The Sussex Book Club Audio Collection

David Arscott has returned to his BBC radio roots to create a new collection of CDs with a Sussex theme.

The first in the series is Wunt be Druv, a tribute to the Sussex dialect. This is a 55-minute feature, drawing on the many interviews David carried out while researching his recent book of the same name – which is, of course, also available from the Book Club.

David’s interviewees include men and women in their 80s and 90s who remember the days when few people travelled far from home; when you could pinpoint a speaker's village by his or her accent; and when the Sussex tongue was still commonly spoken, despite a growing pressure to conform to standard English.

Our second CD brings you two features in one. First comes Lureland by the Sea, the incredible story of Peacehaven’s development told by people who were there at the time. Then comes Dare to be a Daniel, a dramatised account (narrated by John Surtees) of the Salvation Army riots in Eastbourne during the 1890s.

Our third CD has a gardening theme, with a reading of Kipling’s ‘The Garden’ slotted between two full-length features. The first is an interview with the late Bert Winborne, for many years the BBC local radio gardener in Sussex, and the subject of David’s book The Upstart Gardener – also available from the Book Club.

Bert brings us tales of the old days at the big houses, when her ladyship demanded violets every day of the year; when the wily head gardener buttered up the fearsome cook; and when the best fertiliser came from the cesspit. He also bring us countless ‘wrinkles’ about vegetable growing, and recalls the day he won the vegetable-growing championship of England at Olympia.

The second feature is a montage of the voices of old gardeners who ended their days at their former national rest home, Red Oaks, in Henfield, West Sussex – and Bert makes a guest appearance here, too!