Like many of us, I knew that South Wales has a very close connection with the coal industry, and not only has it played an important role in our history as a nation, but it has shaped many of the communities we know today. Even though the once-vast industry has virtually disappeared, it has certainly left its mark on the valleys.
Nowadays, we all live such busy lives, and lots of things compete for our attention. I would say it’s more important than ever that a book catches our attention and intrigue from the outset – and this novel succeeds in doing so.
It’s the memories of an older John Williams that form the basis of this book, as he recalls the early years of his life when his family had to leave the North to look for work. Beginning in 1963, the novel travels back over fifty years to the Universal Colliery in 1908 where an excited John is looking forward to joining his father in the pit.
Moving home is difficult enough anyway, but imagine doing this in the early twentieth century without any of the modern technology that keeps us in touch with family and friends. Despite being in the same country, for John, South Wales feels like worlds away from the life he once knew. The family must get to grips with a totally new way of life, as well as trying to understand the unfamiliar accents!
John and his father soon realize that their new home is very different to their old one and it’s not long before they catch the attention of some of the Valley’s more ‘colourful’ characters.
You’ll be pleased to hear that the family manage to make a few friends as well as enemies. Their friendship with their neighbours, the Dando’s, is typical of the warm welcome of the South Wales Valleys – something that’s still true to this day. Through excellent descriptive and character work, the author succeeds in weaving a personal story about friendship and brotherhood with lots of interesting historical facts about the period. Because of the author’s skill in creating likeable and credible characters, this serves to make the ending even more harrowing when the dark cloud inevitably comes to darken their doors.
This is, of course, a reference to the Senghenydd disaster, which was the horrific day in October 1913 when 439 men and boys died in the most fatal mining explosion in the United Kingdom to this day. For those of us who work in our cosy offices, it’s difficult to imagine the hardships of a miner’s way of life – the long arduous hours in unforgiving conditions, and the toll it took on their health.
Ignorance and a lax approach to health and safety played a major part in the tragedy, and management clearly had not learned lessons from a similar tragedy several years previously. We are reminded about the ever-present dangers associated with coal mining when we think of the accident at Gleision, Neath Port Talbot in 2011.
Although the novel is full of interesting facts and terminology such as afterdamp and firedamp, bringing a relatively unfamiliar period of history alive to a new generation, the true strength of the novel is the family’s story that anchors it all. Not a day goes by where John Williams did not think about the men that were lost that fateful day, and it’s vitally important that we as readers remember them too.
Reading the novel inspired me to look deeper into Senghenydd’s history, and I think for this reason it has great value as a teaching and learning resource. During my time at school, we learned so much about the history of the English royal family, but very little of my own country’s rich industrial past. This book will no doubt play an important part of the new Curriculum for Wales, be that in the primary or secondary sector.
This is a simple yet touching novel that I can thoroughly recommend for children and adults alike and I’m pleased to say that it’s also available to enjoy in English, under the title The Darkest of Days.