In Black & White: Comradeship, violence, danger and triumph through an historic century of coal

The County of Kent, with its hopgardens, oasthouses and orchards, is known around the world as the Garden of England. In the 1920s, plans were drawn up to transform it into a new, industrial Black Country of coalmines and ironworks.

Men, starved of work during The Depression, flocked to Kent, seeking jobs in the 18 new collieries promised by Neville Chamberlain, who would soon become Britain’s Prime Minister. Tens of thousands of men settled in Kent, with their families, and they stayed even...