Minor Miner: The gripping Thatcher/Scargill era conspiracy drama.

by Matthew Morgan

Early 1984, Ellen Minor is a rising star in Westminster. She uncovers a government plan to escalate tensions with Libya. By escalating tensions, the Thatcher government intend to draw attention away from striking miners to possible conflict abroad. By doing so they hope to increase their approval ratings that have slumped since their 1983 election win. In her work with the Minister for Trade Ellen befriends two miners, Dale and Harry. Together their lives are juxtaposed between the new world of an empowered, professional female and a bygone world of the working men. As the mines are closed Ellen falls in love with Harry and discovers Dale is embroiled in underhand dealings with Arthur Scargill’s National Union of Mineworkers to bankroll property investments. Desperate to save his friend, Harry needs Ellen’s help. However, her help comes at the cost of her own career.

291 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 1, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Started career as writer. Paris. Acclaim. Reward? One unfinished book. Product Design degree, or, 4 years wasted. Trained as cabinet maker. Kept writing. Sold ice cream. Drove a van. Made money. Tried my hand at bike racing. Escaped to London, opened a shop. That failed. Started stand-up comedy. Became least successful comic — ever. Desperate. Crafted fantastic CV that won job in advertising. Excelled, traveled. Got paid for creating narrative. Revived school computer club membership. Became digital nerd. Excelled again. Awarded. Moved to Asia. It’s different there. Built eBay store selling vintage bicycles. Created political blog, sought investment. Failed. Launched cars, sold tins, activated audiences. All rather well. Beautiful wife. Beautiful daughter. Beautiful boy. Ugly dog. Became head of something. Co-founded tech start-up. Sold start-up. Smile. Still writing. And that led me to today.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather long-winded and repetitive, so much so that I found myself wishing to get to the end of it sooner, with various silly spelling errors (e.g. Margret Thatcher, Rupert Murdock, and other instances where a similar word has been used or misused), not as much a story of the miners themselves but of the allegations of irregularity about funds given to representatives of the NUM by the Libyans. If you want to read about the strike itself and how whole communities were affected and then destroyed there are better books than this, this is just financial abuse and one minister's connection to the strike which basically form the padding to a romance between a political press secretary and a former miner, with a side mention of the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher. I hope that book 2 improves on this rather tedious start to a new series.

[Tommy Maker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this brought back a few memories. I remember the scenes on TV well. It was a real blast from the past. And to think we have survived. Moved on. But sadly, there were some casualties, like in most cutbacks. A real historical piece of writing, about very difficult times in British history, under the power of The Iron Lady who would not turn.

[Brian Murgatroyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good read.😛

A bit light I thought,I remember the days( back when) written by the author,now part of history.The storyline applying the characters into those times gave a Good read.😛