In the early 1950s Britain was still the most urbanized & industrialized nation in the world a global power in shipbuilding & the leading European producer of coal steel cars & textiles. For the many millions of men & women hard at work during that time an infernal landscape of smoke-blackened factories towering slag heaps & fiery furnaces dominated their lives. From the deep docks & towering cranes of the Tyneside shipyards to the mills & chimneys of Lancashire & beyond Working Lives" takes us right to the heart of those industrial centres through the words of those who were there. Drawn together from hundreds of hours of first-hand interviews " Working Lives" is a unique collection of oral testimonies from workers whose stories might not otherwise have been told: mill girls who risked life & limb in dusty noisy weaving sheds; steel workers who wrestled sheets of white-hot metal in the blistering heat of the foundries; & miners who hewed coal by hand on filthy cramped claustrophobic coalfaces. Local industries shaped these workers entire lives but also gave them a sense of pride identity & belonging. As they look back on the dangers & hardships of their jobs & the place of industry in their close-knit communities these fascinating voices paint a vivid & moving portrait of working life in Britain not to be forgotten."