Join us at Horatio’s Bar at the end of Palace Pier for a Brighton-themed Catalyst Club special with some of the city’s best-loved authors and tour guides. The event includes a special (self-directed) Cheeky Brighton themed walk that begins on the pier and can be done before or after the event. Prizes for anyone who takes up the Max Miller statue challenge!
Ric Morris is a Blue Badge tourist guide, based in Brighton. His tours include Only in Brighton! and the LGBTQ+ history tour Piers and Queers. He is the author of A-Z Brighton Hidden Walks. The book describes 20 walks around Brighton focusing on lesser-known circuits and secret spots on popular walks alongside the clear A-Z street mapping.
Alexandra Loske is a writer, art historian and curator of the Royal Pavilion. She arrived in Brighton from Berlin in December 1996, an Anglophile with one suitcase and all the wrong clothes. 20 years later, she was asked to write 111 Places in Brighton & Lewes That You Shouldn’t Miss. Writing about what is special, quirky, and unmissable in and around Brighton reminded her why she had chosen Sussex as her home. In this talk she will tell the story of the making of the book and reveal her favourite places in Brighton (and Lewes, actually).
Orlando Gough is a composer who writes operas, choral music, music-theatre, music for dance and theatre, and creates large-scale site-specific work. In 2021 he wrote Coming And Going a portrait and memoir of the city. Taking the form of short episodes which move back and forth between past and present, his investigation summons up the spirits of the people who have played their parts, both in reality and in fiction. The book disentangles Brighton’s contrasts and connections, the fluctuations between its architectural landscape and the natural world, the variety and complexions of its many sounds and voices.
David Bramwell
David is host of the Catalyst Club, an author and broadcaster. In 1999 he co-wrote the city’s first independent guide book, The Cheeky Guide to Brighton. It was the city’s bestselling book for over two years. Chapters included Where to Contact the Dead, Fatboyslim’s Fashion Page (basically pictures of him in different Hawaiian shirts) and A Spotter’s Guide to Brighton Eccentrics. Cheeky Guides spawned four titles, three stage shows and a memorable BC Radio 2 live radio interview with Noel Edmonds The Brighton guide ran for six editions over 20 years and is probably still out there somewhere.
Did David really turn down a £340,00 publishing deal in 2004? And is he still kicking himself?