Viva Brighton Issue #64 June 2018

Now part of the:
sign up
on our
website
now!
Lewes Campus:
Thursday 5 th July
Thursday 12 th July
Friday 13 th July
Eastbourne Campus:
Monday 9 th July
Tuesday 10 th July

VIVA
B R I G H T O N
#64. JUNE 2018
EDITORIAL
...........................
.......................
Viva Brighton is based at:
Brighton Junction,
1a Isetta Square, BN1 4GQ.
For advertising enquiries call:
01273 810 296.
Other enquiries call:
01273 810 259.
Every care has been taken to
ensure the accuracy of our content.
We cannot be held responsible for
any omissions, errors or alterations.
I’ve lived on the Sussex coast for most of my
life. In my opinion there is nowhere lovelier
than these briny edges, and not just our
particularly pebbly and pier-spangled stretch.
I love all eighty-odd miles of the Sussex coast,
from the rolling dunes of Camber via the
brackish waters of the Ouse estuary to the
jagged rock pools off Rottingdean and the
windswept Witterings beyond.
My dad worked at sea and, as a family, we
would scan the horizon for the boat coming
in, piling down to the harbour to meet him. I
could stand at the shoreline and imagine that
(by some super-human means) I could swim to
catch him up. Anywhere in the world. That the
sea lapping the beach would eventually flow
into the vast oceans, connecting me to any and
every distant shore.
It seems I wasn’t alone and in this, our ‘water’s
edge’ issue, we’ll meet some like-minded souls.
The intrepid SwimTrekkers, who boldly go
where the water takes them; a Sussex student
with designs on farming the sea; a couple
who decided to take the plunge and move to a
houseboat; a whole host of people committed
to taking care of the beach (and the folks who
enjoy it), and many other salty sorts besides.
As Brightonians, our lives are inextricably
bound up with the water’s edge and the
beautiful, bountiful oceans beyond. It’s our
job to take care of them. So, come on in. The
water’s lovely. Keeping it that way is entirely
up to us.

VIVA
B R I G H T O N
THE TEAM
.....................
EDITOR: Lizzie Lower lizzie@vivamagazines.com
DEPUTY EDITOR: Rebecca Cunningham rebecca@vivamagazines.com
SUB EDITOR: Alex Leith alex@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 Hill kelly@vivamagazines.com
DISTRIBUTION: David Pardue distribution@vivamagazines.com
CONTRIBUTORS: Alexandra Loske, Amy Holtz, Andrew Darling, Ben Bailey,
Cammie Toloui, Chloë King, Chris Riddell, Emma Chaplin, JJ Waller, Jacqui Bealing,
Jay Collins, Joda, Joe Decie, John Helmer, John O’Donoghue, Lizzie Enfield, Mark Greco,
Martin Skelton, Michael Blencowe, Nione Meakin and Peter James Field
PUBLISHER: Becky Ramsden becky@vivamagazines.com
Please recycle your Viva (or keep us forever).

PROFESSIONAL PART-TIME
COURSES OPEN EVENING
CAREER-FOCUSED COURSES
Our accredited part-time courses enable you
to learn in a way that works for you. You will
develop the knowledge and practical experience
to accelerate your career, and widen your
professional network.
COME AND VISIT US ON 19 JULY
This event offers you a chance to speak directly
with students and staff and to find out more
about our postgraduate and part-time courses
in marketing, management, accountancy,
human resources, law and logistics and supply
chain management.
FIND OUT MORE
To book your place and find out more visit www.brighton.ac.uk/openevening. If you have any
questions about our postgraduate courses, the course team will be happy to help. Email them at
business@brighton.ac.uk.
PUTTING
LEARNING
TO WORK

CONTENTS
...............................
Bits & Bobs.
8–27. Esther Cox is on the cover; Alexandra
Loske has her eye on storms out
at sea; aquatic exhibitionist Zoe Brigden
is on the buses; Joe Decie is feeling the
bank holiday burn; we meet the folks
cleaning up between the piers; a family
seafood feast with a sea view at the Bristol
Bar; a brace of Brighton writing prizes
and a Brighton Mermaid; we tag along to
Hammamet beach via Thessaloniki, and
we ponder whether to party in our pants
(or not). Plus much more besides.
My Brighton.
28–29. Marine environment consultant
Atlanta Cook, on cleaning up Brighton’s
beaches and beyond.
31
8
Photography.
31–37. Andrew Unwin’s mesmeric
seascapes, from the sky.
Columns.
39–43. Lizzie Enfield muses on the art
of open water swimming; John Helmer
drowns in gin, and Amy Holtz is a fish
out of water.
Photo by Andrew Unwin
On this month.
45–53. Ben Bailey rounds up his pick of
the gigs; Atkinson Action Horses bring
their celebrity steeds to the South of
England Show; re-use guru Cat Fletcher
is at Ovingdean’s Green Festival;
Sofie Hagen is at Brighton Dome; it’s
Dallowday for self-confessed ‘Woolfies’
at Monk’s House; Simon Evans’ al
fresco comedy; filthy but funny Fleabag
is at The Old Market, and mr jukes play
Love Supreme.
....6 ....

CONTENTS
...............................
Art & design.
55–63. Chloë King gets up close and
sartorial with Gilbert and George;
mathematical textiles at Worthing Artists
Open Houses; a last bid to save Saltdean
Lido’s iconic building, and just some of
what’s on, art-wise, this month.
The way we work.
65–69. What does go on underneath the
arches? Adam Bronkhorst finds out.
Food.
70–75. A kipper to rival Craster’s; Dough
Lover’s gluten-free cookie recipe; a slapup
fish supper at The Little Fish Market,
and brunch at the Bandstand.
84
80
Features.
76–87. Is the future of farming afloat?
One design student at the University
of Sussex thinks it might be; we get
the lowdown on what you need to
know before you move to a houseboat;
Brighton’s late-night quad-bike beach
patrol; we’re all at sea with a holiday
company for intrepid swimmers; Adam
Bronkhorst gets inside the Brighton
lifeboat station, and a swimming pool on
the beach?
Wildlife.
89. The immutable Mute Swan.
Inside left.
90. Ahoy there! Hove Lagoon, 60s style.
Photo by Adam Bronkhorst
77
Photo courtesy of SwimTrek
....7 ....

THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST
.......................................................
This month’s cover is the work of local pattern
designer and illustrator Esther Cox. “Everybody
thinks I’m a printer,” she says. “I do sometimes use
printmaking techniques – I might use lino printing
or really basic screen printing – but by and large I
work with collage. All my work is hand-made and
then digitally manipulated. I’m not somebody who
starts with a little thumbnail sketch – I think I tend
to work quite intuitively and just allow the piece to
come together.”
Regular visitors to the gallery and shop Unlimited,
on Church Street, will be familiar with Esther’s
prints, which are typically very pattern-led. “That’s
probably the least of what I do,” she says, “it’s more
of a hobby on the side. Chiefly, I work as a textile
designer, and the reason my work as an illustrator is
so patterned is because that’s my first love: pattern.
I create prints for fashion, largely for menswear
and childrenswear, predominantly abstract and
geometric designs. I work through an agent, who
shows the prints to clients. It’s a nice way to work
because it’s quite free – pattern design comes
very naturally to me, and it feeds back into my
illustration work.”
Esther was recently set the exciting task of creating
a body of work for an exhibition at Charleston
Farmhouse, the former home of artists Vanessa Bell
and Duncan Grant. “I was asked to give a response
to the house,” she explains, “to create some work
that reflects the building and all that Bloomsbury
decoration that’s in it. I got free rein to go around
the house and take photographs and think about
....8 ....

ESTHER COX
.......................................................
the space – it was really inspiring. The thing I went off with
in the collages was, firstly, their use of colour, and, secondly,
not so much the patterns themselves, but the lines and where
they met. There were lots of interesting angles where walls
were coloured, or doorframes, or doors, and that’s really what
inspired the work that I’ve done – trying to get those colours
and textures to work. I didn’t want to do representations of
the farmhouse or feel like I was creating pastiches of Duncan
Grant’s patterns.” The pieces will be on display at Charleston
(see charleston.org.uk for more details).
Another of Esther’s major commissions came from
Transport for London, who approached her to design a
series of posters. “The first two were centred around London
riversides,” she says. “The only requirement was that the
scene had to include the river in some way, otherwise I
was given the freedom to do as I wished.” Her second two
posters, published in January, promoted shopping locations
Shoreditch and Southall. All four are now a part of the
London Transport Museum’s poster collection.
Rebecca Cunningham
See more of Esther’s work at esthercoxskiosk.com
....9 ....

SPREAD THE WORD
Here’s Maria Andreou in
Thessaloniki, with the 15thcentury
White Tower in the
background. ‘As always,’ Maria
reports, ‘I had you with me.
What better place to strike a pose
holding my all-time favourite
mag than this remarkably historic
urban centre? Let’s see where I’ll
take you next!’ All-time favourite
mag? The promise of future
adventures? We like Maria.
What do you read to a baby
dromedary? Woodingdean
resident Annette Radford found
that VB held their attention.
The Arabian ‘seahorse’ looks
pretty interested too. Annette
took us along on her recent
trip to Hammamet Beach in
Tunisia, a place that she highly
recommends that we visit.
‘Nothing like enjoying the sea
breezes relaxing by the seaside
with Viva,’ says Annette. We
couldn’t agree more. Keep taking
us with you and keep spreading
the word. Send your photos and
a few words about your trip to
hello@vivamagazines.com
....10....

BITS AND BUSES
...............................
ON THE BUSES #38: ZOE BRIGDEN
ROUTES 12, 12A
Whilst it’s strictly verboten
today, there was a time when
jumping off the end of the pier
was positively lauded. Before
the arrival of slot machines and
rollercoasters, crowds would
flock to see the daring exploits of
aquatic entertainers and Brighton
girl, Zoe Brigden, was one of the
few women among them. Born
in 1891 to the Brigden family of
Mighell Street (since demolished
to make way for the development
of Amex House), she was a local
swimming champion before a
shoulder injury cut short her
professional career. Seemingly
undaunted by that injury (or
the threat of worse) in 1915
she joined the various aquatic
exhibitions that took place
between the piers, performing
high dives from the end of the
West Pier and thrilling the
crowds with her ‘wooden soldier’
dive which saw her plunge head
first into the sea with her arms
by her side (ouch!). She retired
from such aquatic exploits in
1925, although she continued to
offer encouragement to nervous
young divers at the North Road
swimming baths, and went
on to open a hairdressers in
Whitehawk. She lived in later life
in Roedale Road with her sister
Addy and subsequently moved
to Seaford to live with her son,
John. She died in 1983.
Lizzie Lower
Illustration by Joda (@joda_art)
We care
We don’t judge
Friendly Local Solicitors, serving
Brighton since 1773
Call us
NOW
01273 838 674
No obligation
Specialists in:
• Civil litigation
• Employment Law
• Separation and Divorce
• Conveyancing
• Wills and Probate
• Power of Attorney
QualitySolicitors
Howlett Clarke
Branches in Brighton & Southwick
01273 838 674 info@howlettclarke.co.uk
www.qualitysolicitors.com/howlettclarke

ADVERTORIAL
Harney &
Wells
SPECIALIST FAMILY
S O L I C I T O R S
CONTACT:
01273 684 666
enquiries@harneywells.co.uk
www.harneywells.co.uk
METHODS OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION
When a relationship breaks down,
tensions often run high. It is important that
you and your partner are able to amicably
discuss the arrangements that need to be
made so that decisions can be made in the
best interests of your family.
DIY
This is often referred to as the kitchentable
method whereby you and your
partner negotiate directly and reach an
agreement which you are both happy with.
LAWYER-LED NEGOTIATION
You appoint a lawyer who represents
you and focuses on your interests and
negotiates with your partner’s lawyer.
MEDIATION
Mediation is the use of an impartial
mediator to guide couples in reaching
decisions. Mediation promotes better
communication and co-operation and
allows the parties involved to control the
decisions affecting their lives.
COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE
Collaborative practice is when both
parties have their own lawyer by their
side who also works with your partner’s
lawyer to assist you both to reach an
agreement. Meetings are arranged to
facilitate discussions with the professionals
involved and assist you to reach a legally
enforceable agreement.
ARBITRATION
You and your partner appoint an arbitrator
who will make a determination that will be
final and binding upon you both.
COURT
In some cases, it is not possible to reach
an agreement by negotiation and it will be
necessary to make an application to the
Court for a determination. This should not
necessarily be seen as a hostile step as it
can focus the minds on the issues at hand,
however going to Court should always be
considered as a last resort.
We offer an initial one hour consultation at
£100.00 plus VAT to advise you about the
applicable law and possible outcomes, the
various ways your case could be funded and
provide an estimate of the costs involved.
This includes a letter to you to confirm the
advice given during the appointment.

JOE DECIE
...............................
....13....

CURATOR’S CITY
.........................................
‘WAVE AFTER WAVE, EACH MIGHTIER THAN THE LAST’
SUBLIME BRIGHTON STORMS IN ART
A city located directly by the sea is enriched by
it but is also at its mercy, especially during great
storms and other extreme weather. Brighton &
Hove’s seafront has long inspired artists, and
depictions of dramatic weather conditions along
the water’s edge are among the most popular
images of our city.
Storms show their character best in water, both
suspended in air in the form of bursting clouds,
or in the dramatic crashing waves of the sea,
something that wasn’t lost on the great painters of
the Romantic era. It is no surprise then that both
JMW Turner and John Constable were so keen on
painting stormy seas when they visited Brighton.
To them the raging sea and ominous clouds were
an expression of the ‘Sublime’, the untameable,
unpredictable, unfathomable aspects of nature,
those that are bigger than us.
When Constable stayed in Brighton in 1824 he
was not impressed, complaining about the ‘din and
tumult’ of the town he described as ‘a receptacle of
the fashion and off-scouring of London’. He largely
turned his artistic eye away from the town and
preferred to look out to the sea, creating some of
his now most popular works: raw, immediate, hastily
sketched images of the seafront, often with ominous
skies, dark rain clouds, and dotted with small human
figures that give us a sense of the strong winds
and the rain they are facing. Turner also often
chose wild and windy seascapes when he painted
‘Pool Valley, During the Storm at Brighton, July 17th 1850’. Lithograph by Day & Sons after F Ford, published 1850
Images courtesy of Royal Pavilion & Brighton Museums
....14....

CURATOR’S CITY
.........................................
‘Brighthelmston’. Watercolour by JMW Turner, c1824
Brighton. A sketch from 1796 depicts a
nocturnal sky over a raging sea. Turner
decided to leave the shore and paint
Brighton from the vantage point of a boat
tossed about in large waves near the newly
built Chain Pier, the sky full of darkness
and light, with a rainbow appearing over
Brighton, just after heavy rainfall.
But for a place like Brighton, perched
precariously on the edge of Sussex, the
power of the sea and skies was more
than just artistic inspiration: it was a
real danger. Storms often wrecked the
fishermen’s houses, and swept away
their livelihoods on and near the beach.
Many storms have been reported over
the centuries, but some were particularly
destructive. In 1896 one brought
down the mighty Chain Pier, an event
documented by many painters and
photographers. Another one, in July
1850, caused the sea to come onto land,
flooding large areas around Pool Valley
and the Steine (pictured left).
Even in the early 20th century, when in art the age of
Romanticism was making way for cool and sleek Modernist
styles, we still encounter images of Brighton’s seafront
battered by the elements, and hunched figures reminding us
how small we really are in comparison to the waves crashing
onto the promenade, and the few figures in it struggling with
the wind and rain. In his painting Stormy Day at Brighton,
Charles Conder applied his brushstrokes as expressively as
Constable did some 80 years earlier on one of his rainsoaked
walks along the beach.
Alexandra Loske, Curator and Art Historian
‘Stormy Day at Brighton’. Oil painting by Charles Conder, 1905
....15....

Independent 3 screen cinema
Restaurant Café & Bar
Next to Lewes station
Just 11 mins from Brighton
lewesdepot.org
Depot, Pinwell Road, Lewes 01273 525354
CATS SEEKING LAPS #1
Name: Tilly.
Age: 6.
Likes: Wide, warm laps, clean sheets, mouse-flavoured anything,
chin-scratches, early-morning purring in your face,
bird feeders, a sunny sofa, kneading, string theory.
Dislikes: Belly rubs, sudden sneezes, dog smell, people who
don’t share their newspaper, clever birds, things on the table
that are in my way.
WLTM: Humans who understand that I am the queen of
the house. I expect a lot of fuss and attention, but only until
I’ve had enough, at which point you will be warned and
possibly swiped. You will love and worship me anyway. I
require a large garden for exploration and will occasionally bring home presents for you. Deal-breakers
include dogs, other cats and boring toys. Find Tilly, and her many feline friends at Raystede Centre for Animal
Welfare. All their animals are vet checked, micro chipped and character assessed, and Raystede provide
life long support and advice for their rescued animals. raystede.org
Words and picture by Cammie Toloui, cammietoloui.com
....16....

BITS AND BOBS
...............................
CHARITY BOX #26: PIER 2 PIER BEACH CLEAN
I’ve been doing beach cleans
in Seaford for years. I got into
it through #2minutebeachclean, a
worldwide campaign encouraging
people to do a two-minute clean and
post a picture of what they find on
Instagram. It’s shocking what you
James Pike Photography
the silent disco idea came along. We
brought that idea to the Council, who
were really interested in supporting
it, and now we do a silent disco beach
clean every month.
We get around 250 people at each
event. Last Sunday we collected 200kg
find in just two minutes. When I moved to Brighton of litter on Brighton beach within three hours. The
and saw the state of the beach, especially in summer, it most common things we find are beer cans, plastic
made me sad and I wanted to do something about it. cups from the bars, straws – it’s all coming from
We had our first Pier 2 Pier Beach Clean last vendors on the seafront or in town. It’s not a problem
March. It started off with just a couple of us and a that’s going away any time soon, but I think that the
megaphone and some litter pickers we borrowed more we do it, the more we make people aware, and
from a group in Rottingdean. We had about 50 eventually the less litter there will be.
people show up and we cleaned from the Palace Pier As told to Rebecca Cunningham by Amy Gibson
to the West Pier. Since then we’ve added the fun The June beach clean will be in support of World
HIST stuff: beach AND clean ENG bingo, MA VIVA music, APR fancy 18 dress, R 2.qxp_Layout and then 1 Oceans 16/04/2018 Day – see 14:43 fb.com/Pier2PierBeachClean
Page 1
T H I N K I N G A B O U T A
M A S T E R S D E G R E E ?
Come and study with our internationally regarded
team of academics and writers.
www.chi.ac.uk
OUR MA COURSES INCLUDE:
• MA in Creative Writing • MA in Language and Linguistics
• MA in Cultural History • Mres The History of Africa
• MA in English Literature and the African Diaspora
Courses can be studied full or part time.
Student places open for September 2018 entry.
For more information please contact E.Peters@chi.ac.uk

BITS AND BOBS
...............................
CREATIVE FUTURE AWARDS
Creative Future is a charity based in Brighton that
provides training, mentoring and showcasing opportunities
for under-represented writers, whose voices
might otherwise remain unheard. Their fifth national
competition is now open, with prizes totalling £7,500
in cash and writer development opportunities.
The awards are open to all writers whose stories
are under-represented in mainstream publishing,
including those with mental health issues, physical/
learning disabilities, neurodiversity, BMER,
LGBTQ+, over 65, as well as those who are
homeless or in temporary accommodation, carers,
care-leavers, offenders/ex-offenders or survivors of
abuse. Since 2007, Creative Future have worked with
more than 5,000 artists in these groups through their
workshops and events.
The theme of the awards this year is ‘Chemistry’.
Poetry (up to 200 words)
and short fiction (up to 1,000
words) should be submitted
by noon on Monday the 18th
of June. Entry is free.
The twelve winning poems and short stories will be
selected by a panel of industry experts including poet
Lemn Sissay (pictured), and the winners will receive
a share of the cash and development prizes. Their
work will appear in an anthology alongside that of
the award-winning guest author Kerry Hudson, and
they’ll be invited to a showcase event as part of the
London Literature Festival in October.
Writers can submit via the website, by post, or in
person at Community Base, 113 Queens Road. Full
rules can be found on the entry form. Good luck!
literary.creativefuture.org.uk
Photo © Hamish Brown
吀 爀 愀 渀 猀 昀 漀 爀 洀 礀 漀 甀 爀 栀 漀 洀 攀 眀 椀 琀 栀 漀 甀 爀 昀 椀 渀 攀 猀 琀 焀 甀 愀 氀 椀 琀 礀
匀 㨀 䌀 刀 䄀 䘀 吀 洀 愀 搀 攀 ⴀ 琀 漀 ⴀ 洀 攀 愀 猀 甀 爀 攀 椀 渀 琀 攀 爀 椀 漀 爀 猀 栀 甀 琀 琀 攀 爀 猀 ⸀
琀 ⸀ ㈀ 㜀 アパート アパート アパート 㠀 㐀 ㈀
攀 ⸀ 挀 漀 渀 琀 愀 挀 琀 䀀 戀 攀 氀 氀 愀 瘀 椀 猀 琀 愀 猀 栀 甀 琀 琀 攀 爀 猀 ⸀ 挀 漀 ⸀ 甀 欀
眀 ⸀ 眀 眀 眀 ⸀ 戀 攀 氀 氀 愀 瘀 椀 猀 琀 愀 猀 栀 甀 琀 琀 攀 爀 猀 ⸀ 挀 漀 ⸀ 甀 欀

BITS AND BOBS
...............................
MAGAZINE OF THE MONTH: FOAM
I’m chuffed that the Viva theme
is ‘water’s edge’, partly because
we have a great magazine to
recommend and partly because
it gives me a chance for a
shout-out to two pieces of great
tagline writing.
First – and yes, this is a bit cheesy
– to the Viva people who, last
year, produced my favourite ever
tote bag, with the words: Love,
liberty & salt water. What could
be more Brighton than that?
Second, to whoever it was that
got the 2018 Brighton Marathon t-shirt together.
On my Saturday morning park run I’m frequently
overtaken by t-shirts with ‘Run to the Sea, Bathe
in the Glory’ written on them. Brilliant. I should
have entered the marathon just to get the t-shirt.
Now to the magazine for June. It’s a photography
magazine, called Foam. (See, the link is there
already.) It’s produced three times a year and
comes from the people who run the Foam Fotografiemuseum
in Amsterdam.
Each issue is themed. Each
presents a number of different
photographic portfolios with
commentary and thought
pieces alongside. It’s large
format and is, of course,
wonderfully printed. It
probably doesn’t make any
money; this issue thanks
paper supplier Igepa for their
generous support. It’s great,
and Foam deserves all the
support it can get.
The theme of the current
issue is ‘water’. I could re-write the editorial and
pretend that the analysis of the issue was mine but
the editor does it as well as an editor should: ‘The
portfolios offer a powerful and varied impression
of the richness of photography and water. This
issue raises questions and prompts further thought,
but above all, it provides a great deal of visual and
reading pleasure.’ On that note, it’s time to dive in.
Happy reading, and happy looking, everyone.
Martin Skelton, MagazineBrighton
TOILET GRAFFITO #41
It’s that time of year again. The sun has come out,
the Channel has hit a balmy 13°C and it’s our duty
as Brightonians to head down to the beach and party
(responsibly) in our pants. (Unless you’re going via the
13th Brighton Naked Bike Ride on Sunday the 10th,
in which case pants are optional.)
But in which bathroom is the beach body?
Last month’s answer: The Basketmakers
....19....

Sussex Community Festival
Join us for a day of free
entertainment, fun and discovery
SUNDAY 24 JUNE 2018, 11AM–3PM
UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX CAMPUS, FALMER, BRIGHTON
Our beautiful campus is nestled in the South Downs countryside right next to Falmer Station.
We invite you to a fun-filled day of free activities and entertainment for all ages.
COME ALONG TO ENJOY:
bands and music research demos treasure trail workshops children’s activities
sports tasters bouncy castle face painting fun experiments aerial circus skills
storytelling food stalls World Cup football shown in our campus bar
FIND OUT MORE AND BOOK YOUR FREE TICKETS:
www.sussex.ac.uk/festival

JJ WALLER
...............................
“On a rare scorching summer weekend, it seems there must be half
a million people between the water’s edge and the Brighton & Hove
promenade,” says JJ Waller. “So, hats off to the dedicated team of
street cleaners with their monumental efforts in keeping the beach and
promenade clean.” We’ll second that, JJ.
....21....

LOVEBN1FEST
SUNDAY 5TH AUGUST
PRESTON PARK • 1.30PM-LATE
CELEBRATING ALL THINGS
BRIGHTON & HOVE
CMYK : 0/100/0/0
JESS CMYK GLYNNE
: 100/30/0/0
RAYE I GABRIELLE
CMYK : 50/0/100/0
ARIANA AND THE ROSE | ROWETTA HAPPY
HOUSE GOSPEL CHOIR | GUILTY PLEASURES
CIRCO RUM BA BA | THE CIRCUS PROJECT
LOVES DISCO | BOOGALOO BINGO
PROUD CABARET
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT
BABY LOVES DISCO | CINEMA | FACE PAINTING
ALICE IN WONDERLAND THEME PARTY | FUN FAIR
BUBBLE JO | RETRO ARCADE GAMEZONE
STREET FOOD VILLAGE | WELLBEING AREA
ACCESSIBILITY MATTERS TENT
Advance Tickets (LIMITED CAPACITY - BOOK EARLY)
£27.50 (SOLD OUT) / £37.50 / Kids Under 11 Free / More On The Door
VIP Options Available
Brighton-Pride.org
MONDAYS
FUNDRAISING FOR
THE RAINBOW FUND &
PRIDE SOCIAL IMPACT FUND
Financial services in the heart of Brighton

BITS AND PUBS
...............................
PUB: THE BRISTOL BAR
I pop into the Bristol Bar for a
quick pint after work, planning
to incorporate the experience
into this ‘then-and-now’ writeup.
Then I see the windowside
tables with their fine view of the
shimmering sea (we’re talking
early May heatwave), and run my
eyes over the great-looking menu,
and I decide that I wouldn’t be
doing the joint justice: it looks
like the sort of place you’d want
to linger over a two-course meal,
with a fine bottle of wine (or two).
I’ve been on the look-out for
somewhere to host the in-laws, so
I book a table for four, for May
Day Bank Holiday.
In the meantime, a bit of research.
The pub takes up the eastern
corner of Bristol Court, a fine
Georgian building put up in
1835 as the Bristol Court Hotel,
then converted into flats and the
separate bar exactly 100 years
later. The hotel was built on land
owned by Frederick William Hervey,
then 1st Marquis of Bristol,
part of an extensive estate he ran
in the Kemptown area.
It’s seen quite a lot of life, over the
years. In the sixties and seventies,
run by Fred and Peggy Penfold, it
was something of a student haunt,
because of the nearby digs in
Eastern Terrace. There was a pool
table, and a talking parrot on the
bar. In the fifties Max Miller was
a regular: the greatest stand-up
comedian of his age lived over
the road.
It became a bit run down until
taken over by Alan and Simon
a few years back: they gave it a
thorough refurb, and decorated
the walls with nautical paraphernalia,
including an impressive
bare-breasted figurehead, which
overlooks our table.
It’s not grungy enough for me
to want to spend whole evenings
there, frankly (see Caroline of
Brunswick, VL#63), but it goes
down a treat with the in-laws,
and the fare is exceptional. I have
plump, succulent tiger prawns
as a starter, and all four of us
choose the Bouillabaisse from
the specials board. The broth
is rich and dark and cooked to
perfection, with sea bass fillet
and prawns and mussels to fish
out, all nicely washed down by a
couple of bottles of Pinot Grigio,
chosen (as the house white) from
an impressive wine list.
We’re there for a couple of hours
in all, punctuated by amiable
chats with our hosts. The whole
experience, I agree with my wife
Rowena afterwards, is like going
to a posh restaurant, without all
the irksome servility. And how
much did it cost? Haven’t got a
clue: FIL paid, bless him.
Alex Leith
Painting by Jay Collins
....23....

Bright and fresh studio to LET in the centre of Lewes!
Situated on famous Fisher street, we’re proud to present Fisher Street Studios - a bespoke studio/office in the centre of Lewes!
We provide an affordable, professionally managed creative workspace. Fresh and bright open plan space suitable for any type of
creative work.
▪ Affordable studio/office space, 40 sqm
▪ 24 hour access, 365 days a year
▪ Natural light
▪ Situated in central Lewes close to the high street and transport links
▪ Diverse community of 9 art studios in the building
▪ Safe & secure
▪ WiFi
To arrange a viewing:
Call Michael @ 07789225353

FLASH FICTION
...............................
THE BRIGHTON PRIZE
JELLYFISH BY HALEH AGAR
I told Sam that he wasn’t going to be a big brother
after all. He asked why and I said his sister wasn’t
ready to meet us - maybe in a few years’ time. He
said okay and went back to playing with his cars. I
left him with his grandparents and took Layla for
a stroll on the beach to get her mind off the thing
that’d happened.
The sand was hot under our feet so we ran down
to the shore. Out of habit, I’d brought Sam’s pail
and shovel with me. The tide was out.
A mile into our walk, Layla said to stop asking if
she was okay.
The shore ahead gleamed like it was coated
by a smooth layer of crystal disks and as we
approached, we saw them - hundreds of jellyfish
marooned on the sand. Layla said she hated those
things, had been stung by them before.
I felt pity for the jellyfish, the way they lay scattered
around like they’d been cracked out of their
shells, sizzling sunny-side up. Layla said they were
melting in the sun. In some spots, they’d been
reduced to mucus splats on the sand.
I got to work, scooping up jellyfish into Sam’s
pail with his small shovel and then released them
back into the ocean. Layla said they were probably
dead. But I continued running back and forth
between the shore and the ocean, seaweed hanging
from my calves.
I’d tired after seven jellyfish, sweating and panting
under the sun. Away from the shore, I buried my
face in my hands. Layla squeezed my shoulder, said
she’d buy me an ice cream.
Jellyfish won The Brighton Prize for flash fiction
in 2017. Entries are now open for The Brighton
Prize 2018, with a top prize of £1,000. Founded in
2014 by Rattle Tales, Brighton’s interactive short
story evening, the prize exists to find inventive new
writing. The judges this year are Booker-longlisted
novelist Alison MacLeod, literary agent at The Bent
Agency Sarah Manning, and novelist and Brighton
Prize director, Erinna Mettler. Entries for flash
fiction should be up to 350 words and short stories
between 1000 and 2000 words. The closing date
is the 1st July 2018. For terms and conditions and
details of how to enter, visit brightonprize.com.
Illustration by Peter James Field
....25....

CNM
COLLEGE OF
NATUROPATHIC
MEDICINE
Training Successful Practitioners
CHANGE CAREER
Train to become a…
Nutritionist
Herbalist
Postgraduate Courses & Short Courses also available
Part time and full time studies
Acupuncturist
Homeopath
London, Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester,
Edinburgh, Belfast and Ireland
01342 410 505 www.naturopathy-uk.com
Attend a FREE
Open Evening
Naturopath
Natural Chef
NEW

LOCAL LITERATURE
...............................
BOOK REVIEW:
THE BRIGHTON MERMAID BY DOROTHY KOOMSON
This is the time of year when
we start to think about summer
holidays and what books
to pack for the beach. They’ve
become something of a genre
in themselves, beach reads.
They have to be page turners:
light enough in terms of style
to pick up and put down while
we sip our cocktails at the bar;
dark enough in terms of subject
matter to contrast with
the Club Tropicana lifestyle
of sun, sea, and sangria.
The Brighton Mermaid is an
early contender for the kind
of summer novel I mean. The
fact that it starts on a beach
– our very own pebbly strand – puts it in beach
read territory as surely as if it had chucked a towel
on the sun lounger. But is this a novel to go in the
luggage or one to leave at the airport bookstand?
The story starts in 1993 when two teenage friends,
Nell and Jude, find a body washed up on the shore.
Like them, she’s a young black woman, not much
older than they are, a charm bracelet and a tattoo
of a mermaid with the words ‘I am Brighton’ inked
on her arm the only clues to her identity. Shortly
after the girls find the body, Jude disappears.
When the police draw a blank, Nell takes on
the search for The Brighton Mermaid’s identity
and hopes her investigation will also lead to her
missing friend.
This quest will take decades, and she will experience
police brutality, a dodgy cop trying to fit her
father up for the murder, her sister Macy’s OCD
(triggered by the traumas that
ensue) and a world which
gradually reveals itself to be
a much darker place than the
one she thought it was. Those
who are close to her are not
what they seem, and everyone
is keeping secrets, secrets
that will prove dangerous to
Nell, and in the end threaten
her life.
One of the pleasures of the
novel was seeing familiar
local landmarks leap out of
the book’s pages. Whether it
was streets I know well, such
as George Street in Hove,
pubs like The Cricketers, or
features such as the Peace Statue, I was both in a
place that was very recognisable, and a place transformed
by the dark imaginings of (local resident)
Dorothy Koomson.
Koomson was Richard and Judied for her third
novel, My Best Friend’s Girl, which was chosen as
one of the Summer Reads of 2006. Twelve years
later The Brighton Mermaid, with its short chapters,
multiple narrators, timeframes that switch backwards
and forwards from 1993 to the present, and
a few places in between, has all of the classic elements
of the big beach novel. It adds extras depths
to the whodunnit in terms of characterisation and
emotional impact, and races to a conclusion that
had me turning the pages as if they were on fire.
Pack it with your sun cream and dream darkly of
home. John O’Donoghue
Century, £12.99
....27....

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

INTERVIEW
..........................................
MYbrighton: Atlanta Cook
Marine environment consultant
Are you local? I was born in Tottenham but
we moved to Brighton and I went to Stanford
Juniors at five years old. So I was a lucky Londoner
who ended up coming down here, and I’m
very grateful for that. It would have been a very
different experience growing up in London. I remember
coming down to Brighton and standing
on the West Pier in my flared zip catsuit (all the
girls were wearing them).
What do you do? I’ve pretty much always run my
own thing. I started off as a fundraiser; the very
first event I did was a Surfers Against Sewage club
night at the Zap Club. That was in the early 90s
when there was a massive rave culture in Brighton
and a lot of activism against the Criminal Justice
Act (it was basically trying to stop people from
gathering and having raves and parties, which
just made us do it even more). We did a lot of
campaigning against sewage pollution. Back then
there were 80 Olympic-sized swimming poolsworth
of untreated sewage going out into the sea
off Brighton & Hove every day! We campaigned
for years to get the treatment works built. Sewage
pollution is not over yet, but the Sewage Alert
Service [a live information system that tells sea
users when there has been a sewage overflow] is a
really important legacy of the original campaign.
What are you working on at the moment?
Plastic Free Coastlines is the latest campaign
by Surfers Against Sewage. We’re pushing to
get Brighton & Hove to be the first plastic-free
city. To achieve this we have to get our local
government to pass a resolution to support Plastic
Free Coastlines. We then have to get 30% of all
businesses, 30% of all schools, 50% of community
groups and 50% of universities and colleges to
sign up to reduce their use of single-use plastics.
We ask everyone to make three small changes
– straws, plastic cutlery, plastic cups, whatever
it is – and we hope that that just starts the ball
rolling. What’s really lovely about Plastic Free
Coastlines is it opens Surfers Against Sewage
out to everybody – not in the usual ‘please make
a donation’ way, it really says ‘come and join in’.
Everybody is part of the fight and I just love that.
What do you like most about Brighton? The
people. Not just that the people here are different,
but that they feel free. They feel free to think and
say and do what they want, and that freedom is so
valuable and it makes the place special. I think it’s
our long history of being freedom fighters that
gives Brighton people a very special way about
them, because they feel like there’s this honorary
lineage that they should continue.
What would you change about it? There needs
to be more funding to help stop litter from ending
up in the environment. It doesn’t matter how it’s
done; it should never be at the horrendous scale
that it is now. The Council has to do what it has to
do with its budget, but we’re putting other things
before what matters, which is our environment
and our sea.
Where’s your favourite place in the city? I’d
have to say Rottingdean Windmill. You can see
out across the whole city, and the sea view is just
incredible. Closely followed by the Ovingdean
rockpools.
When did you last swim in the sea? I had a little
paddle last Sunday at the silent disco beach clean.
The theme was ‘come as your favourite animal or
plant’ – there were people dressed as chilli peppers
and unicorns and butterflies… it was lovely!
Interview by Rebecca Cunningham
atlantacook.co.uk / sas.org.uk
....29....

'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
@magbrighton
magazinebrighton

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Andrew Unwin
Life on the edge
I’d hit a creativity
block with my
camera and wanted
to document
Brighton from a
new perspective.
The drone has given
me a new direction
and renewed my
excitement with
photography. I was
hooked straight away.
I flew it over Brighton
Pier a few times and
thought, ‘this is an amazing way of seeing things’.
The different angles are so extraordinary.
I love photographing the edge of the land. The
coast has really interesting shapes and contrasts,
like the water currents inside and outside the
marina and Old Harry Rocks in Dorset. The
other advantage of photographing the edge is that
there are fewer people to upset. Just the seagulls.
Owning a drone has also changed my
perspective on holidays. Whenever I book a trip
the first thing I do is go on Google Earth to scout
locations to fly. I went to the Maldives last year
which was amazing as they have so many small
islands and seascapes. Their customs had a really
good look at the drone, but they let me in with it.
I’ve just come back from Budapest where drones
are banned. I was gutted.
There are apps that will tell you where you
can and can’t fly. Obviously, we’re close to
Gatwick here and you don’t want to cause chaos
with flights. The other considerations are the
wind and being respectful of other people: you
don’t want to fly too close to a block of flats.
Brighton is a pretty liberal place, so I have not
had any problems here
but, in the past, we’ve
been less welcome in
other towns. I had to
politely tell them it
was just a drone for
photography…
The differences in
the price of drones
relates to quality and
intelligence. The lower
end models are more
like toys: they won’t fly
very far and the camera
isn’t very good. I’ve just bought a DJI Phantom
4 Pro. It’s got a bigger sensor, so it creates better
quality images, and it’s more intelligent, so you
can map it and tell it where to fly. It will also fly
in tougher conditions, which is good for Brighton
because of the heavy winds.
I trained as a journalist but after uni I went
to work on cruise ships as a photographer.
It was a great way to meet people, to travel the
world and to get paid whilst I was doing it. It’s
where I met my girlfriend and now we’re wedding
photographers. From Monday to Friday I’m head
of operations for a used photography equipment
retailer and, from now until October, weekends
will be spent photographing at ceremonies.
Having the drone for the past couple of years
has really set us apart from the competition. It
adds another dimension to a couple’s wedding
photographs. It’s great for group shots because it
saves time arranging a large amount of people in a
small space. We just ask the crowd to look up!
As told to Lizzie Lower
andrewunwin.co.uk
brightonweddingphotography.com
....31....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos © Andrew Unwin
....32....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos © Andrew Unwin
....33....

#nationaltrust
Waterlily Festival at Sheffield Park and
Garden
Join us over five weeks to celebrate the
impressive display of waterlilies on the lakes.
With a variety of talks, workshops and early
evening openings, enjoy the garden in early
summer and learn more about these fascinating
plants.
The Waterlily Festival runs 9 June - 15 July with
Midsummer Evenings on 22 & 23 June.
Call 01825 790231 for details
nationaltrust.org.uk/sheffieldpark
© National Trust 2018. The National Trust is an independent registered charity,
number 205846. Photography © National Trust Images\Nina Elliot-Newman.

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos © Andrew Unwin
....35....

Photo © Andrew Unwin

eautifully imperfect since 2009

COLUMN
...........................
Lizzie Enfield
Notes from North Village
When I was younger, I was frequently ‘rescued’
from the sea by fishermen who refused to believe
that anyone who had swum that far offshore had
not been swept away. I was offered assistance as a
child as I headed out towards France (from Hove),
and then when travelling around Australia off the
coast of Townsville, and on my honeymoon in a
bay in Thailand.
“I’m ok,” I’d tell my would-be rescuers. “I’m
having a swim.”
I’m much more nervous in the water these days. I
head out to the buoys off Brighton beach but I like
to keep sight of land and lifeguards.
Nonetheless, I miss the freedom of being fearless,
which is why I signed up with Hove-based
SwimTrek’s open-water coaching week in Mallorca
- hoping to become a bit more intrepid. My coach
John obviously liked that word because he soon
began using it as my nickname while barking out
instructions in the Olympic-sized pool where we
first trained.
“Don’t cross, Intrepid,” he’d yell, referring to the
way my arms moved in the water.
We spent two hours each day focusing on
stroke and breathing techniques, followed by
humiliating video analysis. John freeze-framed in
all the worst places so everyone could see your
arms crossing and legs flailing. It’s a good way
of making you try to correct things you’ve been
doing wrong for years.
I had my sights on a more adventurous trip - like
to swim the Hellespont, escape from Alcatraz or
navigate the fjords of Oman by front crawl - but
the open water coaching was good way of dipping
my toe back in the open water.
After pool sessions (where I was told to ‘articulate’
with my hips and avoid ‘early vertical forearms’
- who knew?) we headed to the south-eastern
coastline of Mallorca. From our base in the pretty
resort of Colonia St Jordi, famous for its salt flats,
producing the condiment favoured by Roman
epicureans and latter-day Michelin-starred chefs, we
swam across the bay to the sweeping sandy beach
and later, from further along the coast, we headed
out past lighthouse-topped headlands and around
rocky islands before heading back into harbour.
As we emerged from the water, we attracted
curious glances from day-trippers waiting for
the ferry to the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime
National Park, which Pliny claimed was the
birthplace of Hannibal and, during the Napoleonic
Wars, was a notorious prison camp.
The glances were even more askance, when, on
our final day, we stood on the quay in swimming
costumes, ‘vaselining up’ beside the ferry queue
before we swam out to an island for a picnic lunch,
later tackling another stretch back to shore. Coach
John donned a t-shirt bearing the slogan ‘Ferries
are for wimps’, and after a week of open-water
training, I was ready to agree. Look out for me
heading out between the piers this summer. I’m
intrepid again!
Illustration by Joda (@joda_art)
....39....

Bring your space to life
with our delicious curves!
lola james harper
boy smells
basalt
skandinavisk
joya
seven seventeen
100 acres
maison balzac
earl of east
la montana
blackbird
voluspa
evolve beauty
bondi wash
votivo
moa
terrible twins
corinne taylor
kobo
wickcandleboutique.com
Wick Candle Boutique
is Brighton + Hove’s unique
candle, home scent and
organic bath & beauty
specialist.
Find over 50 luxury &
artisan independent brands,
with free gift wrapping.
Shop online too
120 Portland Road, Hove
01273 911151

COLUMN
...........................................
John Helmer
Afloat
Illustration by Chris Riddell
“I order a Gin and Tonic,” I tell Birdyman, “and
look what I get—” I show him the Spanish balloon
glass full of ice, garnished with strips of cucumber -
“a bloody salad.”
“You sound like such an old git,” he says
reprovingly.
Tim and I go way back, but I feel he has missed
something in my tone. I don’t really have anything
against the way the drink is served. In fact I love
everything about it - it’s just a voice you fall into
with old friends, marking the passage of time and
the way the world has changed around us with a
pretend sourness: these young people, with their
vinyl and their beards and tats, and their craft
beers… and now this lovely bowl-full of iced gin
with a garnish of cucumber, Barcelona-style: what’s
happened to the world?
It’s a hot day, and my wife and I have stopped at
The Colonnade in New Road for refreshment,
taking a street-side table. New Road is a carnival:
buskers, holiday-makers, hen parties and performers
promoting shows sashay past - Brighton in full
effect. For some the street is a catwalk, for others
a shop counter. And then there are those who live
here - the homeless man who wakes, blinking, on
one of the benches, where he fell asleep the night
before, to find the whole world coursing through
his bedroom; a parliament of street drinkers
debating hotly some point of misconduct. Police.
Food stalls. Pop-up cocktail trailers. Friends
pause for a chat, leaning over the canvas barrier
that separates our table from the passing throng.
Members of the extended family turn up, take one
look at our G&Ts, sit down and say, “yes thanks,
I’ll have one of those.” No booze however for baby
Olive, a practiced entertainer who, sensing all our
eyes upon her, fixes her young father with a defiant
stare and drops her spoon to the floor.
How we laugh.
Another chum rocks up, the accordion player in my
old street-band, Pookiesnackenburger. “What’s that
you’re drinking?” he says incredulously.
“I know.”
If I sit here long enough, everybody I’ve ever met
will walk past.
And then a strange fantasy comes over me, that we
are not sitting static here as the passers-by pass by,
but that it is in fact we who are moving, in some
sort of flat-bottomed canal boat, drifting slowly
downstream, hailing and talking to the people on
the towpath as we cruise by. It’s all getting a bit
unreal. And then it gets meta.
A performance novelist (new one on me) walks
past and thrusts a flyer at us for his Fringe
show, drawing our attention to
the words on his t-shirt:
WATCH WHAT YOU
SAY OR YOU’LL
END UP IN MY
NOVEL.
“Watch what you
say,” I respond;
“or you’ll
end up in my
column”.
....41....

WEALD & DOWNLAND LIVING MUSEUM
2-3 June 2018 10.30am-5.00pm
Singleton, Chichester,
West Sussex PO18 OEU
wealddown.co.uk
01243 811363 |
15% off your first session
using code: VIVAYURTS*

COLUMN
...........................
Amy Holtz
The truth is, I’m a Minnesotan
My partner came in the
other day after a ride on
the Undercliff, with some
unfortunate news. “You
know those Brighton
bikes? People have been
chucking them over the
side of the seawall!”
This is truly incredible
– because those
things weigh a ton.
But also sad. Because
like Brightonians,
Minnesotans grow up
worshipping the water.
My landlocked state is checkered with lakes,
sloughs, ponds, rivers, sprinkled across the
landscape like windflung seed.
And with this proximity comes, for the
most part, a loving respect. But not before
encountering the many dangers of the lake –
chiggers (usually a Minnesotan’s first – but not
last – encounter with flesh-munching parasites),
wasps, tangles of slimy weeds, speedboats
towing double waterskiers after too many
Leinenkugel’s. There was always looming lore
about Northerns, a hideous fish that signals it’s
stalking by flashing its ghost-white belly – like
a Nordic Nessie. It’s got teeth like ice picks and
one summer, a huge one was said to have bitten
off the big toe of that Larsen girl when she was
dangling her feet in the water off the Dahlberg’s
dock. Poor girl’s straight line was a bit to the
left after that.
Us Minnesota kids were often told we would
turn into fish if we didn’t get out RIGHT
NOW and get in the G-Damn car, which
probably wasn’t far off the truth considering
we’d just gulped gallons of lake water, delirious
with sunstroke and loopy
from too many Italian ices.
But I never gave much
thought to what was
below the surface until
my first year at camp. The
counsellors would let you
take canoes out into Long
Lake – just so long as they
could see you. We paddled
out with our little arms
past the point where you
could ‘touch’ and there
we encountered what
they called ‘the forest’.
Bloated, bone-coloured tree branches reached
up all around, waving just under the water.
The sheer size of the trunks made it impossible
to tell whether they were fifty feet down, or
inches from the surface. You could jump in,
but you had to aim for a place wide of them,
into the black murk. And if your foot grazed a
stray limb, we’d all squeal like trapped piglets.
There’s nothing spookier than seeing something
that was once alive and towering trapped
underwater, forever doomed to be just out of
reach of the sun.
So that’s why, when it comes to the sea, that
tremendous, fantastic monster, I’m still finding
my flippers. I’ve ventured in, once, twice. But
each time I find myself imagining those handlike
tree branches, or, as happens in a recurring
dream of mine, the evil eels from The Little
Mermaid, Flotsam and Jetsam, tugging my heels
down into oblivion. Most days, I’m happy to sit
on the pebbles, eating chips, conferring with
the other pebble dwellers when someone does
something stupid – like go in. “Nutters,” we say,
in unison, shaking our heads at one another.
....43....

ARDEN CENTRE
FARM SHOP
OPENING
TIMES
MON-SAT
FARM SHOP
8am-6pm
SUN &
BANK HOLS
ARDEN CENTRE
9am-5pm
GARDEN CENTRE
FARM SHOP
Family run Farm FARM Shop SHOP
and Garden Centre
Fresh and seasonal fruit and vegetables
Large selection of bedding plants, trees and
stoneware
Smallholding GARDEN CENTRE with donkeys, ponies, alpacas,
goats and chickens
Brighton Road, Henfield, West Sussex BN5 9RP 01273 494582 www.swainsfarmshop.co.uk
Cruise the beautiful River Wey
on our quiet and comfortable
hybrid-electric narrowboat
Unwind on a tranquil narrowboat break in the
heart of the South of England. Treat yourself to a
taste of life in the slow lane on the River Wey,
a little over 60 minutes away from Brighton.
‘Rhiannon’ is a lovely modern narrowboat in a
traditional style. She provides warm and cosy
accommodation for couples, families or
friends sharing, for up to six people.
01273 308720 / 07527 622645
www.e-weynarrowboathire.com
To unlock £4 million in Heritage Lottery Funding
£104,000 MUST be raised by June 16 th
Help save the Saltdean Lido
SALTDEANLIDO.ORG
E ualityFC
a level playing field for women
i
+

MUSIC
..........................
Ben Bailey rounds up the local music scene
MR B THE GENTLEMAN RHYMER
Sat 2 & Sun 3, Komedia, 7.15pm & 8pm, £10
Now entering his
second decade as a
‘chap hop’ performer,
Mr B seems to be in no
hurry to appease those
who thought his act
would be a flash-in-the-pan novelty. He returns this
month with two dates at the Komedia and a new
batch of ditties about hot topics such as chivalry,
pipe-smoking and fortified wine. Those who aren’t
au fait with the sound of received pronunciation
rhyming, may or may not be surprised to learn
that our city has produced not one, but two, chap
hop artistes. After the gentlemanly conclusion of
his lyrical feud with fellow Brightonian Professor
Elemental, Mr B moved on to lay the rap battle
gauntlet at the feet of none other than Kanye West
(where it remained, sadly).
COMMANDS
Wed 6, Green Door Store, 7.30pm, £5
They might claim their music is sent to us through
‘a primitive portal from a ruined future world’, but
the enjoyably silly conceit of their social media
announcements doesn’t quite prepare you for the
earnest anger of Commands’ on-point political
rap. Backed by live musicians blending hip-hop,
punk and big beat, the band’s two MCs work their
dynamic joint vocals into a groove that’s both
compelling and melodic. The heavier sections may
remind some of 90s rap rockers Senser, but the
subject matter is decidedly of the minute – big data,
media bias, the coming dark age, etc. Dystopian
messengers they may be, but Commands also know
what a dancefloor is for.
THE DSM-IV
Thu 7, Prince Albert, 8pm, £5
Though some members of The Eighties Matchbox
B-Line Disaster have resurfaced in various guises
since the band finally burned out five years ago, this
is the first we’ve heard of former frontman Guy
McKnight in quite a while. Anyone who remembers
the ferocious rock‘n’roll of his heydey will probably
be intrigued enough to give this a go, even if there’s
little indication online of what’s in store. Either the
band decided to shroud themselves in secrecy or
they haven’t got round to making any recordings yet.
All we know is that McKnight is now often found
sporting a triple combo of mullet, tash and tanktop.
Seemingly named after a psychiatry manual, The
DSM-IV have already supported British Sea Power
on tour, but this is their first show in Brighton.
I FEEL FINE
Sat 9, Quadrant, 6pm, £3
It might seem like an
incongruous band name
given that I Feel Fine’s
music is heavily tinged by
emo, but maybe they’re
just being coy. In any case, the Brighton four-piece
have enough light and shade in their songs to resist
the genre pigeonhole. The group’s gang vocals soar
over what are otherwise largely instrumental tracks; a
loose style with tight arrangements. In terms of influences,
The Hotelier rub shoulders with Sonic Youth,
post-hardcore with a touch of shoegaze. This show
is the launch for I Feel Fine’s debut EP, Long Distance
Celebration, recorded by Lewis Johns (Funeral for a
Friend, Gnarwolves). To mark the occasion they’ve
invited some mates along for the party: Lightcliffe,
H_ngm_n, Chalk Hands and Sven.
....45....

COUNTRY SHOW
....................................
Photos courtesy of Atkinson Action Horses
Atkinson Action Horses
At the South of England Show
We speak to Mark Atkinson of Atkinson Action
Horses, whose live show will be the main arena
highlight of the South of England Show.
You’re horse master for a lot of TV shows,
such as Poldark, Peaky Blinders and Victoria.
What’s a horse master? Someone who’s in charge
of all the horses on set, making sure everyone is
safe. I assess the abilities of the actors and decide
what they are capable of, and which of our horses
would be most appropriate for them and the scene.
We can train actors to ride, and we also have stunt
doubles. The hero horses have their own identical
stunt doubles, sometimes two. Seamus our Irish
draught hero horse for Poldark (‘Darkie’ in the
show) is very famous. We get journalists coming to
Cornwall to spend the day with him. Both leads,
Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson, are very
able riders. Victoria is filmed near where we’re
based in East Yorkshire which is great for us.
What do you enjoy most about your job? I
enjoy teaching the actors, and the challenge of
delivering on set what the director wants. When
the production stretches over a few months, there’s
such a good atmosphere.
What is most challenging? Teaching the horses to
stand still. Filming involves a lot of waiting around.
What makes for a good action horse? Patience,
bravery, charisma and personality. We’ve got some
beautiful horses, and some common-bred ones.
They all have their place.
....46....

COUNTRY SHOW
....................................
Where do your riders come from? All over
the place. Most start as ground crew and can ride
already. We teach them gymnastics, but occasionally
we’ve recruited gymnasts and taught them to ride.
They’ve all got to be incredibly fit.
How did you get into this line of work? My dad
was a farmer, and I carried on the business when
he retired. My hobby was show jumping, and 28
years ago, my wife Jill suggested we diversify into
more horse-orientated work. We started offering
livery services, opened a riding school, then began
doing re-enactment and Sealed Knot work, went
onto jousting with English Heritage, and it’s
snowballed since then. It’s a family business. Jill
does the logistics. My son Ben trains the horses
and choreographs the live shows. He’s just come
back from training horses for a Bollywood film.
His wife Katherine is heavily involved, and our
daughter Lucy works with us part of the time too.
What can people expect from the live show?
Thirty minutes of extremely exciting, entertaining
live action by our team of eight male and female
riders, and our fantastic horses. Expect trick riding,
airs above the ground and liberty, which is when
the horse has no tack.
Which horses are you bringing? A mixture, including
Spanish stallions, famous for their skills in
Spanish High School, and some of our film horses,
all of whom have a huge following on Instagram.
Emma Chaplin
Atkinson Action Horses will be performing two live
shows per day at the South of England Show 7-9th
June, 9am-6.30pm, Ardingly. Under 16s enter for
free and free parking. Visit seas.org.uk
....47....

ENVIRONMENT
.............................
Ovingdean Green Festival
Cat Fletcher, ‘re-use officer’
Freegle founder, recycling
champion and Council
‘re-use officer’ Cat Fletcher
is one of the speakers at
Ovingdean Green Festival
on June 23rd.
We’re at crisis point
when it comes to plastic
usage. While I’m glad the
government is taking action
with the proposed consultation
on banning straws
and coffee stirrers, they’re
giving themselves 25 years
to implement it! We need action now. Twenty-five
years is way too long.
It’s not just up to the government; there’s also
a lot that manufacturers and retailers could do.
We could all do more. Locally, we could do a lot
better with events. Brighton hosts so many and they
have a significant environmental cost. The guidelines
the Council issues to organisers could be much
more ferocious. I’d like them to ban polystyrene,
for example. If all food outlets were banned from
using that you’ve instantly eliminated one major
environmental problem.
I’m not an advocate for that Brighton thing of
leaving things you don’t want out on the street.
My entire house is filled with things I’ve found so
I get why people like it. But it’s fly-tipping. People
assume if they put things out and they’re not there
later that someone has taken them. In fact it’s
probably been collected by the Council, which has a
statutory obligation to remove – but not recycle or
reuse – anything left on the street. It goes straight
to the incinerator and it costs a fortune to deal with
– we spend £150m a year
nationally on fly-tipping.
I’d rather people use a
recycling service. I’m one
of the co-founders of the
Freegle website, which was
one of the earliest services
to connect people giving
away things they didn’t need
to people who wanted them.
Now there are a million and
one ways to give things away
for free, so there’s absolutely
no excuse for leaving it
outside for the Council to deal with.
I try to do my bit; I have a slightly quirky, unsalaried
role as the Council’s ‘Re-use Officer’. They call
on me whenever they need to declutter. I did Kings
House in Hove recently. It was the biggest office
block in the city and clearing it was an 18-month
job. We sorted 280 rooms; 170 tonnes of stuff.
There were a lot of wheelie chairs. Before me, they
would have called in a removal company that would
have taken everything straight to landfill.
It’s brilliant that so many cafés and restaurants
in Brighton & Hove are banning plastic straws
and one-use coffee cups: there are around 110
cafés locally who’ve joined the #BYOCC – Bring
Your Own Coffee Cup – movement and lots of
places offering discounts for customers who bring
in reusable cups. That’s great. It’s also really encouraging
to see villages like Ovingdean pledging to go
plastic free. I hope we can build on this momentum
to work towards a plastic-free future.
As told to Nione Meakin
ovingdean.co.uk/get-involved
....48....

COMEDY
.............................
Simon Evans
Potted Previews in the park
Tell us about the
‘Potted Previews’
you’re doing at
Brighton Open Air
Theatre... People
will be doing short
versions of the
shows that they’ll be
taking to Edinburgh.
Last time we had
Angela Barnes and
Mark Steel. I tend to
go for people with
some sort of Brighton connection.
Is it odd performing comedy in the open air?
Yes, it is. When you first do it you do feel a bit exposed,
and you feel less inclined to be as transgressive
as you might be in a dark room after a couple
of drinks. But things warm up quite quickly, and
that is my job of course, as MC, to overcome that. I
make the acts realise that it is a regular gig and they
can be just as rude to audience members, and lead
them down darker passages, even if it’s a nice sunny
day in the middle of June and there’s a dog falling
asleep in the front row.
Will you be doing some new stuff as well? I’ve
been touring my show Genius this spring and I’ve
been tweaking and trying to develop it so that it’s
almost like a rolling project. I don’t know if that’s
slightly ridiculous, or even a cop out. It feels to me
like it’s evolving. The theme is the catastrophic
decline of intelligence in public life. It’s a kind of
grumpy old man howl of despair...
Are you comfortable with the role of the
grumpy old man? I am not sure that’s how I’m
seen. I do toy with it a bit, but I also like to claim
the intellectual high
ground too. There is
undeniably a lot of
crap in the modern
world and it is a
permanent job just
clearing your gutters
of that. And that is
GOM territory I
guess, but I hope I
do occasionally offer
a more elevated view
than simply the verbal
equivalent of rubbing a sore back!
Are people really getting dumber? It seems to
me that there is an emerging appetite for chewy
conversations, and it’s interesting and encouraging
that so many people want that. I think it is part of
what I’ve been saying in the show: that we’re not
as stupid as we’re treated as being. But also I do
wonder whether comedians are reneging on their
responsibility to take risks, speak their minds, say
the unsayable... There is a slightly suffocating consensus
in comedy right now and it is risky to contradict
that if you want to get on Mock the Week. It’s
dangerous for comedy to let itself get into that state.
Do you feel you’re able to break through that
consensus? I hope so, yes – more teasingly than
iconoclastically though! It’s fun being the one on
The News Quiz who throws the gears into reverse
sometimes, but I hope I don’t get too ahead of
myself. It’s always about expressing bafflement and
exasperation rather than offering actual solutions!
Interview by Ben Bailey
Simon Evans presents ‘Potted Previews’ at BOAT on
the 10th and 17th of June, 1pm, £10/8
....49....

Photo by Jonny Birch
THEATRE
....................................
Fleabag
Tickle tickle slap
It’s hard to imagine anyone but Phoebe Waller-
Bridge in the role of posh, frank, porn-addicted
Fleabag, the eponymous anti-heroine of the
Edinburgh Fringe hit later adapted as a brilliant,
BAFTA-winning BBC 3 TV series. “We’ve started
to say that it’s like being the new Bond,” laughs
Maddie Rice, who takes up the gauntlet as Fleabag
returns to the stage. “James Bond is the same character
every time but each actor plays him slightly
differently. I’m thrilled to be Fleabag mark two.”
Rice first saw Waller-Bridge’s monologue during
its phenomenally successful Edinburgh run, where
it became a word-of-mouth must-see and its writer
and performer the toast of the Fringe. “As soon
as I saw it, I was desperate to play the part,” she
explains. “I’d been out of drama school for three or
four years and all the parts I’d played felt the same
– polite, male-gaze, 2D. Fleabag felt really exciting
because she’s a complex, flawed character who
doesn’t conform to any of the stereotypes of how a
‘lady’ should act.”
That’s something of an understatement: this is a
character who gets her sexual kicks watching Barack
Obama speeches, surprises her sometime-boyfriend
by pretending to be a burglar, charges customers £8
for a sandwich in the failing café she runs and steals
from her stepmother. She deals with grief by… not
dealing with it, preferring to lose herself in increasingly
bleak sex and shocking jokes.
“Even in the darkest, saddest moments there’s
humour because that’s Fleabag’s way of coping,”
explains Rice. “That and sex. She mistakes her
relationship with sex as something powerful and
protective. But you realise as the show goes on
that it’s actually a crutch and not necessarily very
healthy. She has all these empty experiences and
avoids connecting to people because she’s too
frightened.”
Rice thinks of the piece as both comedy and
tragedy: “Phoebe calls it ‘tickle tickle slap’. She’ll
entice you in with humour and then slap you round
the face. I love that about her writing. She makes
you think something is going to be sad and then it’s
funny or you think it’s a joke and it’s heart-breaking.
There’s never a moment where it isn’t enjoyable to
listen to but she never lets you off the hook.”
While Rice is - “obviously” - very different to
the character she is playing, there are elements of
Fleabag that do resonate. “A lot of her experiences
relate to being lonely in a big city. It’s so easy to
hide in a city like London, to go unnoticed, and
that’s another of Fleabag’s coping mechanisms -
sauntering around believing that no one is noticing
what she’s doing, and that no one cares anyway. I
can relate to that feeling. I think I share some of her
sexual candour too but where I’d only talk like that
to my best friends, she says it to an entire room of
strangers. She is a very extreme version of parts of
all of us.” Nione Meakin
The Old Market, June 5th–9th
....50....

MUSIC
....................................
mr jukes
Freewheelin’
“I made the decision to end it,” says Jack
Steadman, erstwhile front man of Bombay Bicycle
Club, now the inspiration behind the much
funkier mr jukes.
“It was a terribly difficult decision,” he continues,
down the phone from his North London home.
“We’d been together since school. We’d grown
up together in the band. But both musically
and personally I couldn’t have done anything
else. I had to listen to what my heart was saying.
Otherwise we would have made a really mediocre
Bombay Bicycle album.”
Jack was the creative one of the group, the one
whose ideas they all worked on and fashioned into
guitar-rich indie-soaked pop songs. So you get the
feeling the decision has been a good one for him,
but not necessarily the others: their last album So
Long, See You Tomorrow was UK no 1, and their
previous two had made the top ten.
“A lot of bands lose touch with the fact that they
haven’t got anything to say, and I could feel that
creeping up,” he continues. He talks about the
loss of the sort of “burning desire” that fuelled the
making of their first two albums.
It was while on a cargo ship sailing from Shanghai
to Alaska that he came up with the name for his
new project. He was reading Joseph Conrad’s
Typhoon. “I liked the sound of the name of the
First Mate,” he says. “I thought an album by ‘Jack
Steadman’ would have sounded like a folk album.”
“Also having another name gives you an alter ego
that affects the way you perform… as mr jukes I
become very energetic; it’s a weird contrast when
I go backstage afterwards and resume my normal
personality, sitting in the corner being quiet.”
One limitation Jack wanted to overcome in the old
band was his own voice. “I was singing all the songs,
and I’d listen back and wish someone else was able
to take them off into a different direction.” As mr
jukes he’s forged collaborations with the likes of
Horace Andy, BJ the Chicago Kid, and De La Soul.
“Suddenly I had the freedom to choose anyone in
the world… I was like a kid in a candy shop.”
The band he’s touring with are a nine-piece, with
a brass section, and three other singers. “But
not backing singers,” he says, “if anything I’m
the backing singer”. And who goes to the gigs?
“Some people like the style of music we’re doing:
jazz, funk, hip-hop. Others are Bombay Bicycle
fans who have heard a thread from before that’s
been continued.”
So could a reconciliation with his old band
members ever be on the cards? “It’s healthy in some
relationships to spend time apart and to come back
stronger having got that ‘grass is greener’ thing out
of the way. So I’m not ruling it out… we just have
to wait until that burning desire is there again.”
Alex Leith
mr jukes play the Love Supreme Festival, Glynde
Place, Fri 29th June – Sun 1st July
....51....

COMEDY
.............................
Sofie Hagen
Unashamed
When did you know comedy was the career
for you? I remember telling my friends a story
about laughing at my grandfather’s funeral. They
said I was weird and rude. I told some comedians
the same story and they laughed. I felt like I had
found home.
How did you get into it? I worked for the
Danish Refugee Council in Copenhagen and
ended up working on comedy events for Save
The Children. It allowed me to watch stand-up
once a week. One day a comedian grabbed me
and said, ‘You clearly love comedy. You should do
it yourself. I put you down for a five-minute spot
next Tuesday.’
Your most recent show, Dead Baby Frog,
focused on your stepgrandfather’s emotional
abuse; why did you want to talk about that?
I wanted to regain control of the narrative. My
grandfather felt like it was his prerogative to paint
himself as the best person, and he was willing to
severely damage his family as a result of that. The
only thing I could really do about it was tell my
story. That way I got the last laugh.
It’s not the first time you’ve tackled a difficult
subject in your stand-up… I like to put into
words what people feel but are not able to talk
about. When you are depressed or fat or anxious,
there is so much shame attached to it. You’re not
meant to talk about it without being ashamed. So,
when you actually aren’t ashamed it is so exciting.
And funny.
Is there anything you regret having shared
with an audience? I went on stage to MC a
show 20 hours after the worst break-up of my life.
I told the audience about the break-up. All the
Photo by Matt Crockett
women in the audience were crying. And then I
brought on the first act. It was a mess.
You’re writing a book on body image. Tell
us about it… I have been fat my entire life. I
remember being seven years old and hearing
someone tell my mother that I needed to lose
weight because I was dangerously fat. I wasn’t. I
was a child. The most recent incident was today,
when someone told me that they would kill
themselves if they looked like me. The book is
about those incidents: why they happen and what
we can do about it.
What’s the best heckle you’ve ever received?
I have never received a good heckle. It is a
misunderstanding that heckling can be good.
Why do people heckle comedy but not theatre
or musicals? I instinctively do not like hecklers
because when I see someone who feels like their
voice should somehow be listened to above everyone
else in a crowd, I don’t think I will like them
as a person. And yes, I know that I am describing
myself. But maybe that’s how I know I wouldn’t
like them. Nione Meakin
Sofie appears alongside David O’Doherty and Reginald
D Hunter at Brighton Dome on June 17th
....52....

LITERATURE
.............................
Dallowday
Celebrating Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf’s modernist novel
Mrs Dalloway details a day in
the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a
high-society woman in post–
First World War England. It
follows her as she takes a walk
through London to prepare
for a party that she will host
that evening, and begins: ‘Mrs
Dalloway said she would buy the
flowers herself’. We speak to Alli
Pritchard, operations manager of
Monk’s House in Rodmell, once
Woolf’s home, about her drive
to establish an annual ‘Dallowday’
to celebrate Woolf, in the
way that ‘Bloomsday’ celebrates
James Joyce.
You’re a big fan of Virginia
Woolf? I really am. I’m a
Woolfie. Aged 13, I saw the
film of Mrs Dalloway, bought
the book, then started reading
everything else she’d written.
Tell us about Dallowday. The
aim is to celebrate and raise the profile of Virginia
Woolf. Over the last couple of years, some celebrations
have taken place in America and London,
but there wasn’t one agreed date, or indeed name.
Woolf’s novel takes place in mid-June 1923,
but not on a specified date. We’ve now agreed
that, henceforth, Dallowday will be on the third
Wednesday of June.
What will be happening at Monk’s House?
We are essentially holding our own garden party.
We’ll decorate the house with extra flowers and
bunting with Woolf quotations. We will be offering
refreshments in the garden, something we don’t
normally do. We will have readings from the novel
in the garden. We’ve also got Ink
Spot Press printers coming, so
visitors can make book marks and
greetings cards with a selection
of quotations. Although it can be
hard to find short ones.
So she wouldn’t have been on
Twitter? Well, I don’t know.
She and Leonard loved the latest
technology. She’d definitely have
a Mac.
You clearly remain a fan. I do.
Many people visit who know very
little about Virginia or Leonard
Woolf. Most people seem only
to know the salacious elements
of her life. They think of her
as a gay icon. They know that
she committed suicide and was
depressive. That’s far from the
whole truth and part of the joy
of the job is filling in the gaps for
them. She was formidable and
complicated, but also incredible
fun, and vivacious. Above all, she
was a supreme talent whose work is thoroughly
deserving of this annual celebration each June. We
often hear people say that they’ve attempted but
failed to finish her novels. But even if people don’t
like those, her diaries demonstrate how funny and
wicked she could be. I defy anyone not to love
them. Interview by Emma Chaplin
Dallowday, Wednesday 20th, 12.30-5pm, at Monk’s
House, Rodmell. Free, but normal admission charges
apply. Also at Monk’s House in June, Sunday 17th,
book signing and talk with Nino Strachey, author of
Rooms of their Own, which explores the homes of
Virginia Woolf, her lover Vita Sackville-West, and
Vita’s first cousin Eddy. nationaltrust.org.uk
Photos by Lizzie Lower
....53....

AT ALTITUDE
AN ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION NATIONAL PARTNER EXHIBITION
AND
OMER FAST: 5000 FEET IS THE BEST
2 JUNE – 30 SEPTEMBER
FREE ADMISSION
townereastbourne.org.uk
Image: Mishka Henner, Unknown Site, Noordwijk aan Zee, South Holland, 2011.
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London, Courtesy of the artist. © the artist

ART
.............................
Gilbert & George
‘Two people, one artist’
Gilbert and George are sitting in a corner of their
retrospective at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.
The pair, dressed in their co-ordinating ‘responsibility
suits’, are marginally too close to me and too high up.
I feel like a passenger on a cruise: their conversation is
buoyant, and slightly unsettling.
“It wasn’t designed by us,” says George about
the show, part of the ARTIST ROOMS touring
collection owned by Tate and the National Galleries
of Scotland.
“It was not designed by us,” says Gilbert.
“But we like it,” says George. “It’s impressive.”
Gilbert & George are “two people, one artist”, and
one of the most famous working in Britain today. This
show of 15 works, of 5,000+ they claim to have made,
is organised by decade from the 1970s to the 1990s. In
the first room, Elgar and Grieg ooze out of an early
‘video sculpture’. In the second, a sequence of large
multi-panel self-portraits are a riot of colour, rolling
heads and genitals. In the third room, the artists stare
at me, knowing and ambivalent. On the comments
board I read feedback including: “too many penises
for my liking”.
“She cannot afford one like that anyway,” says Gilbert.
“Too many penises for what?”
“The comment is a reflection on her marriage, probably,”
says George. It’s true they finish each other’s
sentences.
I wonder if the reaction of today’s audiences to this
culturally transgressive, confrontational art is different
to those of the seventies? Have Gilbert & George lost
the power to offend?
“We never want to analyse the response to our pictures,”
says Gilbert. “It’s much better that we believe
it’s fine. That’s our motto: Everything is fantastic.”
“It’s an amazing freedom to have the cards up and let
them do it,” adds George. “In many countries they
wouldn’t allow that in a museum.”
One divisive aspect of Gilbert & George’s work is
their unabashed Conservativism, which helps to maintain
the story they are outsiders to the art establishment.
“We always said in simple terms,” says George,
“to be an artist you don’t have to be a left-wing twit.”
If you’re an artist and you’re a Conservative you’re
always the enemy in the art world, they both point
out, and the art world is a problem. “All the museums
are feeble,” says Gilbert. “They are so terrified of protesting
against the art that they end up with abstract
art that doesn’t offend anybody… It’s wallpaper, that’s
what it is.”
“The other ones are all stuck in the art world,” he
says. “We are making art and we are stuck in making
a vision.”
I ask what vision is behind their matching suits.
“Artists have always wanted to dress in some way that
would alienate 92% of the
world’s population,” replies
George. “We say,
if you took a suit from
every decade…
put them into a
computer and
press the average
button,
shhhhpp…”
He strokes
his lapel.
“…you’ll
end up with
something
roughly like
this.” Chloë King
ARTIST
ROOMS Gilbert
& George, until
2nd Sept
Photo by Chloë King
....55....

ART
.........................
Bauhaus Braids
Textile artist Marilyn Rathbone
Dorset button-making meets maths
What was the inspiration
for ‘Self-avoiding walk’?
I’m quite often asked how I
think about the structure of a
piece and how I decide on the
colours. I thought ‘wouldn’t it
be interesting to make a piece
without having to make those
decisions myself’. So, I googled
‘avoiding decisions’, and
it came up with a self-avoiding
walk. I thought, ‘a self-avoiding
walk… if you’re doing a
self-avoiding artwork, that’s
brilliant’.
What is a self-avoiding
walk? It’s a grid that you can
move through without ever
crossing your path or visiting
the same point more than
once. So, for this piece, you
follow the black line from the
start arrow until eventually,
you come out. It’s a readymade
mathematical diagram
that I found online, but it’s
black and white so then came
the question, ‘what colours
do I use and in what order?’
I wanted to avoid those
decisions too, so I used pi to
lead the way. Pi uses the digits
0 to 9, and I allocated each
one a colour. Then it starts off
3.141592... all the way around.
Are you pleased with the
result? I’m very pleased
with it. Because it’s not even
showing pi in a straight line.
It’s interesting when you get
runs of colours together; some
bits look quite 50s. Colours I
would never have thought to
put together. It’s more random
that I would ever have
....56....

ART
.........................
generated myself.
How did you come to
combine ancient braiding
techniques with maths? I
suppose the fascination with
the maths started when I
became interested in braid
making because, with the
Japanese Kumihimo loom,
the instructions for producing
patterns are quite
mathematical. Mathematical
models intrigue me because I
don’t quite understand them.
I didn’t know there were
circular numbers... when the
square of a number ends in
the number itself. Like 5 and
its square 25. I did a drawing
about it. I didn’t know that
triangular numbers also
form triangles, and square
numbers, squares. These
inspired my Bauhaus Braids,
named after Kandinsky, who
had synesthesia and saw
shapes as colours. For him,
triangles are yellow, because
they are dangerous, sharp and
edgy. So, I braided triangular
numbers in yellow and black
like hazard signs. For him
blue is round and spiritual, so
I braided circular numbers, in
blue and white, like the sky.
And squares are red, earthbound,
stable and steady.
What techniques do you
use to make them? With
the Self-avoiding walk, I used
Dorset button making, which
involves covering a ring in
blanket stitch, and then you
make spokes and weave in
and out to fill the space. The
inkle loom, which I used for
the Bauhaus Braids, dates to
medieval times. People had a
utility belt from which they
would hang things, and they
would use the inkle loom or
a lucet to make tapes to hold
things in place. It was more
about strength than decoration.
It looks like an ancient
technique, but there are inkle
weavers around today.
Lizzie Lower
Marilyn’s work will be at Venue
4 (8 New Parade, Worthing)
during the Worthing Artists
Open Houses Festival on the
16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th & 30th
of June and the 1st of July:
worthingartistsopenhouses.
com / axisweb.org/artist/
marilynrathbone
Self-avoiding walk
Lucet
....57....

ART
....................................
ART & ABOUT
In town this month...
There’s plenty to see on the seafront, art-wise, this month. Jonathan
Wright’s Constellation is now in place on the Hove Plinth, by Hove
Lawns. The stainless steel and gilded orrery places Hove at the centre
of the universe with objects of local significance orbiting in place of the
planets. ‘The objects are aspirant, magical, infused with meaning…’
says Jonathan, ‘a local constellation’ [hovecivic.org.uk]. On the lower
esplanade, As Pleased as Punch in Brighton, an exhibition about the
original dysfunctional family, is at the West Pier Trust from the 21st.
It’s been 350 years since Punch & Judy puppets first appeared on the
prom and the exhibition seeks to explore the enduring popularity of
the wife-beating, reptile-goading, child-terrorising, sausage fanatic.
‘Constellation’ by Jonathan Wright
A little further towards Brighton Pier is
Brighton and Hove Camera Club’s 2018
seafront exhibition. Presented on stone
gabions right on the beach, the 47 images
by 47 different photographers reflect the
diversity of interests of the club’s members.
Continues until the end of September
[bhcc-online.org].
Alexander Johnson
Born of frustration with general unfriendliness (‘the art scene can take itself too
seriously and the graffiti scene can be a hyper-masculine ego-fest’), The Friendly
Gang are here to ‘not be like that’. This collective of eleven self-described ‘oddball
Brighton graffiti people’ have their second show at Studio45, at the Open Market,
opening on the evening of Friday the 8th. Also from the 8th, 35 North present
Deanland, a new exhibition (and accompanying book)
of original work by painter Alexander Johnson and
photographer John Brockliss. Inspired by a remote
Sussex ex-WWII airfield, and his spitfire pilot father,
Alexander has created a series of emotive abstract
paintings exploring the many facets of this ‘slightly
haunting yet strangely beautiful location’. John’s
photographs document the project from inception to completion, offering an
intimate portrait of Alexander’s artistic process. Until the 21st of July. Elsewhere in
North Laine, the newly opened VeeBee gallery is adding even more vibrancy to
the area. Recently opened by the eponymous artist, and inspired by pop and urban
art themes, the gallery offers limited edition prints, original paintings and artwork
commissions [veebee.co].
VEEBEE
....59....

ART
....................................
ART & ABOUT
Out of town
Worthing Artists
Open Houses
takes place on
weekends from
the 16th of June
until the 1st of
July, with over
325 participating
artists presenting
their work in
57 different
venues throughout the town. Read about
just one of the participants on pg 56
[worthingartistsopenhouses.com]. The
Adur Art Trail returns from the 2nd until
the 17th with the chance to see artworks
in churches, galleries, beach huts and
houseboats. Accompanying talks and
events include a beach-clean-to-upcyclingworkshop
with Candy Medusa on the 9th.
[adurartcollective.co.uk]
Anna Vartiainen, WAOH Venue 11
Home to one of the finest and most important
collections of sixteenth and seventeenth century
embroidery in the UK, Parham House &
Gardens in West Sussex has a needlework
exhibition from the 13th until the 24th. Pieces
from Lady Emma Barnard’s private collection
will be on display and there’s an embroidery
masterclass with Royal School of Needlework
tutor, Chrissie Juno Mann, on Monday the 18th
of June. See parhaminsussex.co.uk for details.
‘Dark Pool’ by Laura Knight
© Estate of Laura Knight
Further west, Virginia Woolf: an exhibition inspired by her writings, continues
at Pallant House. Featuring 80 female artists, working from 1854 to the
present day, the selected work ‘seeks to show how her perspectives on
feminism and creativity have remained relevant to a community of creative
women across time’.
If you’re heading
east, visit three
award-winning
galleries in one
day on the Coastal Culture Trail. The Towner
Gallery in Eastbourne, the De La Warr Pavilion
in Bexhill and the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings
are all within 17 miles of each other and an easy
cycle or train ride - or an intrepid weekend’s
walk! Visit coastalculturetrail.com to explore the
options. There’s much to see.
....60....

ART
....................................
At Altitude is at Towner Gallery from the 2nd. A book illustration
from 1786, A Circular View from the Balloon at its greatest Elevation, is
considered to be one of the first ever ‘real’ aerial views and sets the
context for this exhibition, which explores ‘how our experience of
landscape, space and territory has been transformed through new
aerial perspectives of the world’. Once again working in partnership
with the Arts Council, the exhibition brings together painting,
sculpture, photography and film around the theme
[townereastbourne.org.uk].
Mishka Henner, Unknown Site, Noordwijk
aan Zee, South Holland, 2011. Arts Council
Collection, courtesy of the artist
‘Assembly’ by Alison Wilding
Continue on down to De La Warr
Pavilion for an exhibition of new and
existing works by leading UK sculptor and
Royal Academician, Alison Wilding. From
the 23rd, Right Here and Out There unfolds
both inside and outside of the gallery, with
works selected in response to the landscape
and the light. In her own words, ‘The sharp
lines of the building reflect the sharp lines
of the sculptures, and the flatness of the
horizon… the sculptures seem to hold the
same weight as those ships’. The exhibition
continues until the 16th of September.
Newhaven Open Call is an artist-led initiative
inviting local people and visitors to the area to make
a new piece of art, in any medium, about Newhaven.
Works should be based on a personal experience of
being in the town and one piece by each artist will be
exhibited at UTC Harbourside, as part of Artwave in
August. Workshops for would-be but inexperienced
artists will be held during July. Find more details at
the Newhaven Town Council office in Fort Road,
the Newhaven Museum at Paradise Park or at
newhavenprojects.co.uk from the 1st of June.
Annemarie O’Sullivan
There are more opportunities to get making. Monk’s House in Rodmell has
a programme of events that includes twilight tours, a bookbinding workshop
and a wood engraving weekend with Keith Pettit [nationaltrust.org.uk/
monks-house]. Over at Charleston there’s an Introduction to Basketry
coming up, where you can create your own ‘Sciathog’ basket with Annemarie
O’Sullivan. And now is the time to book places on the Young Bohemians Summer School in July, with
drawing, painting, collage, printing and sculpture courses for 8-17 year olds [charleston.org.uk].
....61....

DESIGN
....................................
© Conran & Partners Ltd
Saltdean Lido
Not safe yet…
“The key thing is for people to realise that it
hasn’t finished,” says Paul Zara, director at Conran
& Partners and the architect in charge of the
Saltdean Lido redevelopment. “It’s hardly started.
People have to keep their enthusiasm going… If
you don’t save it now, it’ll be gone for good.”
Saltdean Lido, as you may know, is not only one
of Brighton & Hove’s most significant architectural
gems. Historic England recently named it
one of the Seven Wonders of the British Seaside.
The Grade II* listed building is championed by
Saltdean Lido CIC and Saltdean Lido Trust, both
of which grew out of the residents’ campaign
Save Saltdean Lido. Saltdean Lido CIC won
the tender to take on the lease from Brighton &
Hove City Council and opened the refurbished
pool to a delighted public last summer.
The next phase of development relies on unlocking
a £4.19 million grant from the Heritage
Lottery Fund (HLF). A crowdfunding campaign is
currently active on spacehive.com, and £100k plus
fees must be raised by the 16th of June in order to
fund the café refurbishment, and help secure the
lido’s future. If we don’t help the trust reach this
target, the HLF money may be lost forever.
“This crowdfunder will not in itself fulfil the
gap,” says Sally Horrox, Chair of Saltdean Lido
Trust. “It’s a demonstration to the HLF before
they make their decision, to say the community
is behind it... We need to show a strong pipeline
of funding so they are confident to release the
monies and that we will have other funds to
finish off the build.”
Should the funding goals be achieved, the beautiful
Art Deco building will be restored to its former
glory. Added bonuses will include a café and
....62....

DESIGN
....................................
heritage centre; a huge events space
on the first floor; a health suite
with sauna and massage facilities;
community spaces, and possibly a
library, to re-open by 2021.
“The development realises the
opportunity of it being a top-class
venue,” says Sally. “It’s unique. You
can sit out on the tea terraces or
eat in a pop-up restaurant... It will
become the showpiece of Saltdean
again, instead of a dilapidated
building.”
“The building is probably in the
worst state it’s ever been,” adds
Paul. “I think the lesson that the
city’s learning is that it’s not the
Council’s fault. Everyone blames
the Council for everything and it’s
partly that they let the building
get into this bad state, but you can
see around town, with the Marine
Terraces crumbling away, we live in
a coastal environment.
“You need to keep up investment in these important buildings.
You have to preserve these community assets, otherwise you
lose them. Saltdean Lido itself is exceptional. It has the chance
not just to be an asset for Saltdean but also Brighton, Sussex
and the country… It’s an impossible building not to love.
“I love its cruise-liner look, the way its wings curl out and it
looks like it’s almost hugging the pool, it’s a fantastic building.
I just think it’s vital that people realise that, if they have spare
money to give to it, now is the time to do it.” Chloë King
Saltdean Lido is now open for the summer season. To donate,
visit saltdeanlido.org or spacehive.com/saltdean-lido
Photo courtesy of Saltdean Lido Trust Collection
© Conran & Partners Ltd
....63....

PRODUCED BY ROOSTDESIGN.CO.UK
Contemporary
British Painting and
Sculpture
We look forward to welcoming
you to our gallery in Hove.
OPENING TIMES
Mon—Sat 10.30am—5pm
Sunday/bank holidays 12pm—5pm
Closed Tuesday
For more details visit
CAMERONCONTEMPORARY.COM
1 Victoria Grove, 2nd Avenue, Hove BN3 2LJ
TELEPHONE 01273 727234 EMAIL info@cameroncontemporary.com
CCA_HovePark_Advert_210x297_Feb2018_v2AW.indd 1 14/02/2018 14:51

THE WAY WE WORK
This month, Adam Bronkhorst has been photographing people who work (almost) at
the water’s edge, exploring five of the diverse businesses operating out of the arches.
We asked them: when did you last swim in the sea?
adambronkhorst.com | 07879 401333
Mike Levy, Castor + Pollux
“Last August – but it was the Med. I’m off to inflate my paddleboard now…”

THE WAY WE WORK
April Williams, The Lollipop Shoppe
“I last swam in the sea last summer, but I think about it all the time. I have to live near it.”

THE WAY WE WORK
David Allistone, Exploring Senses
“Last summer I swam in Studland Bay in Dorset with my family.
Such a beautiful place with a wonderful Mediterranean vibe.”

THE WAY WE WORK
Eva Hellqvist, Oh So Swedish
“Last year, in the beginning of October when the sea was still warm. I’m not an
all-year-round swimmer, though I often pop down over the pebbles for a paddle.”

THE WAY WE WORK
Finn Hopson, Brighton Photography
“About three hours ago. When I got my arch, I promised myself that I would swim in the sea more often
and I try to get in there two or three times a week. It’s one of the best ways to start the working day!”

FOOD
........................
The Bandstand café
Prom nom nom
I recently discovered that there is a café underneath
the Bandstand. Well, I knew that there was a café
there, but I recently discovered that it was a nice café.
I was walking along the seafront with a friend on an
evening that it was far too cold to be walking along
the seafront and, both shivering, we ducked in for
some shelter (and hot chocolate).
It has a very different feel when I return to try out
the food – with Viva editor Lizzie and Viva dog
Gracie – on a hazy Monday morning. It’s warm
enough to sit outside, for a start, and we both turn
down hot drinks in favour of a Vanilla Iced Latte
(£2.75 each). It’s early enough for breakfast, but late
enough for lunch, so I order the Avocado & Eggs
(£8.50) while Lizzie opts for a Homemade Falafel
Wrap (£8);
Gracie settles for
a bowl of water.
The lattes come out in tall glasses with striped
paper straws and they taste good – plenty of coffee
and not too much sugar. The food follows quickly
after. Avocado and eggs are an obvious staple on any
breakfast menu, but this one is very well put together.
The sourdough toast is layered with hummus, slices
of tomato and avocado and topped with a fried egg,
accompanied by a well dressed salad. A bite of Lizzie’s
falafel wrap, toasted and drizzled with a delicious
sweet chilli dressing, makes me a little jealous.
I think this is going to become a regular spot for me,
rain or shine. Rebecca Cunningham
....70....

FOOD
............................
The Little Fish Market
Scaled-down perfection
On the way to The Little
Fish Market, I find I’m
more apprehensive than
excited. I’ve become fed up
with places where the food
is good but not remotely
sensational, where the
tablecloths, glasses and
other flummery seem more
important than the fare,
where the greeter – usually
haughty and dressed in black
– can’t even say ‘hello’ and
where the bill requires real
imagination to work out how
it had turned out to be quite
so high. Is this going to be
another of those places?
My wife Jean and I walk into the 20-seat Little
Fish Market to be greeted with a smile from Rob,
who looks after all of the service on his own. He’s
relaxed, gentle, calm and delightful. Happily, there
is no flummery in sight. The floor is red-tiled, the
walls are sage-green, and the wood tables are plain.
There is a set menu (£65 per person), that’s it. It’s
four fish courses and a dessert. Everyone is going to
be eating the same food. I love the simplicity of it.
Three amuse-bouches arrive in slow succession.
Each is just lovely to look at and better to eat.
There’s taramasalata in cucumber and basil oil
with a warm blini, cured salmon with avocado in
a sort of choux pastry cracked egg (crisp, crunchy,
moist, slightly acidic and wonderful) and halibut
surrounded by squid batter.
The set menu hasn’t even started to arrive yet and
we are won over. The theme of the evening – in
fact, the theme of the whole restaurant – has been
set already. The chef and owner, Duncan Ray, uses
the very best ingredients
he can find, and does
something quite magical
with them.
Our meal lasts three hours.
Nothing is anything other
than wonderful. We have
scallop on a sweet and
intense rosemary sauce. We
have Duart salmon, oyster,
cucumber, samphire and
caviar, the salmon cooked
to the second. We have
Aligea Halibut (Aligea is a
small island off the Hebrides
where the fish live in a loch)
with seaweed and espilette
(a capsicum cultivated in a
Basque village of 2,000 people) on top of which
is a delicate potato galette that I thought was a
cheese straw but which is cooked in ghee which
gives it the cheese flavour. It takes me but a
moment to eat and is worth the visit on its own.
Then there is wild bass with crisp English
asparagus, mussels and puréed peas. At the first
mouthful Jean’s groans of delight call to mind the
famous When Harry Met Sally diner scene. Finally,
it’s raspberries with yoghurt dressing sandwiched
between two thin wafers, on top of which is a
vanilla ice cream.
Quite simply, the city has something magical
going on in this small space. It restored my faith
in what a restaurant should be, run by a small,
passionate team who love what they are doing
and whose main aim is to give their customers an
experience to remember. We loved it.
Martin Skelton
10 Upper Market Street, Hove, 01273 722213
Photos by Xavier D Buendia Photography
....71....

RECIPE
..........................................
....72....

RECIPE
..........................................
Chocolate chip cookies
A recipe by Dough Lover’s Ronke Arogundade
Brunch is my favourite meal. It allows you
to be creative in a way that wouldn’t quite be
acceptable at other times – that’s what makes it
fun. I love that you can have sweet and savoury
things together with equal billing. You can eat
salty bacon with sweet pancakes. From there
you can go on to a sweet muesli or a chocolate
or a cookie. It’s acceptable to drink a coffee and
it’s acceptable to drink a cocktail. It’s a greedy
person’s paradise.
If you’re Australian or American, it’s kind of in
your DNA to go out for brunch; New Yorkers
will queue up forever to get into the right
place. But for the UK the idea is still quite
unfamiliar. When people come in and they see
a coffee machine and a counter, they assume
we’re a coffee shop, but really we’re closer to a
restaurant.
I’m a classically trained chef. I started off at a
restaurant called L’Escargot in Soho, in the latter
part of its heyday. It was amazing – I learnt a lot
and I was super inspired by it. I spent some time
on the pastries, some time on the larder, some
time on the sauce, so by the time I left I had a
skills base in all of those areas. I carried on in
that classic French line for a while, worked as a
private chef and then started my own high-end
catering business, the Good Eating Company.
That was really good for me because it meant
that I developed the ability to cross disciplines
very easily. Then at some point the nutritional
element came in, which is another passion of
mine. So I float between the classic French side,
where I want everything I make to be beautiful,
and the nutritional side, where I want all those
beautiful things to be less harmful than their
traditional equivalents.
I’ve been cooking gluten free for the last 20
years, but I would never want to go to a ‘gluten
free’ restaurant, which is why I didn’t call Dough
Lover that. What’s exciting for me is being able
to offer something for everybody. Because it’s
such a strong muscle that I’ve developed over the
years, it’s easier to make everything gluten free
rather than have the two things mixed up on one
premises. So all of our sourdough bread, all of
our cakes, muffins, every cookie, is made in our
kitchen and is gluten free.
Ingredients: 150g butter, 80g demerara sugar,
80g soft light brown sugar, 2 large eggs, 265g
brown rice flour, 1tsp vanilla extract, 200g
chopped dark chocolate, 200g chopped nuts
(optional), 1½tsp baking powder, 1tsp bicarbonate
of soda.
Method: Preheat the oven to 130°C.
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together. Add
the egg, followed by the flour and baking powder.
Fold the nuts and chocolate into the dough.
Divide the dough into roughly 18 pieces and
roll each into a ball. Space the cookies out onto
a baking tray, leaving at least 2½ inches between
each one.
Bake for approximately 35 minutes. Halfway
through baking, remove the tray from the oven
and drop it onto a work surface to knock the air
out of the cookies. Do not over bake – the middle
of the cookies should still be a little soft. Allow
them to cool completely before lifting from the
tray. As told to Rebecca Cunningham
99 Trafalgar Street / doughlover.com
....73....

A news bouche
吀 䠀 䔀 嘀 䔀 䜀 䔀 吀 䄀 刀 䤀 䄀 一 刀 䔀 匀 吀 䄀 唀 刀 䄀 一 吀
Welcome to the Community Kitchen, which
opened at Community Base in May. Run by
Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, the
space will host cookery workshops and events,
like ‘Easy Entertaining with CanTina’ on the
14th of June, where the supperclub hostess will
give tips on how to ‘elevate dishes to dinner
party status’ [bhfood.org.uk/cookeryschool].
At the end of June,
the Bison Beer boys will be
launching a new restaurant/
bar on North Road, with
food-beer-pairing enthusiasts
Humble running the kitchen.
On the 2nd and 3rd of June, the Level will be
home to Brighton Vegan Summer Festival
(£5/day or £8/weekend). On the 8th, join the
Old Tree Brewery to celebrate the launch of
their new project the Old Tree Food Forest,
with brewery tours, music and tasters at ONCA
Gallery from 7.30pm. On the 9th, family-run
pop-up Chard – normally at Café Rust – will
be holding an outdoor supper
at The Garden House
on Warleigh Road. To
book call 01273 027147.
THE BLUEMAN RESTAURANT
Open for Lunch and Dinner
10 Manchester Street, Kemptown, Brighton
bluemanrestaurant.com
Finally, Refill Brighton & Hove is now up
and running. The idea is to wipe out the need
for single-use plastic bottles by creating a
network of ‘refill stations’ – bars, cafes and
other businesses – where passers by can fill up
their reusable bottles. Participating
venues have a Refill sticker
in their window and can be
found on the Refill app.
There are already over 200
businesses signed up; get the
app at refill.org.uk.
....74....

FOOD
............................
Jack & Linda Mills
Traditional Fish Smokers
“My eyes are still open, ain’t they?” says Jack Mills,
pointing at his left one to prove he’s still very much
alive, and therefore at work.
It’s 11.30am on a Monday morning, and I’ve told
him I’d been worried that, it being Monday and all,
the famous Traditional Fish Smokers café he runs on
the seafront with wife Linda might be shut.
I order a hot kipper in a warm buttered roll (£3.80),
and coffee. You can get all sorts of seafood, but
kippers make the most sense. The herring are
smoked in the little black hut opposite the entrance,
having been caught by local boats in the sea beyond.
They don’t come fresher than that…
I tell Linda, who pops both kippers and rolls in a
folding grill, that I often go to Craster, where they
claim to have invented kipper smoking. “Ours are
better,” she says, without a pause.
I perch at the silver table outside, and within a
couple of minutes she’s brought the food. “Mind out
for seagulls, they’ll have it, if you’re not careful.”
I last had a kipper roll in Northumberland about two
months ago, and she’s right, this one’s better. The
toasted roll is crunchier, and the kipper meat is softer.
Jack tells me, as I go order another, that him and
Linda have been running their little takeaway – in
the Fishing Quarter arches near the Carousel – for
21 years. Before that, since just after the war, he used
to work on the fishing boats. A man who knows his
fish, then… long may his eyes stay open. AL
Kings Road Arches
STOP AT BUS STOP &
LET US TAKE YOU TO
BARBADOS
STEP INSIDE & EXPERIENCE
SOME AUTHENTIC BARBADIAN
FOOD WHILST LISTENING TO
SOME SWEET REGGAE MUSIC.
SPECIAL OFFER:
FREE RUM PUNCH WITH ANY
ROTI (TUES-FRI, 12-5PM)
QUOTE ‘VIVA OFFER’ WHEN BOOKING
99 NORTH ROAD
01273 623 143
WWW.BUSSTOP.BIZ

INTERVIEW
...........................................
Simon Murie
SwimTrek founder
So how do you go about swimming from Europe
to Asia? The swim across the Dardanelles straits in
north-western Turkey takes around an hour but,
as Simon Murie found out, getting the necessary
permissions and finding a willing boat to escort
you across takes a great deal longer. “It’s a very
hard swim to organise” he tells me, “Gallipoli
on one side, Troy on the other. The area is so
militarised.” But he did the groundwork and
made the trip and there began an even longer
journey: founding SwimTrek, the first open water
swimming adventure holiday company. He’s still
organising epic swims almost 20 years later.
“We can sort out anything to do with open water
swimming. Whether that’s swimming from island
to island, swimming down the river Thames,
or taking people across the Hellespont, where
Leander swam across to his lover Hero in Greek
Mythology… It’s about swimming in places where
there’s a reason to do it, where you wouldn’t
normally be able to go.”
From their HQ in Hove, they organise swims in
40 worldwide locations, arranging local guides
and safety boats for swims in Lithuania, Greece,
Slovenia, Oman, the Maldives, Russia… Simon
spends much of his time devising new itineraries.
“We’re increasingly developing the wilder, more
exotic destinations. Like Galapagos, Komodo and
....76....

INTERVIEW
...........................................
Vietnam. The sort of places that you might get to
visit just once in your lifetime.”
As much as I like the idea of swimming in the
Galapagos, aren’t there scary things in the
water? “I wouldn’t say scary but, within the
first minute of our first swim, one of the group
shouted ‘shark!’ and we looked down and there
was a Hammerhead circling. Within ten minutes
there was another one. The whole trip was full
of species that you wouldn’t ever otherwise get
to see. A lot of the work is figuring out the safe
places to swim and the sharks are so well fed
that they’re not interested in swimmers. It’s an
amazing way to experience the environment:
from the water.”
Not all SwimTrekkers are die-hard adventurers.
Some trips are suitable for beginners and focus on
building technique and stamina (see pg 39), but
participants do need to be able to swim 2k in the
pool. To that end, Simon is one of the team behind
the Sea Lanes pool development on Brighton
Seafront (see pg 86), which he hopes will become a
national open-water swimming centre.
“Open water swimming can often be easier
than swimming in a pool. Firstly, because
of the buoyancy, you float more easily and,
psychologically, every swim is different. It’s not
boring, it’s fascinating. It’s an amazing feeling,
arriving somewhere you’ve swum to… Getting
there under your own steam. That’s a really
important part of it.”
He’s also planning trips to the Seychelles and
to the Philippines and increasingly the more
expeditionary places. “We’ve swum across the
Corryvreckan whirlpool off Jura, but I’d love to
swim in St Kilda... I love the mix of swimming in
warm and cold water, I love the contrast. We’re
going for a swim at lunchtime today if you want
to join us?”
Not today thanks, Simon. But maybe when you’re
next in the Seychelles. Lizzie Lower
swimtrek.com
Photos courtesy of SwimTrek
....77....

St. Johns is a school and college
for young people with learning
disabilities, autistic spectrum conditions
and behaviours that challenge.
DO YOU
STAND OUT
FROM THE CROWD
Our employees empower our learners
and help develop their aspirations;
preparing them for the future.
As a St. Johnʼs employee you will:
Earn a competitive salary
Develop your career
Have access to numerous
training opportunities
Be entitiled to a free healthcare
plan, allowing you to claim back
cash on visits to the dentist, optician
and more.
Work in an active, challenging
and dynamin environment.
Have the opportunity to utilise your
own talents and interests.
Join a high supportive staff team
Be part of a diverse and forward
thinking organisation.
Visit st-johns.co.uk/work-with-us
to find out more or contact our
Human Resources team at:
YOU COULD
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Recruitment@st-johns.co.uk

FEATURE
...........................................
Brighton Beach Patrol
Seaside samaritans
“My cousin Kevin came
up with the idea of the
Beach Patrol in 2015;
we’re both quite passionate
about preventing
deaths from drink drowning.”
So says Louise Roberts,
as she tells me about
the origins of this family
affair with Kevin Roberts,
the Managing Director of
Resolve Security, which
patrols many of the seafront pubs and clubs.
“Resolve donated the quad bike, first-aid kit and
training. Sussex Heart Foundation kindly donated
a defibrillator. But I soon realised that it’s not just
about keeping people out of the sea when they’re
intoxicated; it’s about giving people support and a
chat with a mum figure.”
If Louise tracked me down on her quad bike and
told me going in the sea was a bad idea, I’d be putting
my clothes back on sharpish. But apparently
this isn’t always the case. What does she say to
someone who’s already in their pants?
“Typically, I’ll go down and say, ‘Hey guys, why are
you getting undressed?’” she replies with characteristic
nonchalance. “I just engage with them and,
without dictating, give them the facts about going
into the water – even if it’s a really calm sea. Many
tell me they used to be a lifeguard, that they’re a
good swimmer – which, they probably are – but not
at 3am when they’re drunk. If they ignore me, I’ll
stay till they’re safe.”
The now three-strong crew patrols the Lower
Promenade – between the Pier and the i360 –
every Friday and Saturday night from 11pm-5am,
and they’re linked into support crews from HM
Shoreham Coastguard, the RNLI and Sussex
Police. But the Beach
Patrol is often the first to
highlight any problems. At
the risk of sounding stupid,
I ask ‘why is it worse to get
in the water when you’re
drunk?’
“On a normal day, the sea
temperature is quite low.
Our body reacts by looking
after our vital organs and,
when drinking, our coordination
isn’t as good. There’s very little time to react
to cold water shock.”
But, Louise and her team do much more than
warn off revellers – the Beach Patrol makes a huge
difference to the most vulnerable people in our
community. “We’ve found lots of missing people
and helped with many first-aid incidents. We work
closely with the Brighton Seafront Office to prevent
fires on the beach, and just by our presence
in the area, we’ve lowered the incidence of sexual
assault crimes on the Lower Promenade, as well
as robberies.”
It’s fantastic that the team’s dedication has helped to
reduce dangerous behaviour on the beach but I’m
surprised to learn that the patrol is voluntary. Here,
the formidable coastguard and prison officer is
reflective. “We’d love funding, to get more people
trained up, another quad bike. Simon Walker and
the Laines Pub Company very generously donate
monthly. But I honestly can’t put a cost on what the
patrol covers – and the vast area. There’s no money
in the world that could give me the satisfaction you
get when you help someone in a crisis.” Amy Holtz
For more information about Brighton Beach Patrol –
or to support them – contact Louise at
admin@resolvesecurity.co.uk
....79....

MY SPACE
...........................................
....80....

MY SPACE
...........................................
Roger Cohen
Lifeboat Operations Manager
I’ve been with the RNLI for 35 years. My
godfather was on the Newhaven lifeboat
and my dad was in the Royal Navy, so it was
sort of in my blood. The opportunity came
along and I joined the Brighton crew in the
early 80s.
We’re all volunteers. They join us as a
trainee volunteer crew and then work their
way up the ladder, become a crew member,
and then possibly a helmsman. At 55, a lot of
volunteers can’t get the RNLI out of their
system, so they stay with us, becoming part
of the management group.
Currently we have 24 volunteers. They
come from all sorts of backgrounds – selfemployed
builders, ambulance paramedics,
firemen, directors of companies – very few
from maritime backgrounds. I recruit the
crew from within a ten-minute window of
legally driving here. I’ll try and maintain a
minimum cover of five people available to
attend at any time of day or night.
Most of our shouts are within three miles
of the station, but certainly in the Brighton
lifeboat we’ve been as far as Worthing Pier
and we’ve been as far as Seaford Head. When
a treble nine call comes in, from a member
of the public or a worried parent, that goes
to the coastguard. They will summate the
incident and decide who to put to it to solve
the issue. They know there’s a Brighton
lifeboat here 24/7, so they could page me
and I would decide whether to accept the
launch and call the crew. The charity can
refuse to launch in certain circumstances, for
example, if it is not a life-saving issue.
Photos by Adam Bronkhorst, adambronkhorst.com
....81....

MY SPACE
...........................................
....82....

MY SPACE
.......................
It’s impossible to say what an average
week will look like. Last year we had 82
call outs; currently this year we’re at 21. We
had three shouts yesterday, all mechanical
breakdowns: a yacht, a powerboat and a
jet ski. We have had a run of responding
to despondent persons entering the water
[attempted suicides]. Of our 82 call outs last
year, at least 50% were responding to people
who had entered the water or were entering
the water through despondency.
The crew will be going out in the boat
tonight. They’ll be doing exercises in how
to navigate the boat, search patterns, manoverboard
drills – everything they’re going to
use when they’re out lifeboating for real, so
that when it is done for real, it’s second nature.
As told to Rebecca Cunningham
The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at
sea. They rely entirely on donations from the
public and an incredible team of volunteers
to keep their 238 lifeboat stations operational
around the coast of the UK and the Republic
of Ireland. The RNLI are recruiting at their
Sussex stations for volunteers and welcome
enquiries from people wanting to join. rnli.org
Photos by Adam Bronkhorst, adambronkhorst.com
....83....

LOWDOWN ON...
...........................................
Moving to a houseboat
The ups and downs of a floating home
What inspired the move? Nick: One day I said,
‘I’d like a boat.’ It was meant to be a throwaway
line. I’d been on canal boats and a tall ship. I’ve
always loved being on boats.
Jackie: I had no thought about living on a boat,
ever, but I came down here [to the river at Shoreham]
to recover from a friend’s death and stayed
on a houseboat. I absolutely loved it. There was
something really magical about it. I saw this boat
had a ‘For Sale’ sign, so we came to have a look.
From the outside, it looks a bit shabby but we
both loved it. We started the negotiations with the
owners, put in an offer, and went from there. It
was much more expensive than we imagined.
N: We thought we would be buying the boat and
renting the mooring but it wasn’t like that.
J: You buy a plot of mud, basically. The houseboat
is worth nothing compared to the plot. We were
told we wouldn’t be able to get a mortgage and
we’d have to buy outright but we so loved it that
we made it work.
What has been the best thing about it? N: The
view and the quality of light are amazing. Having
the beach so close is incredible.
J: The feeling of space and creativity; that you can
make something out of nothing. We got rid of the
TV. The view out of the window and the footbridge
at night are so beautiful. If we were going
to watch TV, what was the point of living here?
It’s super quiet: a bit like living in the country and
....84....

LOWDOWN ON...
...........................................
a shipyard at the same time.
And the most challenging? N: After our offer
was accepted, I’d say ‘what the hell are we doing?’
quite regularly, until about a month ago.
J: She’s much leakier than we thought and there
are conflicting views on managing that. She’s
a wooden boat built in 1887, about the oldest
boat down here. It’s challenging to accept that, if
there’s a high tide and the bilge pumps don’t come
on, we could go down. We wouldn’t drown but
we’d lose the stuff on the lower deck. You have to
let go of that security, it’s not like living on land.
You’re reliant on the tides and the weather.
Has it changed how you use your time? N:
Yes. I feel slightly guilty if I sit and draw that I
should be working on the boat. I’m documenting
and drawing the history of the boat for our
blog. She was a luxury steam yacht that went up
and down the Thames and was stationed here as
troop accommodation during the war. We want
to document the project from a novice point of
view. We’re not craftspeople but we are respecting
how she was built. We’ll take away a cupboard
and find a beautiful piece of wood hand-crafted by
someone in the 1800s.
J: We had planned to move here when we thought
it would be spring but it turned out to be a blizzard
and in the first week the roof blew off, which
buggered up one of the bilge pumps. If something
needs to be done you have to do it pretty much
straight away or more things go wrong.
Would you recommend it? N: We were quite
naïve about it. If you are going to do it, do it, but
gen up first. The vendor was friendly when we
were buying but, in the end, we got about ten
minutes handover to tell us how the bilge pumps
worked and that we needed to loosen the ropes at
very high tide. Things like that would never have
occurred to us. Thankfully we have very helpful
neighbours.
J: It’s not all sitting on the deck drinking gin and
tonic but you will have a great adventure. She’s
got her quirks. We listen to every noise. It’s a bit
like having a baby.
N: It’s very much like a baby. It’s moist, makes a
noise, it’s demanding, wakes you up in the middle
of the night… You’re never bored. There is no
way you’d ever be bored here.
Lizzie Lower interviewed Nick Cannan and Jackie
Blackwell
Photos by Lizzie Lower
....85....

BRICKS AND MORTAR
...................................
Sea Lanes
A swimming pool… on the beach
The idea of building an open-water swimming pool
on Brighton beach rather brings to mind the phrase
about coals and Newcastle. But as Joe McNulty,
one of the team behind the proposal, explains, not
many of us actually swim in the sea. It’s too cold; too
rough; too scary. That’s where the pool comes in -
to provide a training ground where swimmers of all
ages can improve their confidence in open water,
learn how to lifeguard or just hire a wetsuit.
Open water swimming has seen a 20 per cent
annual growth since it featured in the 2012 Olympic
Games and, as our silver medals proved, the British
have something of a knack for it. We could do
better, however and especially in Brighton where
few of us brave the waves often. “Coaches will take
swimmers through techniques and safety and will
then accompany them into the sea, with kayaks and
safety boats to keep an eye on things. We’re taught
from an early age that the sea is dangerous – and it
is, when you don’t know what you’re doing. But if
you’ve been taught about the tides and how to swim
safely, if you’ve built up your confidence under
professional coaches, it can be really enjoyable.”
Sea Lanes Brighton, as the project is known, is a
collaboration between McNulty (managing director
of Copsemill properties), Brighton Sea Swimming
Club, QED Sustainable Urban Developments and
SwimTrek. If planning permission is granted, the
group plans to trial a 25m temporary pool on the
former Peter Pan’s Playground site on Madeira
Drive. The heated pool will be surrounded by
wooden decking, giving the appearance it has been
dug into the beach. But it will be formed of bolted-together
panels that allow the group to either
pack it up at the end of the initial five-year lease, or
to extend it to create a 50m, permanent pool.
The project should give a much-needed boost
to the city’s swimming pool provision – which
currently only reaches 44 per cent of the government’s
target. It is also set to create around 70 new
jobs, both at the pool and in 10,000 square feet of
adjacent commercial space, which will be offered to
sports and leisure-related businesses and will fund
the cost of the pool itself. Surprisingly, the Council
isn’t contributing; if the pool is to become a larger,
permanent fixture, the group will need to win
additional funding.
The announcement that it would be up and running
by November was perhaps a little hasty. “But we’re
looking at being on site next spring and hopefully
opening next summer,” says McNulty, “The plan is
to be open every day from 6am to 10pm.” As to who
will be first in the water, he doesn’t hesitate: “It’s
definitely going to be Andy White, our swim coach.
He’s in the sea in his Speedos all year round. There’s
no way anyone will be able to stop him jumping in.”
Nione Meakin
sealanesbrighton.co.uk
....86....

FEATURE
...................................
A harvest from the sea
Offshore farming
Remember Waterworld? A
terrible film of the 1990s, but
its premise about a future in
which the polar ice-caps have
melted and covered most of
the land no longer seems so
far-fetched.
Scientists are predicting a
rise in sea levels of up to two
metres by the next century.
Coupled with a doubling
of the world’s population, it
seems that we’re heading for
an acute shortage of space to
grow enough food.
Unless, that is, Leilah
Clarke’s invention of a ‘floating
farm’ takes off.
Using the simple principles
of condensation, the University
of Sussex Product Design student has created
environmentally friendly sea rafts with a self-watering
system for plants.
Leilah, who initially began studying Engineering
before switching to Product Design, said: “It was one
of those ideas that evolved over time.
“I moved to the coast from Brixton five years ago, and
I was thinking about how you could set up a raft to
live on out at sea. The first thing I thought about was
how you would produce food – apart from what you
could catch in the sea.”
Inspired by a project in Italy called Nemo’s Garden,
in which plants are grown in domes ten metres under
the water, Leilah designed a doughnut-shaped fibreglass
raft fitted with a clear acrylic dome.
When set afloat on the sea, water vapour rises
through the middle of the raft and condenses as fresh
water on the inside of the dome. The water then
trickles down the sides to hydrate crops growing in
containers around the sides.
Because of the natural desalination
process, there’s no need
for pumps or filtration systems.
This also means that as
the weather gets hotter, more
water evaporates, therefore
reducing the risk of the plants
dehydrating.
And to prevent the raft
from tipping over in stormy
weather and choppy seas, it’s
designed in two sections – an
inner and an outer ring – to
give it stability.
Using small prototypes,
Leilah, a keen gardener, has
already experimented with
different crops.
“At the moment chard is a
good one to grow because you can harvest off it quite
a lot,” she says. “Also spinach and leafy greens, things
you can harvest over time. And now I’m looking at
radishes because they are really quick. You could grow
up to 400 radishes in a month.”
Like windfarms, her floating farms could be set up
out at sea on a large scale. “All the materials that I
have chosen won’t bleach or leak into the sea and
cause any harm,” she says. “And because it’s mostly
fibreglass it’s easy to fix.”
They could also be used as towing gardens for
ocean-going vessels to provide freshly grown food for
passengers. And, with some adaptations, set afloat on
fresh water rivers and lakes.
The next stage for Leilah, who graduates this summer,
is to find a company to invest in the product.
“I really think this could be the future for farming,”
she says. “It gives new meaning to the term, seasonal
crops.” Jacqui Bealing
....87....

ANIMAL RESCUE
CENTRE
We rescue, rehome and provide sanctuary
for over 2000 animals each year.
Visitors welcome!
TOTALLY
RELIANT
ON YOUR
DONATIONS
Your local animal charity
www.raystede.org
Registered charity number 237696

Illustration by Mark Greco
WILDLIFE
...........................................
Mute Swans
Deride a white swan
I’m going to come right out and say it. I don’t like
swans. Never have done. Just seeing them smugly
swanning around acting all hoity-toity annoys me. And
last month I took a particular dislike to a pair of them.
2018 is the 50th anniversary of the opening of
Woods Mill, Sussex Wildlife Trust’s nature reserve
and headquarters near Henfield. We’ve been getting
the place all ship-shape, ready to welcome visitors
for celebrations throughout the summer. I turned up
for work one Monday to find a pair of swans had inconsiderately
started building their huge woven nest
right in the middle of the main path. I thought I may
try and heave the heap back into the pond but you
can’t disturb nesting birds during the breeding season
and I’m sure I once read that the Queen legally owns
all the swans in Britain. I certainly didn’t want Liz
leaping out of the undergrowth and bopping me with
her sceptre so the nest was here to stay and visitors
would have to take a small diversion.
Perhaps it’s this royal association which give swans
their snooty attitude but I would like to remind
them that the reason that they were once bestowed
this protection was because the Royal Family enjoyed
eating them and didn’t want us common folk
depriving them of their swan supper.
This morning I checked on the swans and found six
whopping great eggs in their obstructive haystack
nest. But the parents were elsewhere, arrogantly
gliding about on the pond. Had they abandoned
the nest? Surely the eggs would perish in the cold?
I suddenly became uncharacteristically concerned. I
was half tempted to hop on the eggs myself to keep
them warm until I noticed the swans a-swimming
towards me, their wings half-raised behind their
back (a posture called ‘busking’ which despite being
the archetypal swan pose is actually an aggressive
threat). Before I knew it they were upon me, hissing
and raising their mighty wings. When you’re being
attacked by a swan you really appreciate what formidable
creatures they are. Weighing up to 13kg mute
swans are one of the world’s heaviest flying birds.
The story that they can break your arm with their
wings is nonsense but I didn’t hang around, just
in case. After giving me some evil stares Lord and
Lady Muck settled back to incubating and guarding
their future family.
They’re still there. Sitting pretty on their throne
in the middle of the path, being photographed by
crowds of admiring visitors while I stand ankle deep
in the mud, muttering curses under my breath and
begrudgingly hammer in a fence to keep them safe.
It’s obvious who rules the roost here at Woods Mill.
If you want to see the swans and lots of other wildlife
take a trip to Woods Mill this summer. Directions
are on Sussex Wildlife Trust’s website and in the
‘What’s On’ section you’ll find details of loads of free
events being held on the reserve as we celebrate our
half century. Michael Blencowe, Sussex Wildlife Trust
....89....

INSIDE LEFT: HOVE LAGOON, 1960s
.....................................................................................
Pirates ahoy! It looks like the two gentlemen in the
sailing dinghy are preparing to board the rowing
boat containing two ladies, who are looking rather
perturbed at the prospect. There’s a great dynamic to
this picture, from the James Gray collection, but in his
caption Gray doesn’t know much about who took it,
and when. His best guess is ‘some time in the late 60s’.
Hove Lagoon is naturally a stretch of tidal marshland,
formed by the overflow of the Aldrington Basin, once
known locally as ‘Salt Daisy Field’. It was privately
owned by a gentleman called Paget Baxter, and by all
accounts a bit of an eyesore. In 1927, after much legal
wrangling with Baxter, Hove Council managed to
acquire the rights to convert the area into a pleasure
lake, which was completed in 1930. Contemporary
photographs show it was extremely popular, particularly
with model yacht owners – a big craze back in
the day. The Hove Lagoon Model Yacht club still
hold races on Sunday mornings, at 9.30am.
The Lagoon area was requisitioned by the MOD in
the war; it was used by Canadian troops to practice
manoeuvres in their DUKW amphibious trucks;
the beach, too, was a no-go area at the time, strewn
with tank-traps and zig-zagged with barbed wire
as first-line defence against a feared Nazi invasion
from the Continent.
After the war it became a pleasure lake once more; in
the harsh winter of 1947 the water froze over and locals
used it as a skating rink. As you can see from this
picture it became a boating lake again soon after and
you can still sail dinghies there, as well as – courtesy
of Lagoon Watersports – try your hand at windsurfing,
wakeboarding, kayaking and stand-up paddle
boarding. After a three-month closure this winter for
dredging, the Lagoon was reopened on April 28th:
the dredgers found countless lost items, including 200
shoes, a drone and a Buzz Lightyear toy.
To the far left of the picture you can see the Lagoon’s
café, which has had an interesting and chequered
history, not least in recent years, with two celebrity
owners taking it over. First up was Heather Mills,
who in 2008 converted it into VBites, a vegan eatery;
Norman Cook took it over in 2013, adding burgers
to the menu, and renaming it the Big Beach Café.
We wonder if our 60s pirates managed to persuade
the two ladies to join them for a cup of tea in the late
sixties incarnation of the café, after they’d all got their
feet back on dry land. Alex Leith
Thanks, as ever, to the Regency Society, holder of the
James Gray Collection.
....90....

BRIGHTON IS
BEAUTIFUL
AT NIGHT,
SEE IT BY BUS
VISIT BUSES.CO.UK

1 Malling Street, Lewes,
East Sussex BN7 2RA
01273 471 269
bespoke@alistairflemingdesign.co.uk
alistairflemingdesign.co.uk