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QueenSpark Books Archive - Free Full Text Books
A unique searchable archive of the books published by QueenSpark Books up until 2010. Free to view and full text this collection features voices that tell the story of Brighton and Hove, across the 20th Century, in their own words. The majority of these titles are now out-of-print.
You can buy those still in-print, and newer titles, with this link.
Back Row Brighton - Cinema-going in Brighton & Hove
Author(s): Amy Riley, Martin Payne and Frank Flood.
Published: 2009
Back Row Brighton transports us back to the heyday of cinema-going in the company of those who were there. Alongside evocative archive photographs, names such as the Astoria, the Granada, the Continentale and the Regency are recalled in touching and humorous stories of romance, excitement, grandeur and, occasionally, fleas. Some of these recollections are drawn from QueenSpark"s rich archive, others are the recorded reminiscenses of elders of the city asked to recall cinema-going in Brighton and Hove in the 1930s and 1960s.ZAP - Twenty-five years of Innovation
Author(s): Jonathan M Woodham, Neil Butler, Roger Ely, Liz Agiss, Ian Smith, Simon Fanshawe, Sian Thomas, Richard Paul-Jones, Paul Kemp, Mark Waugh, Polly Marshall, Gavin Henderson, Paul Collard, Jane McMorrow, Dave Reeves, Rebecca Ball, Karen Poley
Published: 2007
Although not strictly speaking a QueenSpark book, this wild ride across the diverse cultural terrain of live entertainment in Brighton and Hove was produced in collaboration with QueenSpark. It tells the story of one of the UK's most cutting edge, creative producers. Over the last two and a half decades Zap Art has gone from establishing the iconic Zap nightclub, which transformed night life on the Brighton seafront to taking over the streets in most major cities and towns across the UK with large scale outdoor events.Everything Seems Smaller - A Brighton Boyhood between the Wars
Author(s): Sid Manville
Published: 1989
Sid Manville reminisces about his Brighton boyhood between the Wars. This first-person account of growing up in Bear Road, which was effectively his playground, describes scenes where he and his friends rolled their hoops and played with their spinning tops. Sid's interesting life story will appeal to his family, his contemporaries and the wider audience. It tells of many happy childhood memories, vividly recalling people and events of earlier days. In returning to the scenes of his childhood, we gain insight into a child's world viewed with the benefit of hindsight and seen through the lens of an adult perspective.Faded Rainbow - Our married years
Author(s): Daisy Noakes
Published: 1980
This autobiography gives a poignant insight into the life and expectations of a working class Brighton girl, who from the age of fourteen, was in service from 1910 to 1934. It describes her life as a young wife and mother, and the isolation she felt living in the countryside surrounding Gatwick Airfield. Daisy examines the early years of her marriage in 1934 to George Noakes, when she comments that there was 'no honeymoon period for us', as her employers would not allow such a luxury and it was like getting 'blood out of a stone' even to get a day off to get married. In her twilight years Daisy bravely recalls how she coped with her husband's terminal illness, when she was left alone to keep her family going.Alt Future
Author(s): Josie Darling, Charli Gunn, Tony Spiers, Sharon Zink, Tim Lay, Michael Tait, Pat Bowen, S. Lewis Silverswood, Amy Riley, Robbie Smith
Published: 2006
A companion work to Alt-History, this book is the result of a competition held to encourage people of all ages to think creatively about the city's future. The entries were judged and edited before publication, and include a vision of text-messaging in 2045, a description of how "Zero Tolerance" might operate on the city's streets in the not-too-distant future, through to a sci-fi "DownsLand Experience"International Service
Author(s): Kathleen Wilson
Published: 2002
With wartime Brighton as a backdrop, International Service tells the tale of Kathleen Wilson's naive teenage years, when her domineering father chose the jobs that she took and discouraged her passion for writing. It covers the time she spent working in family-run shops, through to her years at the International Stores in Preston Road and brings to life the atmosphere of the grocery trade in the period up to the 1950s. With her light-hearted and often humorous style, International Service enabled Kathleen to share her life story with the reader, who can follow her progression towards independence.Out of the Blue and blues
Author(s): Katherine J Browne
Published: 1975
This book, which consists of both poetry and prose, features the reminiscences of Katherine Browne. Katherine's story, which encompasses the entire spectrum of the human psyche, tells of the many pitfalls she encountered on her life's journey. It also shows that anybody can write, if they are sufficiently determined and given encouragement. Of particular interest in Katherine's narrative is her account of her war work as a Billeting Officer in Liverpool, in which she provides vivid descriptions of people's homes and lives during those turbulent and poverty-stricken times.Brighton behind the Front - Photographs and memories of the Second World War
Author(s): Various
Published: 1991(reprinted Oct-08)
First published in 1990, Brighton behind the Front was originally produced in collaboration with the now defunct Lewis Cohen Urban Studies Centre, in the same series as Backyard Brighton and Back Street Brighton. It brings together a collection of Brighton wartime reminiscences and documents how ordinary people were affected by the war. This was a challenging time in British history, giving rise to moving accounts of individual lives set against a society undergoing profound changes. Using personal recollections, contemporary photographs, letters, a logbook and diaries, Brighton behind the Front vividly portrays what it was like to live in this south coast town during the Second World War.The Smiling Bakers
Author(s): George Grout
Published: 1992
George Grout was a member of one of Brighton's best-known family bakers. He learnt the skills and craft of baking from his father and brothers at a young age, and can attest to hard times as well as recalling many happy memories of laughter and fun. George recalls the years when he lived and worked at the bottom of Coombe Road, and his bedroom was full of paper bags, there were horses in the stable and he had to get up very early in order to get to work on time. He reminisces about his ten brothers and sisters, his strong and gentle mother and the man who was his teacher, his boss and above all his father. In a nutshell he loved his work, stating that "being one of "The Smiling Bakers" kept me going. That was the name that we called ourselves.Growing up in Ditchling
Author(s): Doris Hall
Published: 1985
This is a beautifully illustrated account of life as a adolescent girl, growing up in a Sussex rural village between the First and Second World Wars. Doris Hall describes the details and events of her daily life in an environment where she was able to develop peacefully and happily, surrounded by family, friends and local traders. Such an idyllic childhood tells of a time gone by which was more trusting and safe than today's world – it was a time when one could leave one's door open or let one's children play safely in the street. A far cry from modern-day Ditchling? Maybe, although many of the pubs and shops described by Doris still exist, even if the people that ran them are long gone.