Bonny Holland is a retired teacher and therapist, and has become a walking tour guide, covering all kinds of fascinating historical aspects of Brighton and Hove, with themes including ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Haunted Hove’. She has been kind enough to tell me more about it.
Tell us a bit about yourself
During COVID I had a relative with leukaemia who couldn’t go out and about, so I started to share my daily walks around Brighton and Hove ‘virtually’ using my mobile, plus a microphone and gimbal, which stabilises filming live. Initially I did this via Messenger, then found a platform (sadly now folded) that allowed me to live stream my walks to anybody, anywhere, in the world. At one time I was live streaming to 200+ people, stuck at home for various reasons.
I loved doing this – showing them my city, able to chat live and ask questions. These days I still offer virtual tours via my Facebook group, Bonny’s England, but mostly I now do face-to-face tours.
What do you most enjoy about being a guide?
I enjoy doing the research and creating a new, themed tour. This process can take a few months. I love showing people locations they may be familiar with, but maybe not know the history of the people who once lived there. My stories are mainly about social history and I like sharing quirky stories.
You lead Ghost Walks. Do you do any other tours that relate to death?
I talk a lot about death in all of my history based tours, in particular the three Brighton ‘trunk murders’ that occurred (many murders here were crimes of passion), but also untimely deaths due to misadventure.
Brighton is a city of fun, but also a place of darkness. My Haunted Hove walks are built on local stories reported by local people and are very interesting… we have a ‘tucking in’ ghost and a ghost that does ‘washing up’, plus the bottom pinching ghost!
Do you think there’s been a big cultural difference in attitude towards death and dying over the centuries?
Yes certainly in previous times death was very visible, many children died in infancy and often photos were taken of a dead child, beautifully dressed, and propped up in a photographer’s studio. I can’t imagine that occurring today. More people had the deceased loved one in an open casket at home for ‘viewings’, again a dying custom these days.
Tell us a few of the walks you offer
Weird Brighton, Smelly Brighton, Sex in the City (women’s health and wellbeing in the 1800s), and Victorian Brighton from the Railway to the Sea.
How can people find out more?
I advertise my tours on a platform called MeetUp which is free to join my group is called ‘Bonny in Brighton- walking tours’.
Simply join my group to get access to all my upcoming events. They are free to book, I simply ask for a small donation on the day to cover my costs.