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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.
Stories from the Nights at the Round Table
Author(s): Dawn Bartram, Margaret Bearfield, Marion Devoy, Gill Donocick, Peggy Eaton, Julie Everton, Sarah Griffiths, Clare Halstead, Ruth Lonsdale, Eve Peel, Sheila Smith, Pauline Streeton, Margaret Ward
Published: 1998
This is an anthology taken from work that was produced by the Hangleton and Brighton Women Writers' groups. The Hangleton group started meeting in July 1988 as part of the Hangleton and Knoll Community Festival. The aim of the programme was to introduce new writers and audiences to the notion of creative writing, using a variety of methods, to explore the central concerns and themes that impact on women's lives and to draw on their life experiences. For many women, it was the first time that they were able to see their work in print, and this was a positive and uplifting experience for them.The Other Side of the Counter - The Life of a Shop Girl 1925-1945
Author(s): Marjorie Gardiner
Published: 1985
This autobiography looks at the working life of milliner, Marjorie Gardiner, from 1925 to 1945, including an account of her working life during the Second World War. Marjorie's story is told in a lively and evocative manner, and describes her experiences as a shop assistant working in a Brighton hat shop, where she met all manner of elite customers. Those were the days when women were particularly fashion-conscious and there was a huge variety of different types of hat styles available. This first-hand account provides a fascinating insight into shop life during the first part of the twentieth century.One Camp Chair in the Living Room - A Woman’s Life in Rottingdean
Author(s): Margaret Ward
Published: 1988
Born in 1916, Margaret Ward describes her life as a 'winding lane' because of the many twists and turns it has taken. Her autobiography describes her childhood in Rottingdean, growing up amongst a loving family in the picturesque Sussex seaside village. For Margaret, 'nowhere in the world is there such a lovely place' to grow up. Her story moves from childhood, through adolescence and working life to her eventual retirement. She recounts the inevitable good and bad times that she experienced, in her story of family life in a close-knit community of a trusting bygone age, when villagers knew and trusted their neighbours, and could leave their doors open or let their children roam freely outdoors.Brighton on the Rocks - Monetarism and the Local State
Author(s): QueenSpark Rates Book Group
Published: 1983
Published in 1983, this book was intended to be the first of a new series, but is the only one that was eventually commissioned. It incorporates a collection of interviews, photographs and statistics, which are used to analyse how monetarism affected the economic policies that were pursued by the city's local authorities in the 1980s. When local councils imposed financial cuts from 1980 onwards, they argued that the cuts were necessary because of overspending. This text takes the view that monetarist policies are implicated in the decline in public services and critically evaluates the effects of monetarism on working people's lives, organisations and throughout the welfare state. It poses the question as to whether a different kind of economics was needed that was geared to need rather than to monetarist philosophy?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.Deckhand, West Pier
Author(s): Arthur Thickett
Published: 1993(reprinted 1999)
This is a fresh and often humorous look at a young man who came to Brighton in the summer of 1970, full of hope and optimism – his goal was to find adventure and ultimately love. Written in a witty prose style, we learn that on his first day he found digs, on his second day, he walked into a job, but cupid's arrow was to prove more elusive! Haunted by memories of the Second World War, Arthur Thickett tried to reconcile himself to his past and find friendship and laughter. He describes a town that behind the bright and lively holiday facade was full of lonely people. Note that the cover shown is from the second edition produced in 1999. The original book looked more like Margaret Ward"s Memories of Rottingdean.Live and Learn - A life and struggle for progress
Author(s): Les Moss
Published: 1979
In this book, Les Moss tells of his lifelong struggle in search of progress, and his personal triumph over adversity. Also documented is the eventful daily and working lives of both himself and his family. Examples of the struggles experienced by Les's family are shown in the tale of how his grandfather's Northampton shoe manufacturing company was driven out of business by the advent of mass production and how his father, who played the flute in the Camden Music Halls in London, could no longer work when mass entertainment became prevalent. In turn, Les's own craft as a centre-lathe turner became largely displaced during his lifetime. This fascinating life history also describes one man's involvement in trade unionism and provides a picture of political activism in London and Brighton from the 1920s onward.Who Stood Idly By - Poems and Cartoons
Author(s): Alf Johns
Published: 1984
Published in 1984, this is a book containing humorous and political poems and cartoons intended for an adult audience. Satirical and witty, exhibiting a wry, often black sense of humour, the subject matter centres around the politics of the government of the day, in particular the policies pursued by the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. Written by a retired hospital porter, Alf Johns highlights the failures of Thatcher's government in the 1980s and early 1990s. Alf believed in socialism, which he described as 'the language of peace and economic success' and of particular concern to him was the topic of anti-nuclear disarmament.Her story - The Life of Phoebe Hessel
Author(s): Ruth Moorhouse, Chris Randall
Published: 1994
Phoebe Hessel (1713-1821) was a woman who spent part of her life dressed as a man, and fought as a soldier for many years with the British Army. In the 18th century, women had very little power or choice in their lives and there was therefore much to be gained in "becoming a man" in such a patriarchal society. In writing this book for children, QueenSpark hoped to encourage them to explore and question gender roles and have some insight into the changing values and expectations of contemporary society.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.