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Pells Pool, Lewes
For all its myriad charms, Brighton lacks a good, old-fashioned, public outdoor pool or Lido. [1] It had one once – at Black Rock, below Kemptown, before the dirt, dust and noise that came with the construction of Brighton’s crappy Marina put punters right off their morning breast stroke. It closed in 1978, and the… Read more
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The Portsmouth to Gosport Ferry
My mum moves out of Southsea tomorrow. She has been busy with the emotional task of chucking out what needs to be chucked out, and putting into storage what needs to be put into storage, as she continues to look for somewhere new to live in the old, familial lands of Nottingham. Last week I… Read more
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The Threechurches take Shoreham
A lovely gig at a friendly open mic in Shoreham. The Welly is a pub that quite clearly plays a crucial role in the town’s music ecosystem – here you find local teens (underage, but allowed to play), wizened singer-songwriter hobos, and a backbone of regulars who add percussion, piano, and even flute to anyone… Read more
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REVIEW: Brighton Fringe: Dian Cathal – Deadnamed
In Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea novels, names are literally magic. To know the true name of a rock, a bird, or even a human, is to have mastery over it, they, or them. This is why, in Earthsea, most people go by a nickname: telling someone your true name is an act of intense love,… Read more
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Walking from Lewes to Rottingdean
On a windy, sunny Sunday afternoon, I got my butt out of my usual, sometimes self-defeating patterns of weekend behaviour and took myself up into the Downs. I’m very lucky to have the South Downs National Park on my doorstep, and I have been rationing bits of it out to myself slowly. My brain forever… Read more
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The Hovercraft from Southsea to Ryde
The Hovercraft from Southsea in Hampshire to Ryde on the Isle of Wight is the last commercial passenger hovercraft service in England, and one of two left in Europe. [1] Hovercrafts were the future, once. A British invention, from the endearingly stereotypical crackpot eccentric Christopher Cockrell, these were the postwar zeppelins: a mode of transport… Read more
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BRIGHTON FRINGE: QUERTY (Jen Zheng and Beck Walker)
One split bill, two queer, neurodivergent comedians, sweaty back room of a pub: what’s not to like? Here on an early Friday evening, the weekend still a whirlpool of possibilities, we see two of the best young stand-ups working their way towards a debut hour (or, indeed, two debut hours). In football parlance, this is… Read more
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Word With The Bird @SweetFest, Yellow Book
Last Saturday afternoon I appeared as headliner at the final “Word With The Bird” all-ages show, hosted and produced by Mark Tournoff. I’d not met Mark before, but he seems a most well connected man. I bemusedly shared a video promoting our show from local MP Sian Berry, before discovering that Kim Fuller, who wrote… Read more
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