THIS is the theme of the talk that I would have delivered at the weekend to the Kemp Town Society.

Twenty years ago, I began to write Brave New City about the city’s past, present and future.

The book was a passionate cry for Brighton and Hove to recapture the beauty and bravura of the earlier eras in its history, to become Britain’s top seaside town and one of the world’s most imaginative communities by the sea.

I had and have a deep love for the city. The book was full of optimism, examining how Brighton emerged as a major seaside town, and why it retained that status through various evolutions in its history.

My argument was that its claim to strength in the future lay in its excellence in education, culture and new technologies.

A middle ground had to be found between those who wanted to erect exciting new buildings, and the conservationists, overly keen to preserve the past.

The illustrated book was huge fun to write. It contained a number of deliberately provocative lists including the city’s “top ten buildings” (the West Pier came first), the city’s “worst ten buildings” and “the ten greatest Brightonians”.

It remains to this day the book I enjoyed writing most.

The opening chapter was “The Rape of the City”, comprised of the 15 worst acts of architectural desecration since the war.

I retain all my optimism for the city, and marvel at its progress in the last 20 years.

Regrets are few, none more so than the rejection of the architectural rock star Frank Gehry’s mesmerising “Edwardian ladies” on Hove’s seafront in 2005.

Education is I believe is the city’s proudest achievement, with two world class universities and great and pioneering schools, none more so than Brighton College.

Under my successor, Richard Cairns, Britain’s pre-eminent head, it has gone to the top of the country, ensuring that the name of the city and its excellence is known to tens of millions.

Sir Anthony Seldon

Vice chancellor of the university of Buckingham and former headmaster of Brighton College