From the peaceful village of Rottingdean to the bustling streets of Brighton and Hove, this short Sussex literary journey takes you into the worlds of three very different storytellers: Rudyard Kipling, Graham Greene and Peter James. Between them, they capture contrasting sides of the Sussex coast. There is the picturesque village where Kipling found inspiration and wrote some of his best-loved works, the darker Brighton of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, and the contemporary city where Peter James’s fictional detective, Roy Grace, investigates murder and mystery.
This itinerary follows their literary footsteps through five places, discovering the buildings, streets and landmarks that inspired them and the stories that brought them to life.
The Elms and Kipling Gardens, Rottingdean
Begin your literary adventure in Rottingdean, a picturesque village just east of Brighton, where Rudyard Kipling lived between 1897 and 1902. Rudyard Kipling first stayed in Rottingdean w as a boy at Prospect Cottage and later, his son John was born there in 1897. Kipling then rented The Elms until 1902 before moving to Burwash. The Elms is an 18th-century house overlooking the village green.
It was a particularly productive period in his writing career, and it was here that he worked on Kim, Stalky & Co. and many of his much-loved Just So Stories.
Brighton and Hove Museums have a series of postcards on their website depicting what Rottingdean would have looked like in his day. The South Downs National Park have also produced a walking route and map, Rottingdean in the footsteps of Kipling and company. It is 3 miles and takes two hours. Details are available on their website.
The Elms is now privately owned, but you can admire it from the village green before stepping into the beautiful walled Kipling Gardens, which were once part of the house’s grounds. Saved from development and restored by the Rottingdean Preservation Society, they are a lovely place to spend a little time.
The Grange and Rottingdean’s literary village
Before leaving Rottingdean, make your way to The Grange, a handsome Georgian building close to the village green. Once a vicarage, it became home to the artist William Nicholson in the early 20th century and now houses a local museum and gallery. It is a fitting place to explore Rottingdean’s artistic and literary past, including its connections with Kipling and the Burne-Jones family. From here, you can also wander down to the seafront before continuing west towards Brighton.
Brighton Palace Pier and Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock
From the tranquillity of Rottingdean, head west into Brighton, where the literary atmosphere takes a decidedly darker turn. If you want, you can walk along the Undercliff Path via the Marina.
Published in 1938, Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock tells the story of Pinkie Brown, a teenage gang leader operating in Brighton’s criminal underworld. The Palace Pier is an excellent place to begin exploring Greene’s Brighton. The pier and its amusements feature prominently in the story’s seaside world, while the 1948 film adaptation, starring Richard Attenborough as Pinkie, used real Brighton locations to bring the novel to life. Walk along the pier, listen to the noise of the amusement arcades and look back towards the seafront. Almost 90 years after the novel was published, the extraordinary mixture of entertainment and slightly faded seaside charm remains.
Brighton’s seafront and the Lanes: From Pinkie Brown to Roy Grace
Leave the pier behind and explore the narrow streets of the Lanes. These are the sorts of streets that help bring Greene’s novel to life: a Brighton of boarding houses, pubs, backstreets and hidden lives, far removed from the fashionable image of the seaside resort. Look out for The Cricketers which dates back as far as 1547 making it the oldest pub in Brighton. Greene wrote Brighton Rock in the room upstairs, now named the Green Room.
Decades later, another writer would make the city the setting for one of Britain’s most successful contemporary crime series. Peter James, who grew up in Brighton, created Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, whose investigations take readers into the darker corners of Brighton and Hove. Interestingly, James has acknowledged Greene’s influence on his own writing. He has described Brighton Rock as one of the books that inspired him to become a writer, introducing him to a side of his hometown that continued to fascinate him.
Hove seafront: Peter James and Detective Roy Grace
James introduced Roy Grace in Dead Simple in 2005 and the TV series starring John Simm first premiered in 2021. Since then, the detective’s investigations have taken readers across Brighton and Hove, from familiar landmarks to ordinary streets and buildings that become rather more sinister in the pages of a crime thriller.
One particularly interesting location is the King Alfred Leisure Centre on Hove’s seafront, which features in Need You Dead, the thirteenth Roy Grace novel. The various series also take readers through other recognisable locations, including Kingsway, Brighton Marina, the Royal Pavilion, Shoreham Port, Southlands Hospital, Devil’s Dyke and Peavehaven.
A literary pause
What better way to round off your literary escape than with a good book and a little refreshment? Head to The Archives on North Road, a quirky combination of café, bar and bookshop, where shelves of second-hand books and vintage novels invite you to linger over a drink. Alternatively, seek out The Reading Room in Kemptown, a historic building dating back to 1835, now a welcoming community hub serving coffee, cake and conversation. Two lovely places to sit back, turn a few pages and reflect on Sussex’s rich literary heritage.
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