Review By Paul Sweetman

Owner of City Books in Hove

In this hugely entertaining account of the author's stay in Brighton, Nigel Richardson manages to uncover some of the seedier and eccentric sides of Brighton. He does this without resorting to the usual clichés so often used in contemporary accounts of our 'City by the Sea'.
Meeting Fredda in a pub in Western Street was the first stroke of luck. She had been famous in the sixties as the switchboard girl in Z Cars, and was now putting up paying guests, of the theatrical type, in her house in Brunswick Terrace.
Mixing in the odd fictional passage, Richardson introduces us to an assortment of drunks, antique dealers, psychics, and our local heroes the fishermen, described as the 'aboriginals of Brighton'.
He remembers the characters in the film Brighton Rock and enthuses about the atmospheric writing of Patrick Hamilton. We learn 1950s polari, a la Kenneth Williams, and the meaning of bungarouch...and then there is the main narrative, which gives the book it's wonderful title.

Through eloquent prose Richardson describes the unique mix of the seedy, bizarre and the grandiose that he encounters on his beautifully detailed journey around Brighton. Richardson frequently (perhaps too frequently!) doffs his hat to Graham Greene and his seminal text Brighton Rock, bringing Pinkie and Rose along for the ride in many of his adventures. The pages are brimming with exuberant characters and curious deviations into other times, places and mystical realms always returning to the familiar bosom of Brighton.
This book is an affectionate and witty look at Brighton that is cleverly constructed and thoroughly enjoyable.