A tale based loosely in reality, this story traces the fortunes of the Ingles family in the West Riding coal fields around Wakefield. Theirs is a saga that could be replicated time after time in an area where scratching a living wasn’t easy, and where coal, drink, and occasional infidelity played integral parts in the life of the community. Their story starts in the mid-1940s and paints a picture of the privations endured, the dramas enacted, and the joys and sorrows shared, in a town where all understood how hard it was to break free from the shackles of a traditional coal mining community constraints Potentially fifth generation coal hewers, William and Jack Ingles did just that, but at what cost to them and to their close family? This is the first volume.