Jeremy Paxman was born in 1950 and studied English Literature at Cambridge. Unable to get another job, he became a BBC reporter and then a studio presenter. Over a quarter-century on Newsnight, he revolutionised the cosy relationship between interviewer and politician and, more than any other interviewer, took the side of the viewer against the guest. He is also quizmaster on University Challenge, has written and presented television series such as Empire, The Victorians, Great Britain’s Great War, and is the author of numerous articles for many publications . He has also written many books including the best-selling The English, On Royalty and Friends in High Places. In his spare time, he enjoys fly-fishing.

‘[A] rich social history … Given coal’s image, a popular history might seem a foolhardy undertaking. Yet Paxman’s book could hardly be more colourful, and I enjoyed every page enormously … A mining community, as Paxman points out, was not just a place of dirt and danger. It was a “place where you slept and ate, visited the doctor, fell in love, had your children and entertained yourself” … One day soon, Paxman says, we may forget it was ever there. But his book does a fine job of bringing it alive, and deserves the widest possible readership’Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

Jeremy Paxman was born in 1950 and studied English Literature at Cambridge. Unable to get another job, he became a BBC reporter and then a studio presenter. Over a quarter-century on Newsnight, he revolutionised the cosy relationship between interviewer and politician and, more than any other interviewer, took the side of the viewer against the guest. He is also quizmaster on University Challenge, has written and presented television series such as Empire, The Victorians, Great Britain’s Great War, and is the author of numerous articles for many publications . He has also written many books including the best-selling The English, On Royalty and Friends in High Places. In his spare time, he enjoys fly-fishing.

‘[A] rich social history … Given coal’s image, a popular history might seem a foolhardy undertaking. Yet Paxman’s book could hardly be more colourful, and I enjoyed every page enormously … A mining community, as Paxman points out, was not just a place of dirt and danger. It was a “place where you slept and ate, visited the doctor, fell in love, had your children and entertained yourself” … One day soon, Paxman says, we may forget it was ever there. But his book does a fine job of bringing it alive, and deserves the widest possible readership’Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

Jeremy Paxman was born in 1950 and studied English Literature at Cambridge. Unable to get another job, he became a BBC reporter and then a studio presenter. Over a quarter-century on Newsnight, he revolutionised the cosy relationship between interviewer and politician and, more than any other interviewer, took the side of the viewer against the guest. He is also quizmaster on University Challenge, has written and presented television series such as Empire, The Victorians, Great Britain’s Great War, and is the author of numerous articles for many publications . He has also written many books including the best-selling The English, On Royalty and Friends in High Places. In his spare time, he enjoys fly-fishing.

‘[A] rich social history … Given coal’s image, a popular history might seem a foolhardy undertaking. Yet Paxman’s book could hardly be more colourful, and I enjoyed every page enormously … A mining community, as Paxman points out, was not just a place of dirt and danger. It was a “place where you slept and ate, visited the doctor, fell in love, had your children and entertained yourself” … One day soon, Paxman says, we may forget it was ever there. But his book does a fine job of bringing it alive, and deserves the widest possible readership’Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times