QueenSpark Books

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QueenSpark Books

QueenSpark is the UK's longest-running non-profit community publishing and writing organisation, bas

QueenSpark is the UK's longest-running non-profit community publishing and writing organisation, based in Brighton and Hove. We publish books about local people's lives, run creative writing projects and facilitate oral history projects.

2017 is our 45th anniversary and we are planning on looking at life in Brighton in 1972,

Join us on Twitter:
Registered Charity Number 1172938

07/09/2026

❓Could AI help people discover the real voices and stories in the QueenSpark archive?

We’re asking our community to help us find out.

Come and test the app, give us your honest feedback, and tell us where you think the ethical boundaries lie.

Want to take the conversation further? Join one of our Focus Groups and help shape what QueenSpark does next - email [email protected] to book.

📍 6 Tilbury Place, Hanover B, N20GY18 & 19 September

NB Bring a phone and headphones

05/09/2026

📅 Should QueenSpark Books be using AI?

It’s a question we’re exploring — and we’d like your help.

We’re inviting you to test an experimental app that uses QueenSpark archive books and AI to create walking tours of Brighton

But where should the line be?

❓Should QueenSpark use AI to create these tours?
❓Which uses of AI would you be comfortable with — and which would cross a line?

📍 6 Tilbury Place, Hanover BN2 0GY
Friday 18 September | 4–7pm and/or
Saturday 19 September | 11.30am–4pm NB bring a phone and headphones

☺️Want to discuss further? Sign up to our Focus Group taking place alongside the testing, give your views on AI, heritage and the ethics of using AI in this way.
Email [email protected] to book.

28/08/2026

Buy two of our most popular books under one cover! 👏

Backyard and Back Street Brighton gather together photographs and memories of houses scheduled for demolition during the 1930s, and again in the late 1940s and early 1950s 🏘️

Available to buy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/QueenSpark-Authors/author/B0D35D6ZSD?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

26/08/2026

April 1991: A sea of red noses, baggy trousers, and oversized shoes. 🤡
History isn’t always serious — sometimes it’s a parade of clowns.

📚 Explore more fromQueenSpark Books https://queensparkbooks.org.uk/

📷Brighton and Hove Photographic Collection Vol. 1

24/08/2026

🎩A Century of Brighton History: Brighton’s Unforgettable Customers 👒

As part of A Century of Brighton History, we’re diving into The Other Side of the Counter, Marjorie Gardiner’s memoir of working in Brighton shops.

One customer bought the priciest hat for her husband’s funeral, saying, “He gave me a bloody awful life, so I’m giving him a bloody good send-off!” 😂

Discover more of Marjorie’s memorable moments and the characters who came through her shop doors!

🔗 Read her full story here: https://rebrand.ly/QueenSparkArchive

21/08/2026

📖 A Century of Brighton History: The Brighton Bevin Boy

In 1943, 18-year-old Leslie Wilson dreamed of joining the Royal Navy—but instead, he was sent down the Welsh coal mines as a Bevin Boy. ⛏️

His powerful memoir A Far Cry from a White Apron tells of lost youth, back-breaking labour, and the dangers of life underground during WWII. Despite their essential war work, Bevin Boys received little recognition.

📖 Read Leslie’s remarkable story in our free archive: https://rebrand.ly/QueenSpark-Books-archive

💬 Do you have family stories of wartime work? Share them below!

19/08/2026

🅿️ Even model buses get parking tickets!

The Brighton & Hove Photographic Collections Volumes I & II - available from our bookshop https://queensparkbooks.org.uk/about/

📷A Perspective of Pool Valley by JJ Waller

17/08/2026

📅This month in Brighton's history - August

A month that often saw the opening of new tourist attractions.

🐠Opened in 1872, Brighton Aquarium is the world’s oldest aquarium still in operation. But it was much more than a place to see exotic sea life — visitors could enjoy a restaurant, music, a conservatory and even a roller-skating rink.
🏛️ 🌊 🐟 🐠 🐙 🪼 🐚 ⚓️

Do you have a story about this Victorian wonder?👇

14/08/2026

📚 A Century of Brighton History: 🎩 When Hats Were Essential Fashion!

In the 1930s, every respectable Brighton woman wore a hat. Marjorie Gardiner’s memoir shares the stories behind Brighton’s hat culture—from elaborate bird-trimmed hats to everyday essentials.

Explore the world of millinery in The Other Side of the Counter!

🔗 Free in our archive: https://rebrand.ly/QueenSparkArchive

”

12/08/2026

📅This Month in Brighton's History - August

A month that often saw the opening of new tourist attractions.

On 4 August 1883, Magnus Volk’s Electric Railway opened on Brighton seafront — the first electric railway in Britain and now the world’s oldest operating electric railway.
🚂 🚆 🚉 🛤️ 🎟️ 🚋 ⚡️ 📸

Volk didn’t stop there. His later experiment, the extraordinary “Daddy Long-Legs”, carried passengers out to sea on a railway built over the water.

Do you have a story about this remarkable piece of Brighton’s history?👇

Address

Brighton

Website

http://www.queensparkbooks.org.uk/

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