Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1553 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Synopsis
Wentworth is in Yorkshire and was surrounded by 70 collieries employing tens of thousands of men. It is the finest and largest Georgian house in Britain and belonged to the Fitzwilliam family. It is England's forgotten palace which belonged to Britain's richest aristocrats. "Black Diamonds" tells the story of its demise: family feuds, forbidden love, class war, and a tragic and violent death played their part. But coal, one of the most emotive issues in twentieth century British politics, lies at its heart. This is the extraordinary story of how the fabric of English society shifted beyond recognition in fifty turbulent years in the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews

Accessible history.
Read this as much as a history book as a novel. Couldnt put it down - history lessons were never like this. An absolute eye opener, I learnt so much social history. I agree absolutely with the two previous reviewers.

What the rich really think of working people
Great book tells the real history of Britain with the rich lording over the working classes sipping champagne whilst people they evicted have to live in tents in fields. Read and learn, things really haven't changed that much.

You couldn't make this up
I have to express an interest, having been brought up in one of the villages mentioned, knowing some of the people quoted, & going to a school founded by Lady Mabel Smith. It was a really fascinating read which I found hard to put down. It isn't easy to link the generations in a large family, but the author does it very well, the product of a great deal of research into the family, & much wider.

As the son of a miner I was particularly interested in the detail of the lives of the miners & their families, & the varying attitudes of the mine owners. The machinations of Royalty, the Government, & the committees explained so much of their struggle. Again the attention to detail gave credence & real life to the situations without the story dragging. In passing I would contrast the detail given of the Denaby situation with its wholesale evictions & legal threats, surely a milestone in industrial relations & the awful plight of many working people, with the lack of any mention in his book "The Edwardians" by local Labour politician Roy Hattersley. I found this book gave real insight & understanding of some of the important events in British history of the twentieth century, better than many textbooks, as well as a surprise unfolding of an aristocratic dysfunctional family. You are left asking "Are they all like that?"