It was always going to be a tall order to keep the surprise party to celebrate Bright News’ 30 years anniversary a secret. Well, thanks to a collective sense of intrigue and enjoyment, West Hill residents managed to give Vinod and Meena Mashru the surprise of their lives in December.

Their sons Vishal and Anish joined in the clandestine goings-on by coming down to Brighton for the occasion without their parents knowing, and daughter Karishma managed to steer Meena and Vinod to the Hall to what they thought was a get-together for another long-term resident. Many people gave them gifts, everyone signed two huge cards, the one shown on the front page, made by local children. In true ‘This is Your Life’ style, Colette, one of The Whistler editors, presented them with a book of Bright News related stories taken from The Whistler over the last 30 years. It was a great, happy evening and for those readers who could not make it, there are more photographs taken by Graham Brown and Geoff Bailey on the Bright News Facebook page that capture the event. Thanks to them both for the photos.

In the last edition, we published a listing of Seven Dials shops then and now, which brought back memories for many of our readers. Thanks to Bob Potter who, in response to the request to join in the nostalgia, sent us a scanned page of the 1969 Kelly’s Directory which filled in lots of gaps. We’ve updated the article with the new additions online at westhillwhistler.wordpress.com. Still on the nostalgia trail, for this edition we’ve raided more Whistler archives for tales of local life. Please raid your memories and send us your recollections of West Hill and Seven Dials.

In 2015 we welcome more new groups to West Hill Hall, who join our already eclectic set of regular users. See – Curious Creators, Sing Healthy Play Happy and A Fool’s Guide to Playing on the Sessions page.