Black Gold
The History of How Coal Made Britain
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Black Gold
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Narrated by:
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Jeremy Paxman
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By:
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Jeremy Paxman
About this listen
From the bestselling historian and acclaimed broadcaster
Coal is the commodity that made Britain. Dirty and polluting though it is, this black rock has acted as a midwife to genius. It drove industry, religion, politics, empire and trade. It powered the industrial revolution, turned Britain into the first urban nation and is the industry that made almost all others possible.
In this brilliant social history, Jeremy Paxman tells the story of coal mining in England, Scotland and Wales from Roman times, through the birth of steam power to war, nationalisation, pea-souper smogs, industrial strife and the picket lines of the Miner’s Strike.
Written in the captivating style of his bestselling book The English, Paxman ranges widely across Britain to explore stories of engineers and inventors, entrepreneurs and industrialists – but whilst coal inevitably helped the rich become richer, the story told by Black Gold is first and foremost a history of the working miners – the men, women and often children who toiled in appalling conditions down in the mines; the villages that were thrown up around the pit-head.
Almost all traces of coal-mining have vanished from Britain but with this brilliant history, Black Gold demonstrates just how much we owe to the black stuff.
©2021 Jeremy Paxman (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A rich social history.... Paxman’s book could hardly be more colourful, and I enjoyed each page enormously." (Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times)
"Vividly told...Paxman’s fine narrative powers are at their best." (The Times)
What listeners say about Black Gold
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 02-10-22
A brilliant story of the social history of coal
I enjoyed Mr Paxmans noration,interweaving social history ,unions activity and politics .
Told in a entertaining manner historically as accurate as needs be for a serious piece of work .
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michael Sweeney
- 16-04-22
Throughly enjoyable overview of the coal industry
The coal industry loomed large in my youth, from three day weeks in the 70s to the miners strike of the 80s. I was surprised how ignorant I was of its history, I’d never been a huge fan of Paxman’s sneering and aggressive interviewing style but this history has given me an insight into his outlook, and it’s rather attractive. The book is remarkably sympathetic to the miners and their families, so many of whom suffered terribly during the industry’s emergence. I also hadn’t realised how many great aristocratic fortunes were built on the back of coal. It’s a terrific listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sean
- 26-07-24
I don't know why I bought this book, but I'm glad that I did
A book by Jeremy Paxman about British coal isn't something that would ordenarily appeal to me. I found the story very interesting, full of interesting information that I had not thought about.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 08-07-22
Terrific, easy to follow history of coal mining
Very well written, this is an easy to follow history of coal mining in the UK. Paxman is expansive in his telling of the effects of coal, and forthright (as you would expect) in calling out some of the calamities, betrayals and the sheer challenge of being a miner. Some of his descriptions of how it was down the pit are chilling.
However, Paxman is not a great reader, he is a great broadcaster and interviewer, but as a reader it sounds like he is announcing. I think an trained actor would have been a better choice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- brett
- 02-06-24
How much I didn’t know
The details and the timeline flow
Brilliant book should be educational modern history teaching. There are so many parallels in this relatively short history that give us so many clues to where we are now and what’ Pitfalls’ to avoid now and in the future. Well done Mr P👍🏽
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paul Lock
- 13-11-24
Paxman is great
Insightful. Accessible. Interesting. And full of colour. I enjoyed this as much for the narration as for the history it told.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helpless
- 03-11-21
Poorly Edited
Great story and narration BUT editing and splicing of the audio tape is poor, so many words cut off at the end of sentences.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hoops
- 25-06-22
Outstanding social, political & economic history
A powerful and critically analysis of the role of coal in shaping our politics, economy, environment and society for many hundreds of years. Its a story of rampant greed, exploitation and abuse on a grand scale. It will change the way you view many splendid palaces, great art collections and figures in history when you realise how much suffering, death and cruelty towards ordinary people went into funding the super-rich and their extravagant lifestyles. The duplicitous dealings of politicians, the police, the 'great and good', the media and all their cronies, even up until recent times, don't come out of this too well, either. Why was I never taught this in history at school?
The only reason I have dropped a point in the ratings was an issue to do with the technical recording of this otherwise splendid audio book. I found, particularly in the first third of the book, that the very end of many sentences had been 'clipped off' so that you only got the first half of the word. l found this irritating and distracting as I then found myself focusing on these chopped off endings rather than the text. Shame. Maybe it's just me and my ears or headphones? This detracted from my listening pleasure but I still found this book to be an outstanding history.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Dr. N. WOODRUFF
- 31-01-23
Black Gold
How politics and greed kill of an industry and a community and the effect on communities
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-10-22
A srong important story told with human details
The content is full and profound so that dramatic narration wan not needed or attempted. Well done!
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