SCOTT ALSWORTH hears the call to burn down and rebuild the video game industry from the bottom up
Latest editorial
What the miners’ strike was really like in Wales
STEVE ANDREW hails a moving and insightful collection of photographs and accounts that document the response of communities in Wales both as class and nation
The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
ALEX HALL is intrigued by a detailed history of Gaza that demonstrates its historic resilience and changing economy
RON JACOBS welcomes the long overdue translation of an epic work that chronicles resistance to fascism during WWII
MAYER WAKEFIELD is chilled by the co-dependency of two lost souls as portrayed by German communist playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz
The Star's critics BRETT GREGORY, JOHN GREEN, MICHAEL BONCZA and ANGUS REID review The Stimming Pool, Misericordia, La Cocina, Irena’s Vow, and The End
CHRIS MOSS welcomes a radical history that brings marginalised stories and overlooked people and agencies to the centre
Coal and Community in Wales
Images of the Miners Strike: Before, During and After
by Richard Williams and Amanda Powell, YLolfa, £14.99
FORTY years after British miners began a relentless fight in defence of pits, jobs and communities, it is fair to say that the literature examining their struggle is now huge and continues to grow.
The quality of it, however, remains varied. Although there has been a shift away from portraying miners as “the enemy within,” now that is effectively safe to do so, many accounts remain either narrowly sectarian or overly romantic and sentimental in their approach.
Fortunately, Coal and Community in Wales is neither of these and, to my mind, is a real people’s history that uses image and text skilfully to capture the strike as a lived experience.
More from this author
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
Similar stories
Read Sisters, the journal of the National Assembly Of Women, below.
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year
Co-curator TOM WHITE introduces a father-and-son exhibition of photography documenting the experience and political engagement of Chilean exiles
From repurposing a police van as the picket express to facing kidnap charges, former miner STEWART BROWN tells northern reporter Peter Lazenby tales of defiance from Bold Colliery during the 1984-85 strike