REAMS LIKES CHINESE GIRLS

Here in Hove, some seven years ago, I addressed my vertigo. That is to say, I climbed aboard one of those vehicles which, fixed upon a small truck, are winched up (and, thankfully, down) the side of a building. The secret is to look up. And it was sufficient to concentrate upon the task in hand, literally so: I had a brush with which to prepare a great expanse of brickwork on which some artists would then paint a montage to celebrate our town in this alleyway between George Street and Haddington Street which cllr Wealls and I had spent years in trying to rid of rubbish bins.

At the time, I asked whether the mural would be vandalised, and was assured that it would be "respected".

And now one of the few sections of the mural that the vandals have not daubed into oblivion is my suggestion of a quotation about the Hove seafront from Anthony Burgess's novel Inside Mr. Enderby which was inspired by his brief stay on Tisbury Road in 1961 (there is a long scene in the Neptune pub in it).

What's more, around the corner, on Haddington Street, the rear of those George Street shops are traversed by graffiti, above which looms in large letters REAMS LIKES CHINESE GIRLS.

Who is Reams and why do we need to be informed of his predeliction? There are more orthodox ways of informing the authorities (I have also seen the sentence on a wall when travelling by railway along this coast).

Why do these people trash the urban vista when they could study ways to earn a considerable income by the use of brush and canvas?