Brighton’s Colors

Happy new year, world! I was listening to The Moth Radio Hour yesterday and the first story, amazingly, happened to be told by His Majesty the King’s Royal Raven Master, who lives at the Tower of London where we visited just about two weeks ago. He told a story about his first day on the job years ago and losing one of the six ravens. Legend has it that the ravens protect the Crown and kingdom and if they leave, the kingdom will fall. The Raven Master said in his story yesterday that for the first time in history, there are now eight ravens “because things in the kingdom are a little bit dodgy these days.”

I laughed out loud, and I thought about Brighton. The Tomlinsons found Hugh in the theater district in London a few days after Christmas, had a pint in a pub and caught the train south to create some Brighton beach memoirs at New Year’s.

Piling off the train, we walked from the train station to the flat and saw vape stores, run down touristy shops with burnt out lights, and teenagers banging on bus doors and yelling at the driver to be ignored as the driver pulled away. Indeed, things seemed a little bit dodgy and even drab—not helped by the relentlessly gray sky.

We dropped off our bags Ina shockingly cerulean apartment decorated a large David Bowie print and walked out on the pier. There, the colors were a gorgeous aquamarine blue deepening to teal under a moody dark sky. It was then easy to see why the location has long been a draw for Brits and foreigners alike. We ate more fish and chips (Finn) and mussels (Kev) at a slightly kitschy restaurant that reminded me of Ocean City.

Walks along the coast were so cold and blustery that we couldn’t talk much, and I wondered if the weather makes it difficult to maintain a shiny glow on the peeling-paint hotels and apartments. Hugh said Brexit has brought harder times to the whole country and I could see it.

The drab is irrelevant, however, at 6:00 am when it’s still black outside. When Finn knocked on the door telling Kevin he was ready to go down to the water, Kevin told him to go back to bed. At 7:00 am, in the misty dawn, Finn went…swimming. Yes, in the English Channel. The water was rough and the beach is all pebbly rocks and the water was as freezing as you would imagine. Finn embraced and loved it. The only thing I embraced was my hot cup of coffee.

Despite the beach beauty, I was less than inspired by Brighton’s run down vibe; but then Hugh and his friend Richard Hutt led us into the pretty parts of town, and everything lit up. Richard is a friend of Hugh’s and the family’s from our days in Ghana in the 1970s, and I basically haven’t seen him since, so it was quite something to have a cocktail with an old friend and editor of GQ (Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine).

His work had sent Hugh and I on a quest to a bookshop in London to find a map of James Bond’s London that Richard published, a favorite evening of the trip. Moreover, Hugh gave Finn a book Richard wrote on etiquette for men that Finn poured over on the train and airplane home. Sixteen is a good age to be influenced by the best.

In addition to the Instagram-ready restaurant on New Year’s Eve, where the cocktails, sparks, sequins, feathers and over-the-top flowers lit up the space, Kevin, Finn and I found some fabulous art. Some were in galleries at The Lanes and some were on walls outdoors. That morning of exploring brought some spice and pop-color to my impressions of Brighton.

One of my favorite moments from the trip was at the exact turning of the year. We stayed in a “stylish” but kind of weird, slanted apartment a block from the pier. Across from us was a gay bar that provided lots of good cheer to its customers and a drag show that Kevin watched on for a few minutes. The area was externally festive at midnight…but our whole house was asleep except for Tatum and myself. So the two of us, from her bedroom window, watched the fireworks popping into the sky over the English Channel and hugged each other—and I already felt like lots of hopes and predictions had come true. The future is bright.