05/09/2026
Here we are again! By popular demand, Reading Allowed is back again for Act III.
This time we will be meeting in the library on 28th September at 7.00pm until 9.00pm. We will be reading a play by that Yorkshire icon and working-class hero, Barry Hines. He is most famous for his novel “A Kestrel for a Knave” which he later adapted for Ken Loach’s 1969 film “Kes”. He went on to write a two-part television drama “The Price of Coal” and a television film “Threads” which depicts the horrific impact of a nuclear war on Sheffield.
We will be reading the first play “Meet the People” featured in “The Price of Coal” which is a comedy about a royal visit to a local Yorkshire pit. Barry Hines did considerable research before writing the play, visiting several collieries on official NCB (National Coal Board) open days. This research was backed up by a lifetime of personal experience in a mining environment and, therefore the stories and characters he created are authentic, heart-warming and heartbreaking in equal measure, and memorable. His talent for dialogue is remarkable and his ear for local dialect is outstanding.
So again, we are excited to offer you the opportunity to take a step back in time and witness Sid and his fellow miners pour scorn and ridicule on the visit of HRH to their pit and we will laugh at their antics, but we will also get an insight into the lives of working-class people and their communities, and their reliance and dependence on the mining industry for everything. We will witness them giving their life’s blood to keep us warm and our lights on.
If you would like to come along and participate in the evening, please contact the library to reserve your place. Admission is free and refreshments are provided. A voluntary donation is welcome to help cover the costs of borrowing the copies and the postage.
We are sure you will have another highly entertaining and hilarious evening. Please come along. You won’t regret it.
