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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.
Refuge - Stories of Survival & Escape
Author(s): The Migrant English Project at The Cowley Club
Published: 2007
The Migrant English Project at The Cowley Club offered language classes to newly arrived migrants to Brighton and Hove. This book is the result of a series of workshops where participants had the opportunity to tell their stories.Stroke: Who Cares? - The stories of five carers
Author(s): Georgina Castelfranc, Karen Clark, Guy Pearman, Irene Player, Joan Roberts
Published: 1993(reprinted 1996)
Continuing the theme of working with people who have suffered strokes, this book is intended as both a self-help aid and as a helpful guide that can provide support to others in similar situations. It is written by five people with experience of caring for a close relative who has suffered a stroke. The process of compiling their memories and thoughts and putting pen to paper was therapeutic for the authors. Their objective was to reach out and help others who may be struggling to cope in similar circumstances. Carers often have to deal with exasperating, challenging behaviour and a personal sense of being trapped and isolated. All of the narratives are lively, moving, evocative and informative and are taken from the layman's point of view, as the authors consider that professionals cannot speak with such insight. Issues that are covered include practical concerns such as claiming state benefits, hospital procedures, respite and palliative care.Moulsecoomb Days - Learning and Teaching on a Brighton Council Estate 1922-1947
Author(s): Ruby Dunn
Published: 1990
The subject of Moulsecoomb Days is the establishment of a Brighton Council Estate. The book traces the creation of a community in a 'garden suburb' which didn't have a school or a church when it was originally conceived. In the social aftermath of the Great War, Lloyd George's government devised the first serious public house-building programme. Built in a beautiful downland valley, this was an early realisation of the Liberal policy of providing 'homes fit for heroes'. However, whilst it represented a great improvement for the residents, neither the vision nor the reality was as picturesque as this catchphrase suggested. Today, the estate is considered to be rather run-down and neglected - forgotten in the mists of time, as empty promises often are.A Life behind Bars
Author(s): Marjory Batchelor
Published: 1999
Born in 1908 at the Marquess of Exeter public house, which was run by her parents, Marjory Batchelor spent her working life as a barmaid and pub landlady in and around the Brighton area. Marjory recalls her experiences of the licensed trade through two World Wars up to the present day. From the days of spit ‘n' sawdust and horse-drawn drays, to the arrival of fruit machines and ‘pub grub' – Marjory remembers it all with humour and affection. Her account documents the many changes that have taken place in pub life in Marjory's lifetime, and provides an interesting social history of the industry, through first-hand experience.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.A Ha’p’orth of Sweets - A child's 1930s - 1940s
Author(s): John Knight
Published: 1998
This is a child's-eye view of carefree times spent in the 1930s and the more difficult times experienced in the 1940s, in the poverty-stricken Albion Hill area of Brighton. Meet the characters in John Knight's resilient family unit - above all, his parents, who were determined to shield their offspring from the hardships of their own youth and to help them have a life that was better than their own. Read about the escapades of a genuine born and bred Brightonian.Our Small Corner
Author(s): Sid Manville
Published: 1994(reprinted 1994)
This autobiography is the sequel to Sid Manville's Everything Seems Smaller. It recalls memories of friends, neighbours and relatives who made up the 'small corner' of Sid's neighbourhood in Bear Road in Brighton in the Twenties and Thirties. Sid writes with much affection and humour, although he doesn't forget that this era was also a time of great hardship for working class people. His own mother and father struggled to bring up a large family at a time when it was considered fortunate to have any kind of job, no matter how poorly paid. Although times have changed, lack of employment is still a feature of many people's lives in the twenty-first century.Shops Book - Shopkeepers and Street Traders in East Brighton 1900-1930
Author(s): Neil Griffiths
Published: 1978
Shopping plays a major part in all our lives: we are all affected by rising prices and the changes that have taken place to shops in our local areas. This book is about shopkeepers and street traders – drawing together their various experiences in East Brighton. Shops have certainly changed greatly in the last hundred years - as large firms, supermarkets and superstores have replaced the small-scale local producers and craftsmen. The reader is better able to understand these changes through reading of first-hand experiences, in this comprehensive study of a bygone era.The Landlord Cometh
Author(s): Jack Cummins
Published: 1981
Born in 1894 in London, Jack Cummins lived in Brighton from 1959. This book was published on the day of his death – 9th October 1981, so sadly, it also becomes his memorial. Jack was a religious young altar boy who worshipped in the Chapel of St. Anselm and St. Cecilia in Sardinia Street, London. As a boy, he played football for Bourne Athletic Club in Holborn, expressing an interest in physical fitness as well as in spiritual matters. As an adolescent, he became a Labour and suffrage activist and a conscientious objector to wartime activity. As an adult, he surprised everyone, least of all himself, by joining the army in the First World War as, paradoxically 'the only pacifist who took up arms'.Snapshots - Childhood memories of Southampton Street 1942 ??" 55
Author(s): Janis Ravenett
Published: 1996
In this autobiography, Janis Ravenett recalls her memories of Southampton Street, situated in the Hanover area of Brighton, during the years between 1942 and 1955. Janis includes many vignettes of family life, recalling a childhood that was happy and full of fun, and recounts the inevitable good and bad times that she experienced, especially in the transition from childhood to adulthood. The stories reveal a child's vivid perception of the love, excitement and disappointments that are all part of the growing up process. These memories cannot fail to touch the child in all of us. They are presented as self-contained snapshots of Janis's life, woven together to form an overall picture that represents her life's experiences.