Coal is the commodity that made Britain. Dirty and polluting though it is, this black rock acted as a midwife to genius. It drove industry, religion, politics, empire, trade. It powered the industrial revolution, turned Britain into the first urban nation and is the industry that made almost all others possible. In this brilliant social history, bestselling author and broadcaster Jeremy Paxman tells the story of coal mining in England, Scotland and Wales from Roman times, through the birth of steam power to war, nationalisation, pea-souper smogs, industrial strife and the picket lines of the Miner’s Strike.