Harriet Tyce

I have chosen Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, which is set in 1930s Brighton.

And I think poisoned me against Brighton from the start because I read it before I had ever been to Brighton.

I know.

And I haven't been able to understand that in my head, Brighton is a mouth of hell.

And having reread Brighton Rock before today's recording, I have realised why.

It's because the seedy underbelly of Brighton is categorically a huge character in this book.

This book is essentially about the teenage gangster Pinky, who's 17 years old.

And it starts with a line that I think is one of the most compelling openings of any novel, which is Hale knew before he'd been in Brighton three hours that they meant to murder him.

And sure enough, the hapless Hale does end up dead.

And the rest of the novel is it's we see Pinky, who is it's no spoiler to say that he's responsible for Hale's death.

And we also meet Ida Arnold, who is a middle-aged, big-hearted, big-bosomed lady who decides that she is going to discover what's happened to Hale.

She met him the day before he died.

And, you know, the rest of the novel is this...

Brighton is beset by gangland warfare, that there are two competing gangs who are trying to take control of the very lucrative underbelly in terms of race course betting and all of that kind of thing.

And Pinky has taken charge of the smaller gang.

Pinky is essentially a psychopath.

He's a lapsed Catholic who fits a razor blade under his long thumbnail before going out to deal with money defaulters.

He is without any kind of pity or remorse.

He is totally chilling.

And I think the most evil thing that he does is that he hooks up with a 16 year old waitress called Rose, who's one of the primary witnesses against him in terms of Hale's murder.