She’s something of a human encyclopaedia, Rose Collis.

Or at least when it comes to anything Brightonrelated.

Want to know about the city’s LGBT history? Get her new smartphone app.

Ever wondered how your favourite pub got its name?

Read her book.

Familiar with the famous figures buried in Woodvale Cemetery?

Collis is, and can enlighten you too on one of her “Talkie- Walkies”.

When we meet in Brighton Coffee Company, she wastes no time in filling me in on her latest obsession – Charles Dickens. She’s been working on new show What The Dickens! to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the great man’s birth and illustrate his close ties with her favourite city. Dickens was a frequent visitor to Brighton and a regular guest at the seafront’s Bedford Hotel (now replaced by the Holiday Inn). A blue plaque was put up last month to mark the connection.

There are references to Kemp Town’s Upper Rock Gardens in Dombey And Son, and many more in Bleak House and Nicholas Nickleby.

“He did many of his very famous public readings at the Pavilion and the old Town Hall, and an impromptu one at the Royal York Hotel. He did 444 readings in 12 years, all while writing his books!

Can you believe that?”

Collis is as curious as a child, a trait that’s led her to writing books on a wide range of esoteric subjects. In addition to her most wellknown, The Encyclopaedia Of Brighton, a hefty and comprehensive tome, she’s the author of a book about First World War hero Colonel Barker, who was jailed in 1929 when, after marrying Elfrida Hayward at St Peter’s Church, Brighton, it turned out “he” was actually a she.

Collis has also written a book about stage legend Coral Browne and another about Nancy Spain, who enjoyed a wildly successful media career as an author, journalist and panellist on Juke Box Jury and What’s My Line?

In 2006, she wrote and researched online content for the Icons Project on British culture and, in 2007, she contributed to an online exhibition and website dedicated to playwright Joe Orton (who has numerous connections with Brighton – most famously his agent Peggy Ramsay, who lived in North Laine). Her talks and lectures have included events at the National Theatre, the National Film Theatre, the Edinburgh Book Festival, Brighton Festival, Brighton Museum and Charleston.

Born in south London, Collis fell into journalism after being invited to write the LGBT column for London’s now-defunct City Limits magazine.

Everything else grew from there. She “escaped”

to Brighton in 1997 and credits the city as the main factor in her many-pronged career.

“I have to say I wouldn’t have done most of the things I’ve done if I wasn’t in Brighton. There’s something about the place that stimulates. I found London too negative, competitive, too big. It’s easier to do things here. There’s a great ‘have-a-go’ spirit.”

In May, Collis will return to her first love, theatre, with a one-woman cabaret show called Trouser Wearing Characters. The show will feature stories and songs about some of her favourite city residents of the past. Mixing history, comedy and music (Collis resurrects her vintage banjoleles – “I was playing them long before everyone else got into them,” she laughs), it draws on everything she has worked on in the past few years and she’s terribly excited about it.

“I used to be a Fringe theatre performer back in 1979, so it’s sort of come full-circle but drawing in all the other work I’ve done. I’ve written and researched so many people I have a wealth of material and I’ve rediscovered my love of songwriting.”

Collis is a character in herself and entirely dedicated to the city; in the future, someone will surely be singing a song about her.

* Trouser Wearing Characters is at the Marlborough Theatre throughout May as part of the Brighton Fringe. For more information, or to book, visit www.brightonfringe.org * For more information about Rose Collis, or to buy copies of her books, visit www.rosecollis.com