A
Visit to Pen
to Paper
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NO TRIP TO BRIGHTON
comes compete without a wander through The North Laine of Brighton where
commerce lovingly intertwines with tourism and an hour's stroll may relieve
you of money so easily that the experience has been a pleasure ! The North
Laine is a grid of early 19th century streets down the hill from the station,
listed and preserved :chock full of small shops of the Arts and Crafts
persuasion, second hand bookshops, clutter shops and serious Antique dealers
- and a very pleasant stroll indeed.
AND
NO TRIP TO THE North Laine will be complete for Old Dykes without calling
in at "Pen
to Paper" in Sydney Street where you can meet Joyce
and Margaret and their amazing shop which offers a stylish display of
elegant stationery for your every need. Choice pens and delicate inks
of every shade of the rainbow, graceful jotters and handsome journals,
fine envelopes. The emphasis is on taste as well as luxury. Small but
exquisite gifts for the discerning dyke ! Photo left:
the Shop, Sydney Street, Brighton.
MARGARET
AND JOYCE came Brighton fourteen years ago from London after
they had been together for four years, they still live in their first
little house by the sea . "Pen to Paper" opened its doors
just before Christmas last year - with Margaret's expertise as a book
seller and Joyce's knowledge of book and graphic design pooled together
- the shop was an ambition finally realised ! Photo
right: Margaret and Joyce behind the counter.
BOTH ARE "Crazy about
paper." The shop offers a wide selection of quality handmade notepaper
from all over including India, Thailand and Bali. The paper is strangely
veined and heavy, its surface not icily smooth but warmly textured, it's
edges fretted not dangerously guillotined; the quality cries out for gold
nib and cool black ink.
Joyce
also offers a design service for personalising notepaper - "Is there a
market for this ultimate in luxury I ask ?" "Oh yes," they chorus simultaneously,
" A lot customers have said that they are going to start writing journals
and travel diaries - and the Americans really like our notepaper ! A box
of personalised handmade paper and envelopes is a really nice present
for the person who thinks they have everything !" I am convinced ! Photo
left: Inside the shop
IN FACT
Pen
to Paper is not their
only commercial venture; Joyce and Margaret
are also "MonoMania" which publishes postcards featuring
Victorian and Edwardian pin-ups.... with a very understandable bias towards
women of those time ! In particular the Male Impersonator famous in the
Music Halls before and around the turn of the 19th century - Bessie Bonehill
and Vesta Tilley inter alia..... You can buy them in "Pen
to Paper." The images have come from the best of their own
extensive collection of old photographs and postcards - some in fact not
so old ! A prize find was a 1950s signed photograph of the 1950s TV Presenter
and Personality Jacqueline Mackenzie.......later Jackie Forster of SAPPHO,
The Lesbian Archive and Daytime Dykes. Lesbian campaigner and wit
extraordinaire; Great Lady. Photo left; Vesta Tilley
JOYCE AND MARGARET
are Friends of Brighton Ourstory Project and seem
to know everyone about town - not surprisingly really - it's a small place
Brighton after London. And not only famous for its Sea, Sun and Scene,
but the friendliness of its people who have certainly made this Old Dyke
welcome ! I may, of course, not be so happy when the tourists start arriving
in great numbers, but Joyce and Margaret are looking
forward to it !
Pen to Paper
is open
Monday to Saturday 10AM to 6PM and Sundays 11.30AM to 4.30PM.
You can also visit their website at:
www.pentopaperonline.co.uk
Jackie
Forster in the 1950s
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From
Old Dyke 11, April MMI
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