John Brown

Society

Back in the North

• 25 September 2008

The level of deprivation in northern industrial parts of England during the 1930s is often downplayed by historians today. But this sobering account of life on the dole in the region, written for the New Statesman by a former coal miner, offers a different, more personal perspective. He presents a complex picture – of stoicism, apathy and a lack of radicalism, and a very human focus on the solace of pastimes in a harsh economic climate.