The Black Mystery

…de News Wales:

In his book The Black Mystery, Ronald Rees reveals how sending men to work in coal mines was regarded as equivalent to sending, as one observer put it, 'raw unarmed troops into battle against a well-equipped enemy.'…

…This revealing account of coal-mining in South-west Wales is published by Y Lolfa this week. It includes over 50 images and 300 pages of history and insight into the life of Welsh miners in the Western coalfield, a region that embraced the Neath, Swansea and Gwendraeth valleys.

Never completely urbanized, it was an area where, so the saying went, the colliers carried a pick in one hand and a garden spade in the other.

The Black Mystery looks at all aspects of coalmining: its history and development until the present day, conditions of work, the language and culture of the mining communities, and the changing image of the miner.