111 Places in Chichester and West Sussex That You Shouldn't Miss

111 Places in Chichester and West Sussex That You Shouldn't Miss is the latest addition to the popular 111 Places series of books.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Lovely

00:06to speak to Norman Miller. Now, Norman, you have created a lovely new edition in a really

00:12popular series of books, hundreds of them around all over the place, in the series 111

00:17Places in Such-and-Such to Visit. Now, you have, at long last, made sure that Chichester

00:22is now represented with 111 places in Chichester and West Sussex that you shouldn't miss.

00:29Oh goodness, how interesting was that to do? And how did you begin?

00:34Well, I had heard about the series through the Brighton book, and so I thought,

00:44is there a place close by to Brighton which hasn't been covered? As it's a huge series,

00:50I think there's 500 global titles, and they hadn't covered Chichester.

00:59And I thought, well, there's a place that's got a great history and an atmosphere.

01:07And I then began to explore what kind of things, because you have to cover diverse topics.

01:16And I then thought, I would ask about doing places around Chichester, like the Harbour,

01:25and West Dean, and East Dean, and all those places. And as you explored, I discovered

01:34more and more things, which included the backstory of a thing that perhaps you've

01:45passed by a lot, or it's kind of just a place that's a bit off the radar, or just something,

01:52an unusual aspect.

01:54Now, it sounds like it must have been a really fascinating project to do.

01:59Anyone who lives and works in Chichester has a massive pro-Chichester bias, thinking this is

02:03the most quirky, interesting, historic place ever, isn't it? What do you reckon? How does it rate,

02:09in terms of its history, its quirkiness, its stories, its anecdotes, its atmosphere?

02:15Well, it has this great depth of history, over 2000 years, which is partly captured

02:30at the Fishbourne Roman Palace, of course. But it's a town that has a great artistic history

02:40in both the arts and in drama as well. And the street art, because at times, I think,

02:50people think of it at times, it could be a bit staid, but then they got in some of the world's

03:00top street artists, who painted these really brilliant pieces of art, which have got their

03:09interesting backstories too. The Oxford Market is a really beautiful gallery, again, in a

03:21beautiful historic building. The Wishbone sign over the East Street, if you could delve that story,

03:31it really takes it into, it's a little eye-opening to delve into British food history,

03:40and it's just really interesting. Now, it's a peculiarity of the series,

03:44it has to be 111 things. Were you struggling to find 111, or were you thinking, what can I leave

03:50out? In the end, there were just tons of places that I thought would be great to do that, but I'll

03:59save that for what I hope will be an updated edition. The Brighton one is on its third edition,

04:08and I'm sure that there's plenty of places that I came across, I'm thinking, oh, that'd be great

04:14to put in, but I don't have the space. So yes, I was quite surprised at the start.

04:21Oh, yeah, I thought, oh my God, 111 places, but then once you delve, it wasn't hard at all.

04:32I can believe that. Brilliant. Well, congratulations on doing it.

04:35Thank you very much.

04:37Terrible omission that Chichester wasn't in this series. Congratulations for doing so,

04:41and lovely to speak to you.

04:42It was a pleasure.

04:43Thank you.

04:43Thank you very much, Phil. Take care.