Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made Britain

We can't understate coal's importance in Britain's modern history. And Jeremy Paxman has produced a colourful book explaining this. Britain, he points out, would never have become the world's first industrial superpower were it not for coal. This black gold powered factories, ships, and railways. It heated homes and offices and created towns and villages.

Approaching the topic with panache, he demonstrates how coal had an influence on every aspect of British history over the last few hundred years. He describes the vast fortunes amassed by owners of land from which it was extracted. And he rightly emphasises, coal was dirty and dangerous from the start. The cause not only of endemic pollution, but also of many appalling accidents. Today, such tragedies are mostly forgotten. And coal has all but vanished from our national imagination. Paxman does a fantastic job of trying to restore it.

Paxman explains the role that coal-fuelled ships played in establishing the hegemony of the Royal Navy. Thus, also of the British empire. Such ships, he points out, were not only faster than their predecessors, but also better protected. In the 20th century, coal's murky history came back to haunt it. As a fuel for ships, it was replaced by oil, which produced more energy. Its decline was hastened, too, by strained industrial relations.

Paxman ends with the 1984 miners' strike. This event, which had a scarring impact upon the nation. But was also in a sense unnecessary since decades of declining productivity had already doomed the coal industry. Nonetheless, it provides a rousing finale to a vividly told and enjoyable book that throws new light on familiar features of our national landscape.