20 years on
Read and reflect about the Miners' Strike
The Cutting Edge: Women and the Pit Strike Edited by Vicky Seddon
A series of accounts of the strike through the eyes and experience of women.
This book includes a reference to a visit to Aberfan as part of a tour of South Wales by a support group from London,
"No one could visit Aberfan without feeling devasted. As I walked round the graveyard I felt like an intruder, and I was shocked by the dates of birth: they would all have been about my age. It struck me as I stood there that the boys would almost certainly have been striking miners and the women would most likely have been out picketing, collecting, organising and supporting the strike. The pit at Aberfan was solidly on strike. None of us in the car said anything for almost an hour"
Coal, crisis and conflict : the 1984-85 miners' strike in Yorkshire by Jonathan Winterton, 1989
Digging deeper : issues in the miners' strike edited by Huw Beynon, 1985
"A set of important essays published during the strike"
Striking Back by the Wales Congress in Support of Mining Communities and South Wales NUM, 1984
"Intended to present an alternative version of the strike to that swallowed by the media and reproduced ad nauseam with profits going to the South Wales Welfare funds".
"Our struggle is everyones's struggle for a better life"
"Based on interviews with over 200 striking miners and over 100 women working through support groups"
"The fascinating flavour of a bitter conflict"
The enemies within : the story of the miners' strike, 1984-5 by Ian MacGregor, 1987
"History by one of the victors"
Queen coal : women of the miners' strike by Triona Holden, 2005
"The story of the women who "came out of the shadows" by one of the BBC correspondents who reported on the strike".
A state of siege : politics and policing of the coalfields : miners' strike by Jim Coulter, Susan Miller and Martin Walker, 1984
"A contemporary study of police tactics against the pickets."
Strike : Thatcher, Scargill and the miners written and edited by Peter Wilsher, 1985
"An important account by the groundbreaking Sunday Times Insight Team"
Online sources
See the pits close A BBC interactive map
Read personal accounts gathered by the BBC
Justice for mineworkers campaign
A Socialist Review perspective