The Migrant English Project at The Cowley Club offered language classes to newly arrived migrants to Brighton and Hove. This book is the result of a series of workshops where participants had the opportunity to tell their stories.

This is a reprint of the revised second edition published in 2003. It is included here (out of sequence in the QueenSpark chronology) because it was created to be a limited edition of the 1984 book that enabled a new generation of readers to become acquainted with Harry Cowley, a Brighton chimney sweep who became a legend. When he died in 1971, his body was laid in state at St Peter's Church. More than 500 people attended his funeral to pay tribute to the man they called 'the Gov'nor'. Since then, Harry has not been forgotten. In 1999 Brighton & Hove Bus Company acknowledged his contribution to the City by giving a bus his name and in 2003 The Cowley Club, named in tribute to Harry and his grassroots action, opened its doors to the public.

Born in Brighton in 1891, Harry Cowley, known as the ‘Gov’nor’, was a Brighton chimney sweep who later became a local legend. He fought for the rights of the under-privileged; for the homeless and unemployed as well as for market traders and old-age pensioners. Harry also battled against social injustices that he came across in his lifetime; for example, he opposed Moseley’s fascists in the 1930s and campaigned against what he described as tight-fisted councils and unjust governments. His autobiography encompasses the changing nature of working class life and politics in Brighton during the twentieth century, and shows how one man, with his rallying cry of ‘it don’t come right to me’, struggled to overcome adversity and lived a fascinating and eventful life. Harry died in March 1971.