Award-winning author, Jonathan Trigell has used his family history and his visits to Redhills as the inspiration for his new novel – Under Country.
Under Country is a story of the miners’ strike: the sudden shock of poverty; the camaraderie; the brutality. It is the story of one man’s fight for redemption, as the wounds of an embattled generation hardened to scars.
The story’s main character is Charlie. Charlie was a miner. Son of a miner. Son of a miner’s son. And he was proud to be so. It explores the proud pit villages, where miners were respected and gives reference to the mines never stopping. Until they did.
It is the story of one man’s fight for redemption, in which the great emotional depth of Charlie’s story is set against the rapid social, political, and economic changes of England in the final decades of the twentieth century.
Jonathan will be using local independent bookseller, Collected Books to support sales within Durham with their words on wheels mobile bookstore. The Redhills Team spoke to Jonathan about his novel and he said:
“Redhills features in my novel Under Country, I wanted to include it because I think it is a place of such unique cultural significance, to the people of the North East, the wider mining community and indeed the entire union movement. And it’s a special place for me as well: while I was researching the book, and subsequently, I have often walked around the grounds at Redhills, feeling that strange symbiosis of tranquillity and struggle.”
Jonathan Trigell
Writing about the miners’ strike is somewhat of a change of theme for Jonathan who has four previously published novels: Boy A, Cham, Genus, and The Tongues of Men or Angels. Admired for a gritty but literary style, among other prizes, Trigell has won the Waverton Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the inaugural World Book Day Prize.
Jonathan’s novel – Boy A – was dramatised by Cuba Pictures and Film4. It was directed by John Crowley (Brooklyn, The Goldfinch) and starred Andrew Garfield and Peter Mullan. The production won four BAFTA Awards and the Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
“I was shocked, enraged and deeply moved by the unfolding events in this novel. Jonathan’s writing is so visceral and poetic that it cuts right through you and makes you feel as though you are living alongside his characters. I loved them. Didn’t want it to end.”
Jill Halfpenny