SALT and VINEGAR

Salt and Vinegar is a unique slice of Brighton life. Produced by Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project, the anthology of life writing was making national headlines before it was printed. A two page feature in The Guardian in January declared that it ‘… reveals the rich stories 'ordinary' people have to tell’.

The authors are….retired, looking for their first job, struggling with ill health, bursting with energy, childless, parents, short, tall, underweight, overweight, just right, with a career behind them, with hopes and dreams in front of them, school drop outs and post graduates, accomplished writers and nervous beginners, Brighton born and Brighton drifted….

The 100 page paperback - supported by Brighton and Hove Council and Awards for All, the lottery charity - covers a wide range of subjects: a potential suicide on the edge of Brighton Pier and a mother on the edge of madness, the American gay leather industry in the 1980s and Butlins in the 1950s.

Blake Morrison, author of When Did You Last See Your Father? has called it ‘a gust of fresh sea air’ and the BBC Radio Four presenter James Naughtie was equally unequivocal. ‘There should be much more of this’

Bridget Whelan was writer in residence for the project. Read her online diary here to get a flavour of the book.

Buy SALT AND VINEGAR by mail order

Copies of Salt and Vinegar are available from Brighton book shops and by mail order from us. Please send a cheque for £6.20 (this includes postage and packing) made payable to BUCFP and post it to

Bridgton Unemployed Centre
6 Tilbury Place,
Brighton,
BN2 0GY

 

Bridget Whelan
Bridget has been running the creative writing group at the Centre for over two years. She has a Masters degree in Creative and Life Writing and a PGCE in adult education. A prize winning short story writer, she teaches creative and life writing in Brighton and London and on distance learning courses. In May she was awarded an Arts Council grant to complete her first novel set in 1960s London.