Our Friends in the North

Thanks to the kindness of Peter and Jenni, I managed to visit the Science Fiction Foundation for the first time since 1995 - which is both depressing and suggests that I have a reasonable collection of stuff on my shelves. Being still at a disturbingly early stage of research, I wasn't that clear of what I wanted to look at - one of two vital pieces of research I failed to undertake before I left home.*

Whilst I eventually became more directed - and the first two such items were not findable on the shelves - I spent two days going through F&SF, mainly reading the book and film reviews. Whilst much of it was irrelevant, I got the sense of finding chunks of stuff that goal-orientated research might not have found. Take this delicious review by Richard Delap of a famous short story:

"Women who cry out that modern sf does not recognize their sex as anything but bitches and/or love objects will have to shut up where this story is concerned, properly chastised by the fact that few (if any) female sf authors have ever given women the prominence or depthful characterization that he gives here with little fuss and seeming ease. ... the intricate play should make some of the readers of the Lib movement curl up in shame when they see that a man recognizes their ambitions better than they do themselves.”

My how I chortled. Quietly. Being in a library.

Last time I was there with paper and pen - hell, last time I had complete run of the stacks (and in East London I was left alone with them) - but this time I was there with Wifi-enabled laptop of heavy loveliness. Bless Eduroam - although the temptation to play online Scrabble is a little too high when research should be the order of the day. I note also that my iPod works with Eduroam in Liverpool and on the Campus on the Hill, but not the Secret Campus. Chiz. But it is useful to be able to access the catalogue, as well as Hal Hall's index, wikipedia, Fantastic Fiction and so forth. Research rustiness means that I haven't always been assiduous in noting first and last pages, but I suspect I'll be going back.

The seventies project is still growing - and not just because Peter and Jenni rattled off various tv series I'd forgotten - and the research here seemed to add to the questions needing to be answered rather than answer them. By the end of the year I need to reverse the trend. My fear is that it will spiral out of control.

But there was a spooky sense of finding material that would be relevant - a section on white flight immediately chimed with Juniper Time, read on the train back north that night.

I managed to find some useful volumes in Andy's duplicates - as well as in the secondhand shop on Mount Pleasant (and indeed in North Shields). Still plenty of gaps, mind.


* The other is bus timetables. The city clearly wants to keep secret any of the public transport routes to the university. I know it's not far but it is uphill and I was nursing a dodgy knee.

Eastbourne

Saturday and to Eastbourne - although I think the trains have been retimed so that it's a rush to get to the train at Ashford, and no longer coming in at an adjacent platform doesn't help. Still, I caught it with three minutes to spare and got a seat at a table. The two carriages are clearly not enough - but apparently there is no demand. It's a pleasant run through what sounds like Harry Potter land - Appledore, Ham Street - and thence to Rye and Hastings. There are numerou places here that look worth exploring.

I did two bits of research in advance - charity shops and bookshops. The charity shops are based along Grove Road and Terminus Road, and there is one second hand bookshop. I didn't locate the Towner Gallery in advance, as it's "one of the most significant public art collections in the South East" so obviously would be signposted.


Obviously.


....


I poked my head into what looked a promising arcade of fifty small shops, with a food hall at one end, but nothing leapt out, aside from the fish statue, and then crossed the main road again to the library. I could have bought a handful of DVDs here, but settled for Southland Tales and a reading copy of Tau Zero. Leaflets for the Towner Gallery were notable for their absence - or indeed any maps of Eastbourne. Then it was a case of working my way down Grove and popping into charity shops.

I'd forgotten the bookshop was there as well, and browsed the external 50p shelves and honesty box, and there was stuff I wanted but had, so no joy there. Inside made the Broadstairs Albion Bookshop (see icon on this post) look threadbare - immediately inside were piles of 30+ paperbacks a dozen deep. The visible spines were tempting, but mostly it was out of reach - as was the shelved stuff. I gingerly picked my way through the maze and tried to establish organising principles, and discovered there was a downstairs, which was even scarier. There was a lack of Tolkein on the stairs (and indeed Tolkien), and whilst some of the fiction a to z was relevant, I couldn't face the browse, and indeed nothing bar a Baudrillard leapt out, and I put that back. It's the sort of bookshop that could kill you with a pile of paperbacks - what a way to go, but still. (See here for something similar.)

I walked as far as the town hall, and turned left in Little Chelsea. At the end of this road I could head forward to the sea, or left to tourist information, and the latter seemed wisest. Tourist Information lacked any visible information on the Towner (and you can't ask), nor do the local town centre map show anything. A book on Eastbourne did reveal it was part of the theatre complex.

This took me back to Terminus Road, and I headed, via a chippy, to the sea front, where I sat watching the pier and fought off gulls. It looks as if, like Whitstable, there are seaforts off the coast, and it felt odd not to see a windfarm. I slowly toasted and watched the geriatric Brands Hatch of motability scooters.

Time then to head for the theatres - Devonshire Park Theatre and Compass Theatre, the latter recognisable from a postcard I'd seen at Tyneside market. At this point I cracked and asked in th box office for directions - and it turns out that the Towner Gallery was the other side of the box office - and still no chuffing signs.

I wonder if they had the De La Warr Pavilion in mind - it does look like it's carved out of royal icing, with a marriage of curves and corners see (here). But it doesn't have the sheer ocean-going-liner romance of the 1930s building, and the sixties Compass Theatre limits its facade to three sides. There's a pleasant second floor cafe, with good views over the town, the tennis and the downs (the ups?), and rather odd acoustics on the balcony. The interior has gone for the bolted concrete slab look, which is an industrial honesty miles away from the mock assembly rooms Victoriana of most galleries. The design was by Rick Mather Architects, who have also worked on the South Bank, Dulwich Picture Gallery and the National Maritime Museum.

The Towner Collection is the heart of the gallery - with initially the first two floors being given over to a contemporary selection including Tacita Dean and one of those flowers under glass sculptures, and a popular choice. Acquisition and selection means there's a pile of Eastbourne and Beachy Head scenes - remarkably few of which would be damned by the term "inoffensive", and some good more abstract stuff. Nothing blew me away, but I've seen an awful lot of bad municipal purchases - where the frame takes up as much room as the picture itself. There's a lot of Eric Ravilious, a local boy of whom I've not eard; there's clearly an interest in engraved-style art; design as much as pictorial. Subject to the special exhibition - in this case bone chandeliers by Jodie Carey in a darkened room full of fruit boxes - I think it'd be worth an annual visit.

After browsing and purchasing in the shop - two or three Christmas presents accounted for - I naviagted a more direct route back to Terminus Road and the remaining charity shops. I didn't get time to do the Arndale Centre - no great loss I suspect - nor did I do the Old Town, but I got back in time for the 17.08 to Ashford.

So, a useful day of browsing, and weird swinging between first liking the town, then sliding off it and finally gaining respect. But, still. One of the most significant public art collections in the South East? They need signposts.

One for your Christmas List?