Emily P. Webber - Mining Men

We're delighted to be welcoming Emily P. Webber to the bookshop to celebrate the publication of her debut non-fiction book, Mining Men: Britain's Last Kings of the Coalface. It's the story of the last generation of British miners, told through the lives of the men who carved out their identities at the coalface. Webber will be in conversation with fellow writer Val McDermid.

This event will take place in the bookshop with an in-person audience, as well as a livestream for attendees watching from home. There will be a signing after the event.

In-person vouchers can be redeemed on the night of the event against a single copy of Mining Men – we will have a list of attendees with vouchers to be redeemed. Please note that only one voucher can be redeemed per book. Livestream vouchers are valid until the day after the event and can be redeemed on our website against a single copy of Mining Men.

About Mining Men:

This is the story of the last generation of British miners: fathers and sons, brothers and comrades, big hitters and broken men, strikers and scabs. Men for whom the masculine world of the pit was all they had ever known, who reluctantly emerged into the daylight for the final time, and others who were happier to consign the dust and darkness to the past.

It reveals the emotional impact of pit closures and what happened next; former miners who became factory workers; detectives; driving instructors; counsellors; the local mayor; one who even ended up working on Fleet Street. Featuring accounts from Ayrshire to the South Wales Valleys, from the ‘People’s Republic of South Yorkshire’, to the ‘Sunshine Corner Coalfields’ of East Kent, each chapter offers a different perspective of the industry. For some of these men, it is their first time opening up about the realities of life underground.

Britain’s last deep coal mine closed in 2015, yet just fifty years ago the mining industry was a juggernaut, employing over 250,000 workers. Combining new personal interviews with extensive archival research, Emily P. Webber illuminates the extraordinary history of the industry once considered the backbone of Britain.

By situating the miners’ strike of 1984–85 in a longer history of the coalfields, we can understand why miners and their families fought so hard against pit closures, and their effect on these men and their communities once the pit wheels stopped turning. Vivid, evocative, and richly alive with minute detail, Mining Men explores what the mining industry once meant to its workers and their communities, and what Britain lost when it was gone.