Comings, Goings and Doings . Dancing on the Beach at Baabe . Edward James. Walk on the Wilde Side . Honky-tonk Piano, Sailors and Other Rare Flowers . Out on the World Wide Web! . Mulling over the Argus

Comings, Goings and Doings

Welcome to our fourth newsletter. For the first time in nine years Brighton Ourstory Project did nothing in the Brighton Festival and concentrated instead on finishing the much-delayed autobiography of Barbara Bell.

'Tango' card from the MomoMania collection

After four years as a BOP member, Margaret Monod is leaving us - thank you for all your hard work, Margaret. Look out for Margaret's MonoMania women's nostalgia postcards and greetings cards in the shops soon. Andrew Le Flohic has joined us and has been busy creating a very lovely World Wide Web page for BOP.

Brighton Festival

BOP members enjoyed two Brighton Festival events; the first a reading of a play by Terry James - A Madman of Convenience - which dramatised the 1823 case of David Griffiths who accused King George IV of buggery (see Newsletter No 2). The Alarmist Theatre production was a revised version of a Radio Four play broadcast in 1991 and plans are afoot for a full scale performance. Interestingly Mr James believes Griffiths' accusation to be true.

Secondly Emma Donoghue, author of Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668Ü1801, gave a reading at Waterstones and BOP member Linda took the opportunity to record for the archive Emma's experiences of researching lesbian history. Emma's new book is a short biography of the aunt and niece lesbian couple, Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper, who together wrote poetry in the late nineteenth century under the name of Michael Field and who liked to holiday in Brighton with their dog Whym Chow. We Are Michael Field is published by Absolute Press.

Also of local lesbian and gay historical interest was a talk by Emma Milliken in the Eastbourne Champion Women Festival about the pioneering career of Dr Helen Boyle, lesbian founder of the New Sussex Hospital for Women and Children and the Lady Chichester. Emma will be giving a talk, Lesbians All? Brighton's Pioneering Doctors, to the Friends of Brighton Ourstory Project in August. Entrance will be restricted to Friends and Honorary Friends so please use the enclosed membership form and become a Friend if you'd like to be invited.

Archive donations

Recent donations to the archive have included Paul Clift's photographs of Brighton's first demonstration against the pernicious Section 28 ten years ago. Dare we hope the Labour Government will repeal the Section soon? Also received was a full set of Millivres Books titles from Peter Burton. Thank you, Paul and Peter.

Brighton Area Action Against the Clause - march on 8th April 1988
Approaching Brighton Town Hall

It is with sadness that we record the tragic and premature death of David Holden on 11th February. He had quite recently joined the history group as a member.