The strike of 1984/5 cut deep into the traditional mining communities yet in the midst of this wholesale destruction something unexpected happened. From the dark corners of obscurity came the voices of the wives, mothers and daughters of miners - previously unheard, inexperienced, unrehearsed. Out of desperation they found the strength and courage to not only stand and fight alongside their men but to become political activists in their own right. Overnight they mastered the media, learnt which journalists to trust and began to appear in the newspapers, and on radio and TV. But when the strike ended in defeat the media lost interest. The women were dumped, allowed to slip back into the shadows. For some the strike brought about a change; they had seen an existence beyond the slagheaps and embraced it. For others the end of the strike meant coming back to earth with a bump. Two decades later Triona Holden, who was one of the BBC correspondents reporting on the strike, takes the reader into the lives of these remarkable women and reveals that what is good and inextinguishable about the mining communities lives on in these women's articulate, funny and frank stories.

In 1998, there was the latest in a long and complex history of takeovers that had bedevilled Rolls-Royce and Bentley since the companies were founded. This resulted in Volkswagen taking ownership of the factory in Crewe, together with the Bentley range and name, while BMW moved Rolls-Royce production to a new site in Sussex. On 30 August 2002, the last Crewe-built Rolls-Royce rolled off the production line, bringing the era of Crewe-built Rolls-Royces to an end. Peter Ollerhead, an ex-Rolls-Royce employee, has spent years researching the history of the company in Crewe, from 1938 to 1998, focusing on the endeavours and the experiences of its employees: this is a book about people. The detailed text, illustrated with over 80 photographs, explains how the initial establishment of a Merlin aero engine factory was thwarted by the problems of building on a greenfield site, where the early days of skill shortages, a chronic need for housing and a strike were followed by a bombing raid in 1940, in which seventeen employees were killed. The arrival of car production just after the Second World War is fully covered, as are the other enterprises that helped to keep the company afloat, from War Department power units to hip joints for the NHS. Despite a troubled history - with two major fires, bankruptcy and large-scale redundancies - Rolls-Royce was Crewe's largest employer for many years, produced the world's best luxury cars, and influenced and shaped the town as no other company has done. This book is a fitting tribute to the generations of workers who made it all possible.

Just over 100 years ago, a small engineering concern in Vauxhall, South London, made its first motor car. Named after the place it was built, the Vauxhall was a revelation. Within a few years of expansion, production had moved to Luton. Vauxhall was purchased in the 1920s by General Motors and its most famous models include its Edwardian Prince Henry, the PA Cresta, perhaps the most distinctive of its American-styled cars, as well as the Astra, Cavalier and its 1970s rally winning cars such as the Firenza and Chevette. Since the 1950s, Vauxhall has remained one of Britain's most popular car makes, with many millions of its cars sold worldwide. Its F-type Victor was at one time the biggest export earner for Britain with over 200,000 sold abroad and the PA was the first true motorway cruiser built in Britain. Vauxhall: A History tells the story of the cars, the people that built them and also of Bedford, the truck and van division of Vauxhall.

Marchon was one of Whitehaven's largest employers, employing over 4500 people directly and indirectly at their Whitehaven plant. This book tells the story of one of the cottage industry rising to an international industrial giant and then back to nothing again, with the plant closing in the early 1980s.

Lady Charlotte (1812-95) was one of the successful women of nineteenth century. She married Josiah John Guest and moved from Lincolnshire to industrial South Wales. Through this woman's life, this book explores the impact of industrialisation on British society, Wales' literary heritage and importance of gender in Victorian society.