Chatto & Windus wins four-way auction for Emily P Webber’s ‘remarkable’ social history of miners 

Chatto & Windus has bought Emily P Webber’s Mining Men, which celebrates the lives of the last generation of British miners, navigating the year-long miners’ strike, pit closures and, later, life above ground.  

Kaiya Shang, commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in a four-way auction from Kay Peddle at Colwill & Peddle. It will be published in February 2025. 

“Britain’s last deep coalmine closed in 2015, yet just 50 years ago the mining industry was a juggernaut, employing over 250,000 workers,” the publisher said. “Combining new personal interviews with extensive archival research, Emily P Webber illuminates the extraordinary history of the industry once considered the backbone of Britain.” 

It continued: "Vivid, evocative and richly alive with minute detail, Mining Men explores what the mining industry once meant to its workers and their communities, and what Britain lost when it was gone." 

Shang said: “I am extremely proud to be publishing this beautiful and vibrant celebration of the highly skilled men who kept Britain’s lights on and the coalfield communities that bravely took on the government to preserve their way of life, ensuring their contribution to the country, the culture and communities they built, and the families they left behind, are not forgotten.” 

Webber added: “This book marks the culmination of over five years’ research into the history of the British mining industry, its workers and their communities. In writing it, I hope to move the narrative beyond the polarising stereotypes of the miners’ strike of 1984–5, and showcase the real men and communities behind what was once one of the nation’s most important industries. It is a dream come true to see the fruits of my labours in print and I am thrilled to be working with the incredibly talented team at Chatto.” 

Webber completed a PhD at the University of Reading and University of Exeter, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Her research focused on masculinity and the British mining industry from nationalisation in 1947 through to the pit closures at the end of the 20th Century.