Harry Paterson - Look Back in Anger: The Miners Strike in Nottinghamshire 30 Years on

Weekly Worker 523, Thursday, March 25, 2004

Scargill and the Miners, p.147, Michael Crick (Penguin Special)

Nine Days That Shook Mansfield, p.6, Barry Johnson (The Ragged Historians)

The General Strike, pp. 157160, P. Renshaw (Methuen)

Marching To the Fault Line, p.1, Beckett and Hencke (Constable)

Great Contemporaries, Churchill

Nottingham Evening Post, May 1, 1926

Labour Research, July 1926, Vol. 15, No. 7

The General Strike in Nottingham, Marxism Today, June 1972, p.172, Peter Wyncoll

Ibid

The Enemy Within; the secret war against the miners, Seumas Milne (Verso)

Ghost Dancers, pp. 3435, D Douglass (Christie Books)

The 1984/85 Miners Strike in Nottinghamshire: Spirit Alone Won Battles: The Diary of John Lowe, p.26, Jonathan Symcox (Wharncliffe Books)

Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland

For a detailed and fascinating account of this historic Conference, the reader is advised to consult Dave Douglasss Ghost Dancers, pp. 5259.

The Link-Up of Friendship, Butcher and Seymour, p.13 (self-published)

The Link-Up of Friendship, Butcher and Seymour, pp. 2627

Liz Hollis was active in many campaigns in Nottinghamshire. Those who knew her still mourn her: she committed suicide while still a young woman.

Hearts and Minds, J Witham (Canary Press)

The Guardian, 7th March 2009

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid

The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against The Miners, Milne, p.371

Ink In The Blood, Williams, pp. 170172 (Woodfield Publishing)

Ibid

Mansfield Chad, 5th July 1984

Nottingham Trader, 11th July 1984

Hucknall Dispatch, 18th November 2009

Nottingham Evening Post, 19th July 1984

Ibid

Ibid

The Guardian, 11th August 1984

A Turn of The Screw, Walker, p.66 (Canary Press)

The Guardian, 11th August 1984

A Civil War Without Guns, Smith, p.64

The Guardian, 17th October 1984

Ibid

Observer, 21st October 1984

Ibid

The Guardian, 17th October 1984

Observer, 21st October 1984

The Guardian, 17th October 1984

Ibid

Observer, 21st October 1984

Marching To the Fault Line, Beckett and Hencke, p.162, see also The Enemy Within: the secret war against the miners, Milne, p.130

The Times, 12th December 1984

Nottingham Evening Post, 17th December 1984

Scargill, Paul Routledge, pp. 174175 (HarperCollins)

The Miners Strike: Loss without Limit, Adeney and Lloyd, p.268

There were actually 31 striking Leicestershire miners, but one individual remained uninvolved in the activities of the 30 and his role was not discovered until after the strike.

Nottingham Miners Do Strike! Stanley, p.95 (Nottinghamshire NUM)

Ibid

The Diary of John Lowe, p.145, Symcox

The Miners Strike, Goodman, p.173 (Pluto Press)

Ibid

The Guardian, 11th February 2004

Loss Without Limit, Adeney and Lloyd, p. 274

The NUM and British Politics Volume 2, Taylor, p. 289 (Ashgate)

The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against The Miners, Milne, p.13

The NUM and British Politics Volume 2, Taylor, p.309

The Enemy Within: the secret war against the miners, Milne, p.367

The Independent, 14th December 1992

Ghost Dancers, Douglass, p.58

Ibid

The Guardian, 16th February, 2006

The Ex Miner, issue 25, June 2012

Ibid

The NUM and British Politics Volume 2, Taylor, p.189

Police, March 2009, p.6

Look Back in Anger:
The Miners Strike in Nottinghamshire30 years on

by Harry Paterson

Printed version published in 2014
This ebook version published in 2015
by Five Leaves Publications,
PO Box 8786, Nottingham NG1 9AW

www.fiveleaves.co.uk

Copyright Harry Paterson, 2014, 2015

ISBN: 9781910170106

The first thing I learned when starting to write this book, is that it wouldnt be written alone. My name might be the only one on the cover but it really is a team effort. Look Back in Anger probably wouldnt have appeared at all without the input of others. The reader will, hopefully, indulge me for a moment while I pay tribute to some individuals without whom there would be no book.

Firstly, my deepest gratitude is extended to my father, James Stewart Paterson. Confronted by a rebel child, determined not to learn to read simply because The Auld Yin insisted he would, he eventually raised a son with a deep and abiding love of books and for language. Throughout my career he has been not only my staunchest supporter and critic but also my unofficial editor. A supremely intelligent man, with a traditional classical education behind him (a rarity, in those days, for a working class lad from a poverty-blighted family in Alloa), The Auld Yin is, rarely wrong on matters of grammar, syntax, spelling and punctuation. His observations, comments and critiques have been invaluable at every stage of my career and so it has proved here too. Thanks, Dad.

Mick Wall is one of the worlds most respected and successful authors, journalists and broadcasters in the field of contemporary music, Micks friendship, mentoring and practical advice sustained me in the darker moments when confidence was low and doubt set in. Mick also gave me my first real break in my day job; that of music journalist and from there everything else flowed. After thirty-five years at the literary coalface no one knows better than Mick, and I got his accumulated wisdom, knowledge and experience gratis. Sincerely and fraternally, brother.

Few have a deeper knowledge of just about every aspect of the miners titanic struggle than former NUM official, author, social historian and activist, Dave Douglass. Widely known throughout the labour and trade union movement, Dave was right in the thick of events during the year well never forget. His strength was in his ability to deliver insight and analysis regarding the decision-making process of the NUM leadership, the areas where that differed from the views of the wider membership, those aspects of the dispute most commonly misrepresented in the dozens of accounts since and perspective from outside Nottinghamshire.

As an author with several titles to his name and some forty-odd years in the industry and the NUM behind him, youd expect the man to have picked up a thing or two and so he has. Ive leaned on Daves own published work for some parts of the book that are not directly concerned with Nottinghamshire. Where there might be errors, they are mine. Where there are none, thank Dave.

Daves opposite number, you might say, David Amos, deserves a mention, too. Doctor Amos, as he subsequently became on leaving the pit, is a rarity, as I soon discovered; a former strike-breaker prepared to defend his position and go on the record. In addition, he provided access to and copies of important documents from his private archive, all of which have, I believe, lent richness and depth to the text.

Ross Bradshaw, my editor at Five Leaves, is probably the bluntest and most witheringly honest man Ive encountered in my career thus far (with the possible exception of Classic Rock magazines Senior Features Editor, Dave Everely; hi, Dave). From savaging my first efforts with a finely-honed blend of genuine wit and excoriating scorn, Ross has, nevertheless, been a true believer. He believed in the book, he believed in me and, thanks to him, what you now hold in your hands is infinitely better than it ever would have been had I been left to my own devices. Lenin does Mills and Boon indeed, Ross. Thanks for everything, pal. Lets do it again sometime.