WE APOLOGISE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES – IF YOU BOOKED A TICKET YOU WILL BE CONTACTED SHORTLY

We are thrilled to be welcoming Emily P. Webber to the shop to launch her facinating, and often deeply moving story of the last generation of British miners; told through the lives of the men who carved out their identities at the coalface. 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.

Emily P. Webber completed a PhD at the University of Reading & University of Exeter, her research focused on masculinity and the British mining industry, from nationalisation in 1947 to pit closures.

Born in South Yorkshire, Emily has spoken to over a hundred former miners over the last five years, collecting their memories of the industry and travelling to their communities. She was previously the Research Manager at the Imperial War Museum and contributed to several public-facing publications, including as assistant curator for the award-winning Holocaust Exhibition. She is passionate about bringing history to wider audiences, being recently selected as one of fifteen successful candidates for the Television Festival’s TV PhD talent scheme. Emily has previously had her work published in History Workshop, Journal, Contemporary British History and Twentieth Century History.

As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com, and a free ticket will be made available.

If you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or arrange for delivery, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.

Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00