The Pitmen’s Requiem
Peter Crookston
Details
ISBN: 978-1-904794-48-6 (Pb)
978-0-85716-005-8 (Hb)
RRP: £11.99 (Pb)
£18.00 (Hb)
Released: May 2010
Format: Hardback and Paperback
Extent: 192pp
Illustrations: 16 B/W Photographs
Book Overview
The Pitmen's Requiem movingly relates the stories and the hardships of the miners who worked in the Great Northern Coalfield. It tells, through interviews and investigative reporting, how Robert Saint’s famous brass band composition ‘Gresford’ – the Miners’ Hymn – became a requiem for mining communities and their way of life.
About the Author
Peter Crookston is a journalist and author who worked as an editorial executive on both theObserver and the Sunday Times. His first book was Villain: The Biography of a Criminal, published
by Jonathan Cape. In 1984 he wrote the script for Lions Led by Donkeys, a Channel 4
documentary about men who survived the Battle of the Somme.
Reviews
‘As much a history of culture and place as much as it is a biography, it's a fluent look at so many things which are difficult to catch without being sentimentally nostalgic - an intelligent, moving and thoughtful account of so much that has gone. But it's also packed with information - I loved that combination.’ Lee Hall.
‘Peter Crookston has written a book that is at once an elegy and a tribute. This is a moving account of the pit closures and the miners’ strike in the North East, but it is also an exploration of a landscape and a way of life that is vanishing day by day. He has captured testimony from miners and union officials, from miner’s wives and politicians, from town planners and fellow journalists, and he has caught it just in time.’ Margaret Drabble.
‘I have enjoyed The Pitmen’s Requiem greatly. I attended the Durham Miners Gala for many years and remember singing the miners’ hymn ‘Gresford’, so it is not surprising that I find this book fascinating.’ Denis Healey.
‘The story, ostensibly of one remarkable man’s life, is a tunnel back into a complete world - a rich and complex way of life that is now sealed off and lost, like most of the old mine-workings that lay at the heart of it.’ Michael Frayn.
'Peter Crookston's book is very remarkable. He knows the area well, and he's captured the spirit of the industry and the story of Gresford and has brought it together in a very skilled way. I think it is something that future generations will go back to, to understand the Gresford Hymn but also the industry it speaks about. A very, very remarkable book.' Tony Benn
'A very readable and enjoyable book.' Morning Star
'A wonderful book.' The Journal
'Highly Recommended.' The Shields Gazette
'Crookston has constructed a potent tribute… he makes you feel deeply nostalgic for a way of life that was so dangerous and so brutal.' Mail on Sunday
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