TV actress Sidonie Bond loved shopping at Hanningtons department store so much that she has written a book about it.

Sidonie liked Hanningtons from the moment she first visited Brighton as a youngster in the Sixties.

So when she heard the much-loved city institution was to close last year she decided to write a history of the store.

Sidonie, well known for her TV appearances in series such as Z Cars, Till Death Us Do Part and The Avengers, launched the book at her home in Brunswick Terrace, Hove.

Among guests were actor Victor Spinetti, author and songwriter Tony Macaulay and Mayor of Brighton and Hove David Watkins.

Also present were Derek Hunnisett, head of the family firm which ran the store, and Marion Brewer, pictured in the book wearing fashions from Hanningtons as Miss She in 1956.

The shop was started by Smith Hannington in North Street. At the time it was only 30ft by 12ft, in stark contrast to later days when it occupied a large slab of the street.

With Brighton becoming a fashionable resort, he had chosen the perfect time to launch and the store rapidly expanded.

When he died in 1855, his family took on with the business.

The store was damaged during the Second World War and suffered during the long period of post war austerity.

But it revived and continued to prosper until the Nineties when the Hunnisett family, now in charge, felt the chill wind of competition from Churchill Square.

On the last day of trading in June last year Derek Hunnisett stopped the famous clock on the Market Street facade with the hands at noon.

An auction took place of items from the store, including family portraits of the Hanningtons.

Sidonie says: "One of the last lots was a wedding dress. It had been found in a drawer, boxed and covered in tissue. It had lain there, paid for, since the early Sixties, but was never collected."

Hanningtons: A Brief History 1808-2001 by Sidonie Bond is produced by SB Publications and is available at local bookshops for £6.95.