Product Description

At the beginning of the 21st century, Britain seems to be experiencing a sudden reckless rush of liberalisation: 24 hour licensing, gay marriages, the upper classes derided and the celebrity class revered. How did we get here? Only 50 years ago we couldn't get enough of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainer; today our poster couple is Kate Moss and Pete Doherty. "Made in Brighton" takes a cold, hard look at the changing face of Britain, using Brighton as a focal point. Brighton has long been at the vanguard of English tastes - in its attitudes towards homosexuality, the rise of the chav and binge-drinking, as well as its music and drug cultures. Julie Burchill and Daniel Raven, who have lived in Brighton for many years, interweave their personal stories and experiences of Brighton with larger themes of sex, politics and class to explore the changes in British society over the last 20 years. Funny and bittersweet, part memoir and part analysis, "Made in Brighton" is for anyone with a curiosity and a love for Britain, for those who are aware of a cultural shift but can't put their finger on what's happening - and anyone looking for an excuse to be beside the seaside.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #435291 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 12
• Binding: Hardcover
• 183 pages

About the Author
Julie Burchill has been a writer since the age of 17. She has written for the Guardian and The Times and is the author of a number of novels and non-fiction books. Her most recent triumph was a successful TV adaptation of her teenage novel Sugar Rush. She is looking forward to finishing the follow up, Sweet, before becoming a full-time theology student and voluntary worker. Daniel Raven has worked as a filing clerk, postman and TV production runner. He has written short stories for his own childish amusement but this is his first published work.

Customer Reviews

Brighton Rock


Language is an important tool of communication and Julie Burchill's communication skills appear to connect with the chattering classes and provide them with amusement. Burchill gives the impression of believing she's the only person in the world whose opinion matters but fails to understand that her writing provides amusement for the very people she professes to dislike.

For anyone without Burchill's self-indulgent tendencies, fashioned and honed in the equally self indulgent media, her book falls between two stools. It seeks to depict reality but reads like a novel. That too has its advantages but, for outsiders, it's more like the reality of Bleaker Street where, " They call it living but it feels like dying".

Burchill offers polemics instead of argument because she has no substantial argument to offer. One wonders at times if she has ever outgrown the teenage mentality of wanting to shock. It's all music to the ears of the socially dysfunctional and indulgent middle classes but working class origins and bourgeois living make uneasy bedfellows.

In fairness to Burchill I've never been to Brighton and some of what she writes would have more meaning to those familiar with the town. However, I'm left with the impression that had it been Bognor the substance of her tome would have been the same. Only the names would be changed to protect the innocent - or guilty - as the case may be.