Writer and broadcaster GYLES BRANDRETH recalls childhood holidays on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, plus how his passion for seaside theatres and piers makes him happy. Interview by Alex Reece
In its golden heyday, in the Victorian age, the Isle of Thanet (the easternmost part of Kent) was a popular holiday resort. People like Charles Dickens used to go to Broadstairs. Indeed there is hardly a building in Broadstairs that has not been visited by Charles Dickens.
I was taken to Broadstairs on holiday by my parents in the 1950s. It was very traditional: there were donkeys, there was Punch and Judy. And my recollection is that Broadstairs was where the family would go, Ramsgate was where the upwardly mobile people would go and Margate was where everyone went – but you kept quiet about it.
It had an extra excitement in that at Kingsgate there lived a man called Frank Richards, the most prolific author the world has ever known. Frank Richards created Billy Bunter and the world of Greyfriars School. Billy Bunter in the 1950s was hugely famous, because he was on television. So from my point of view, the Isle of Thanet was a particularly special place, because that’s where you would find Billy Bunter and his friends.
I loved going to the Pavilion on the Sands at Broadstairs and, over the years, I have tried to collect, when I’ve been doing a tour, as many of these seaside theatres as possible. I’m also a great enthusiast for piers. I’m one of the patrons of the National Piers Society.
I think one of my enthusiasms would be these old Victorian theatres and piers, and the history of popular entertainment.
The Isle of Thanet gives you some of the best of that, because you’ve got the old pleasure grounds like Dreamland, the old theatres and bandstands – and you’ve also got great literary history as well, because of people like Dickens. I do still go back, and of course it’s changed, but in many ways that part of the world is reviving itself rather effectively.
"I was taken to Broadstairs on holiday by my parents in the 1950s. It was very traditional: there were donkeys, there was Punch and Judy. And my recollection is that Broadstairs was where the family would go, Ramsgate was where the upwardly mobile people would go and Margate was where everyone went – but you kept quiet about it."
