The Hunter coalfields. Then and now. An extinct mining community lies at rest in a small but crowded
bone orchard
. Its gravedigger led a spectacularly unkempt life, while holding firmly to the belief that
a soul would not rest in a hole dug by machine
. As the coalpit and village declined, he buried almost everyone he knew, before joining them.
'Out of an ordinary, former coal mining town come these extraordinary stories and extraordinary characters. So wonderful you'd wish they were true. A beguiling and loving evocation'. - Louis Nowra
'Tim Gooding brings the dead to life. A gallery of pigeon fanciers, strikers, rascals, bar brawlers, shunters, communists and pit queens you won't forget. Wry and unsentimental, this collection embodies the gritty culture of mining communities now extinct.' - Caroline Baum