Strike: Thatcher, Scargill, and the miners

by Peter Wilsher

284 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1985

Reviews

[Stephen Bacon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Factually sound and competently written, this book detailing the chronology of events leading up to and beyond the 1984/85 Miners' Strike, suffers from an overtly right-wing bias; so much so that it renders the description of events as unbalanced, almost meaningless. The author's dislike of Arthur Scargill is palpable. He portrays the striking miners as greedy, work-shy thugs. There is great delight taken at the NUM's failings. The division between the other industrial unions is overamplified, and this all combines to skew the validity of the story. Wilsher's admiration for the government and their brave battle in defeating the bullying unions comes across as sycophantic and is fully supportive of the establishment view. I suppose it is a Sunday Times book so there was always going to be a rather right-wing agenda, but I'd still have expected a rather more balanced viewpoint from professional journalists after the event.

Even today this is a very emotive subject, but there are plenty of other books that tell the story in a much better, more well-balanced way.