From the Preface:

In the original editions of this, my first book, there was a disclaimer that ‘Dinlock’ is purely imaginary. While it’s true that I travelled all through the Yorkshire and South Wales minefields, Dinlock is mainly based on the very real village of Thurcroft near the once-steelmaking city of Sheffield in South Yorks. ‘Davie’, the central character, is more than loosely modelled on Len Doherty, a coal miner who was also an accomplished novelist (‘The Good Lion’ and ‘A Miner’s Sons’) in the D.H. Lawrence tradition. More than any other person he is responsible for jump-starting my writing career.

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Reviews:

“. . . combines a marvelously sharp reportorial eye with what I can only call
tough-minded compassion…His book has humor and charm and is
entertainining . . . And it is shocking too.”
—Orville Prescott, New York Times

“George Orwell would have paid respectful tribute to this brawling,
dead-accurate anatomy of a Yorkshire coal-mining village . . . (an) affectionate
feel for the vulnerable human tenderness that lurks beneath the crude,
boastful, maudlin men who go down to the pits . . .”
—Christian Science Monitor

“. . . almost unbearably vivid.”
—Atlantic Monthly

“. . . a valuable book . . . Sigal has caught (the village) at a historical moment in
a strong light.”
—Ted Hughes, The Nation

“No middle class English writer . . . could have hoped to make contact as he did . . .”
—Angus Wilson

“. . . a remarkably fresh and honest piece of observation.”
—Harpers

“. . . a brilliant piece of writing.”
—UK (Manchester) Guardian

“. . . a remarkable achievement . . . authentic as the coal dust in the mine.”
—Times Literary Supplement

“. . . a voyage of discovery, a log kept with…candor and self-searching honesty.”
—Los Angeles Times

“. . . strong swift prose . . . intense clarity . . . to see people as they see themselves,
as they really are, and as they may become.”
—Maurice Dolbier, New York Times

“The heart of the book . . . is a marvelously detailed, sympathetic, physical
description of a day down the pit.”
—London Daily Express

“George Orwell would have paid respectful tribute to this brawling,
dead-accurate anatomy of a Yorkshire coal-mining village . . . (an) affectionate
feel for the vulnerable human tenderness that lurks beneath the crude,
boastful, maudlin men who go down to the pits . . .”
—Christian Science Monitor