KONNIE HUQ

I’m not kidding when I say I grew up thinking Brighton was miles and miles away from London. Mum would pack sandwiches and a flask of tea. I’d take my little bag and I’d have my pens and crosswords in it. It was only when I was in sixth form that I realised Brighton is an hour away. It didn’t help that I would get car sick. I remember having to stop on the hard shoulder for me to puke. I remember our car had leather seats and they would burn your bum if they got hot. And those gold tins of travel sweets in the white powder that you can still get!

We had friends who lived in Brighton. I could say relatives, but “relatives” in the Bangladeshi community really means other people from Bangladesh.

For years I thought all beaches were pebbly. Brighton was amazing

until years later I graduated to a sandy beach. Back then, though, we’d spend our days on the beach or pier. It was the pier that was the real novelty for my sisters and me.

I never got pocket money growing up, so it was a luxury asking for 2p or 5p to go on the coinpush machines. The Space Invaders machine was 10p! If I managed to get a game a day on a proper arcade machine I was living the dream.

We didn’t eat out. It would be sandwiches on the beach and every once in a while we might get fish and chips. My dad was a trainee actuary at the time and later on in life, after he started his own business, we started doing more wild things, like going to Little Chef.

Even now my pleasures are very simple. All I need is to be by the sea, looking across to the abyss where the water meets the horizon. Having grown up and lived in London, there’s something very liberating about it.