The Underground Sea

(Paperback, Main - Canons)

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Description

The Underground Sea is a succinct, urgent collection of writing from John Berger's archive. It brings together for the first time his work on mineworkers and the miners' strikes and has been edited as a set of actions for today: a time when people are rediscovering the necessity, power and possibilities of collective action.

Including essays, transcripts, interviews and images, it places itself in the heart of a Derbyshire mining village, with reflections on the everyday life of a typical pit community.

Reviews

Berger's commitment to the mining communities was more than emotional, it was visceral * * New Statesman * *
A timely collection with still-striking thoughts * * Irish Times * *
A profound tribute to working-class struggles . . . The words are invariably sage, the language noble yet pointedly accessible, descriptions of intense poverty and extraordinarily dangerous work are powerful * * Buzz Magazine * *
Praise for John Berger: 'John Berger seems to me peerless -- SUSAN SONTAG
John Berger has made the world a better place to live in. I do not say this lightly -- ARUNDHATI ROY
A few minutes with Berger and a better world, a better outcome, wasn't fantasy or imaginary, it was impetus - possible, feasible, urgent and clear . . . Berger's genius is its own fertile continuum - radical, brilliant, gentle, uncompromising -- ALI SMITH
Few people have possessed such clarity, nor yoked it to such persistently generous political ends -- OLIVIA LAING
The writer I admired above all others . . . Whatever their form or subject [Berger's] books are jam-packed with observations so precise and delicate that they double as ideas - and vice versa -- GEOFF DYER
There are a few authors that can change the way you look at the world through their writing and John Berger is one of them -- JARVIS COCKER
An ongoing inspiration as to how books should be written (and photography used) -- ALAIN de BOTTON

Author Bio

John Berger was born in London in 1926. His seminal Ways of Seeing was one of the most influential books on art in the twentieth century. His many books, innovative in form and far-reaching in their historical and political insight, include To the Wedding, King, and the Booker Prize-winning novel, G. He died, aged ninety, in January 2017.

Tom Overton is John Berger's biographer. He catalogued the Berger archive at the British Library and edited Portraits: John Berger on Artists and Landscapes: John Berger on Art. He lives in Sheffield.

Matthew Harle is a writer and curator. His latest books include Black Arsenal and Mirror Reflecting Darkly. His curating explores the cultural histories of everyday life, most recently in the retrospective People Make Television at Raven Row in 2023.