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Coombes realised that those outside the coal-mining industry had little idea of the activities of miners and the dangers they faced. Despite his limited education, Coombes felt the urge to inform the general public about the mining industry and mining communities. When in his forties, he started
80:, Herefordshire and Bertie left school to work as a farm labourer. He later became a groom for a local doctor but his family always struggled to pay the farm rent and in 1910, he left home and moved to South Wales to become a miner.
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wrote, "Covering the 1930s and 1940s, and thus encapsulating a way of life that has disappeared, Bert
Coombes's concern for the reality of the miner's lot provides a record of great interest to the social historian."
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A few years after Bertie's birth, the
Coombes family dropped the surname Griffiths and adopted his father's middle name, "Coombs", as a surname, spelling it "Cumbes" or "Coombes". They moved to
104:. They had one daughter, Rose, born the following year, and a son, Peter, born ten years later. Their union was to last fifty-six years. He spent forty years working underground.
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He published
Coombes' short story, "The Flame", which gave a detailed description of the terrifying ordeal of a miner, lying prone in an eighteen-inch coal seam, when seeping
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into a hole. The story was much acclaimed and brought invitations from other publishers. More short stories followed, mostly based on real-life events he had experienced.
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160:(Harmondsworth, 1945), in which Coombes recounts the everyday activities of a miner inside and outside the pit, the grievances, attitudes and camaraderie.
123:. This literary magazine sought to break down social barriers and published works by working-class authors as well as by educated middle-class writers.
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doing this, writing in the evenings after a day in the pit. At first his manuscripts were rejected by publishers but eventually he encountered
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wrote that
Coombes was "one of the few proletarian writers of the 1930s who were impressive as writers rather than proletarians." The
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33:(9 January 1893 – 4 June 1974), originally Bertie Lewis Coombs Griffiths, was an English-born writer. Coombes moved to
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B.L.Coombes, with 75 Rhondda images by Isabel
Alexander (illustrator of the 1945 edition), edited by Peter Wakelin,
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339:, ‘Coombes, Bert Lewis (1893–1974)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
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and Bertie attended elementary school. In 1905 or 1906 his parents took a tenancy of a small farm in
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mine. In 1913 he married Mary Rogers, the daughter of the secretary to the local lodge of the
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With Dust Still in his Throat: The
Writing of B. L. Coombes, The Voice of a Working Miner
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449:"Miner's Day: B. L. Coombes, with Rhondda Images by Isabel Alexander (Hardback)"
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Brooks, David B. (1979). "Retrospective: "Miners Day" by B.L. Coombes".
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These Poor Hands: The
Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales
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These Poor Hands: The
Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales
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307:"COOMBES, BERT LEWIS (1893-1974), coal miner and writer"
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With Dust Still in His Throat: A B. L. Coombes
Anthology
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With dust still in his throat: an anthology of writing
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Some of the best known of his longer works include:
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72:in South Wales where his father took work at the
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359:Jones, Bill; Williams, Chris (1999).
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276:Bill Jones & Chris Williams -
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273:(Writers of Wales series) (1999)
229:I am a miner (published in 1939)
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102:South Wales Miners' Federation
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367:. University of Wales Press.
312:Dictionary of Welsh Biography
305:Seth Armstrong Twigg (2021).
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183:B.Jones and C. Williams (ed)
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543:20th-century British writers
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213:, University of Wales Press
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548:Writers from Wolverhampton
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553:Welsh short story writers
317:National Library of Wales
246:Times Literary Supplement
189:University of Wales Press
74:Deep Navigation Colliery
265:William D. Jones &
252:Social History Bulletin
291:Archives Network Wales
558:People from Treharris
47:South Wales coalfield
563:People from Resolven
341:accessed 10 Nov 2013
134:while he is packing
57:Coombes was born in
37:from England before
18:Bertie Louis Coombes
483:WORLDCAT Identities
423:Appalachian Journal
218:Other notable works
152:Those Clouded Hills
88:Coombes settled in
31:Bert Lewis Coombes
27:English-born writer
507:on 9 November 2014
402:on 1 November 2014
239:Critical reception
130:is ignited by his
61:and brought up in
374:978-0-7083-1562-0
211:978-0-7083-1563-7
197:978-1-78316-149-2
178:978-1-913640-38-5
16:(Redirected from
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84:In the mines
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538:1974 deaths
533:1893 births
501:Book review
170:Miner’s Day
120:New Writing
39:World War I
527:Categories
511:1 November
458:29 October
406:1 November
322:18 October
285:References
158:Miners Day
98:anthracite
53:Early life
43:coal mines
70:Treharris
435:40932305
205:(2002),
187:(2014).
172:(2021),
136:dynamite
90:Resolven
35:Resolven
128:methane
108:Writing
92:in the
45:of the
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280:(1999)
226:(1944)
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148:(1939)
78:Madley
431:JSTOR
513:2014
460:2021
408:2014
369:ISBN
324:2021
207:ISBN
193:ISBN
174:ISBN
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