What can one expect from a summer weekend in Brighton? One can expect a profusion of drunken stag and hen parties. Gaggles of women daubed in pink. Packs of roaring and chundering men celebrating the end of one of their kin.
This was brought particularly home to me when, on a quiet walk down Brighton Pier in the twilight, a girl broke from her hen group, shouting "I'm gonna jump! I'm gonna do it!" Her friends laughed and screamed. She climbed onto the railings in front of us, to jump into the sea.
Her party screamed at her not to do it, don't be stupid. It took a stranger to intervene. (not yours truly, I'm afraid)
If she had gone ahead and done this, she would be dead or in intensive care right now. The water she was going to dive into was around a foot deep, maybe a little more.