War Underground

Michael Edmonds was born in Dorset in 1926. His first-hand account describes the experiences of one of the 47,000 young men plucked from their everyday lives to go underground as Bevin Boys during the Second World War. Michael Edmonds kept notes from when he arrived in South Wales, aged 18, through Nationalization in 1947 to his return to civilian life. He wrote his insightful, informative and often moving memoirs to set down the respect he felt for the miners and convey it to the wider world. But as he began his postwar careers as an artist and architect his text was forgotten, and it is only now that it is available for all to read.