Bestselling crime writer Peter James talks us through his gastronomic adventures and keeps us abreast of everything relating to his fictional detective, Roy Grace.
BRIGHTON’S piers played a big role in my childhood, growing up in the city – or the co-joined towns of Brighton and Hove, as they were then. I spent many happy days fishing on the grid at the end of the Palace Pier. I would travel by bus, with a rod, a spade, a bucket and a pocket full of coins given to me by my dad for bait. But instead of buying it, I would dig up lugworms in the mudflats at low tide, then spend the coins on the slot machines. My favourite was the execution of Mary Antoinette. I endlessly watched the guillotine blade, and her head rolling into the basket beneath. It’s a fate I’ve liked to imagine happening to anyone who irks me ever since!
I always preferred the Palace Pier, but there was one attraction on the West Pier that intrigued me, an escapologist, The Great Omani. He would pour a gallon of petrol into the sea below, drop a lighted torch into it, then tie himself up in a straitjacket, jump into the flames and – hey presto – untie himself! I would stand and watch him fascinated, wondering what the big deal was about a man who tied himself up, escaping from his own knots. And every time he would yell at me, “Hey kid, you want to watch me? The minimum price is a sixpence!”
Denne historien er fra May 2017-utgaven av Sussex Life.
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Denne historien er fra May 2017-utgaven av Sussex Life.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
Decorative art
Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality
ON THE FRONT FOOT
The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
THE DIARY
17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex
All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
