This rich personal account focuses on the social impact of the Industrial Revolution, rather than its economic and political histories and gets under the skin of the period, creating a cast of colorful characters, including factory workers, miners, shoemakers, carpenters, servants, and farm laborers.

Coal is a captivating narrative about the simple black rock that helped build our modern world, but now endangers our future.

A Northerner in exile, Stuart Maconie goes on a journey in search of the North, attempting to discover where the cliches end and the truth begins.