In 1999 I started Cheeky Guides with a couple of friends. Despite having never written a book, never mind setting up a publishing company, we muddled through and managed to have a no1 bestseller in our local town for two years with The Cheeky Guide to Brighton. From here we published other Cheeky Guides including Oxford, Love, Student Life and Walks in Brighton and Sussex.
In 2014, after spending a year visiting some of the world's most extraordinary communities I penned my first travel memoir, The No.9 Bus to Utopia (Unbound/Penguin Random House), which also found life as a TED talk and a one-man show. In 2016 my occult memoir The Haunted Moustache was published by Nightfinch Books. The same year I co-authored the first of a trilogy with Hodder and Stoughton, exploring fringe culture. The Odditorium, The Mysterium and The Odysseum. In 2020 The Cult of Water was published by Rough Trade Books, with illustrations by Pete Fowler. In 2023 I self-published The Singalong-A-Wicker-Man Scrapbook.
As a freelance writer I had a regular feature in Guardian Travel in 2020. I’ve also written features for The Idler, Psychologies, The Independent, The Psychologist, BBC Online, Ernest Journal and E&T. I was also one of the collaborators on Brighton: The Graphic Novel.
PRESS & REVIEWS
“The Haunted Moustache is a beautiful demonstration of how beautifully the mechanism of reality functions, if you’re paying sufficient attention. Neurologically, this book will light you up like a Christmas Tree. ”
“‘Bramwell clearly has an eye for the oddball and arcane.’ ”
“i love this book. A brilliant read. ”
“Number 9 Bus to Utopia is a warm, funny, and oddly moving book. Dr Bramwell’s personal odyssey of bewildered self-discovery brilliantly captures the eternal lure or stepping off the established path and wandering through the forest - when you don’t know where you are going, you are never bored. Highly recommended.”
“A heartbroken hero goes in search of Utopia and discovers himself. I loved this book - warm, funny and enlightening, the perfect book to read when you want to indulge your fantasy of ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ only to discover that the place transformation is right here, right now.”
“This book, that I approached with caution, turns out to be magnificent. Tested it with the Moondog entry. Passed A+”
“I love this book, its cutting observation tempered by an affection and openness to his fellow travellers is as compassionate as it is funny. David Bramwell has written a very important book pretending to be otherwise. ”
“Anarchic, fun and quietly paternal ”
“Amusing and illuminating. Bramwell moves through the various attempts at utopia like a spiritually questing Arthur Dent – a seeker, as his late friend Ken Campbell said, but one with a sense of humour.”
“David is a true philosopher. Packed with gags, wisdom and pathos, this really is a must-read. ”