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.

This book contains original material that was written during the period between the early 1860s and 1888. It is part autobiography and part diary, and tells the story of James Nye, an extraordinary man, who lived much of his life in a nineteenth century rural village, near Lewes. His life story was discovered in latter days by a fellow-musician, Vic Gammon, who brought his words to print in 1981 and wrote the introduction to this book. The narrative describes James's diverse career, ranging from his work as a village musician, composer, instrument maker, agricultural labourer and quarry worker to his later work as a gardener in Ashcombe House, near Lewes. He was a deeply religious man, being a self-educated Calvinist and his writings reflect his spiritual journey and belief in social justice for the poor and dispossessed. Nye's poetry, which is included in the book, provides a vivid testament to a world very different to that of today, and is especially vivid in his descriptions of life in the Sussex locality.