un)squarely in the sixties. After a Beat (not-quite) Happening’ at the local library, the three of them (and Neal’s cat Koko) set off in Mary’s Vauxhall on a road trip to Brighton [...]

This is not a long book, only 160 pages, but it is full of information. The book is presented as a fiction book for children, but every conversation is full of facts. Oliver and Edward have arrived in Brighton on a holiday, and are later joined by their cousin Helen. They go exploring the town [...]

Amazon synopsis: A look at the dark side of life, Victorian-style, when nothing was quite as it seemed and a public execution could be an entertaining family day out. Murderers, poachers, thieves, pickpockets and vagabonds all went about their business with impunity. Crime took place on the streets, on public transport, in homes, pubs, prisons, [...]

This is not a long book that explores Brighton’s history of alcohol and pubs. The history dates back to the first ale-houses and Collis informs us about all aspects of life that links back to alcohol. The book is full of facts and figures, and some stats did take me by surprise. I found this [...]