Brighton is teeming with Londoners who have come down for the day by train - the pier, the beach, the stick-shaped coloured candy called Brighton rock, souvenir shops, amusements, and a carnival atmosphere attract people of all ages. It’s also the unofficial start of the English summer. This is a bank holiday in the United Kingdom during the 1930s when this novel is set. On Whitsun (Pentecost) weekend in May, he’s assigned to launch a treasure hunt in Brighton. If someone identifies him in person as the so-called Kolley Kibber, and if that individual also carries a copy of The Messenger, the lucky reader may claim the grand prize.

When someone finds one of these cards, they can mail it to the editorial office and claim a cash prize. He travels to different locations in Britain and leaves cards in a variety of public places. His job is to run a newspaper treasure hunt and promotional scheme. Fred is employed by a newspaper, The Messenger, in London. He elicits empathy despite the fact that he may have his own chequered past. Fred Hale’s murder, however, frames the story - as does his vulnerability in the last hours of life. It’s unusual for a novel to begin from the point of view of a character who will die in the first chapter. Sun-drenched Brighton, with throngs of visitors from London enjoying a long weekend by the sea, is the seemingly innocuous backdrop for a story about mob life, murders and a seventeen year-old sociopath called Pinkie. On a Whitsun holiday weekend, she has a fling with a frightened stranger on the cusp of death. That’s what happens to Ida Arnold in Graham Greene’s 1938 novel Brighton Rock. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, Penguin Twentieth Century Classics, 1995, 247 pgs.Ī chance encounter can change the course of a life.

Graham greene brighton