Barry Hines captures the raw soul of the pit in a novel that is tough and uncompromising as Kes. The Milton colliery exacts its daily toll of sweat and fear from the men who grope down its dark tunnels. Beer, snooker,rose-growing in the allotment and Geoff Boycott are sacrificed to the imperatives of clawing coal from the earth. A visit by the Prince of Wales only gently interrupts its well-oiled-machinery - soft soap in the gents, grass hastily transplanted to the slag heap, lashings of white paint - although it is an occasion for some ripe and well-aimed humour. But when disaster strikes, the laughter fades, and the horror takes over. 'A rare novel that stands out' - New Statesman 'Lucid, visual and immediate... Hines brings it all chillingly close' - Books and Bookmen
Author
Barry Hines (June 30, 1939 – March 18, 2016) was an English author, playwright, and screenwriter. His novels and screenplays explore the political and economic struggles of working-class Northern England, particularly in his native West Riding / South Yorkshire. He is best known for the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), which he helped adapt for Ken Loach's film Kes (1969). He also collaborated with Loach on adaptations of his novels Looks and Smiles (1981) and The Gamekeeper, and a 1977 two-part television drama adaption of his book The Price of Coal. He also wrote the television film Threads, which depicts the impact of a nuclear war on Sheffield.
