Book description
In the early 1950s Britain was still the most urbanized and
industrialized nation in the world, a global power in shipbuilding and
the leading European producer of coal, steel, cars and textiles. For
the many millions of men and women hard at work during that time, an
infernal landscape of smoke-blackened factories, towering slag heaps
and fiery furnaces dominated their lives. From the deep docks and
towering cranes of the Tyneside shipyards to the mills and chimneys of
Lancashire and beyond, Working Lives takes us right to the
heart of those industrial centres through the words of those who were
there.
Drawn together from hundreds of hours of first-hand interviews,
Working Lives is a unique collection of oral testimonies from
workers whose stories might not otherwise have been told: mill girls
who risked life and limb in dusty, noisy weaving sheds; steel workers
who wrestled sheets of white-hot metal in the blistering heat of the
foundries; and miners who hewed coal by hand on filthy, cramped,
claustrophobic coalfaces.
Local industries shaped these workers' entire lives but also gave
them a sense of pride, identity and belonging. As they look back on
the dangers and hardships of their jobs, and the place of industry in
their close-knit communities, these fascinating voices paint a vivid
and moving portrait of working life in Britain not to be forgotten.
David Hall is a bestselling writer of non-fiction as well as a
highly successful TV producer. His thirty years producing and
directing network television programmes include a number of years at
both Yorkshire Television and the BBC, as well as making landmark
documentaries for Channel 4 and the History Channel.
The biographer of Fred Dibnah, he was also Fred's TV producer and a
close personal friend for many years. He has published a number of
books celebrating Fred's life and interests, as well as
Manchester's Finest, an account of life in Manchester in the
aftermath of the Munich air disaster.
