New Writing North

There Is a Light that Never Goes Out tells the story of a Durham pit village from the 1950s to the present, and shows how its peoples’ memories, beliefs and ghosts still influence life there today. Author Richard Benson (The Valley, The Farm) and photographer Keith Pattison spent four months recording stories and conversations with people in Easington Colliery, focusing on the Handys, a well-known local family. In this piece he tells tales of tragedy and heroism, love and loss, and the fight to build a better world. Here, too, are everyday stories of a unique way of life; stories of children growing up in a tight-knit community, of tough men and of the invincible women who sustained the village in the hardest of times. Told largely in the family’s own voices, There is a Light is unflinchingly honest about life in these world-famous villages, which contributed not only the energy that built Britain, but also important ideas about how communities can work together. Looking at life there since the closure of t