The Underground Sea
- 29 Feb 2024
- 9781805302995
- £16.99
- 128 pp
- 140×221mm
- 10 Apr 2025
- 9781837260386
- £10.99
- 128 pp
- 129×198mm
- 29 Feb 2024
- 9781805303008
- £8.79
- 128 pp
In a few words
A succinct, urgent and never-before seen collection of Berger’s writing on mineworkers and miners’ strikes celebrating both his acclaimed writing and deep-rooted politics
In a few words
A succinct, urgent and never-before seen collection of Berger’s writing on mineworkers and miners’ strikes celebrating both his acclaimed writing and deep-rooted politics
In a few words
A succinct, urgent and never-before seen collection of Berger’s writing on mineworkers and miners’ strikes celebrating both his acclaimed writing and deep-rooted politics
Berger’s commitment to the mining communities was more than emotional, it was visceral
A timely collection with still-striking thoughts
Berger’s commitment to the mining communities was more than emotional, it was visceral
A timely collection with still-striking thoughts
Berger’s commitment to the mining communities was more than emotional, it was visceral
Praise for John Berger:
'John Berger seems to me peerless
Susan Sontag
More about
the book
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. Publication of The Underground Sea marks the 40th Anniversary of the 1984-5 Strike, at a time when people are rediscovering the necessity, power and possibilities of collective action.
Including transcripts and image-essay of his rarely-seen BBC programme, Germinal; interviews and his essay ‘Miners’, it places itself in the heart of a Derbyshire mining village, with reflections on the everyday life of a typical pit community. Berger grapples with the politics of witness as he studies the miners’ labour and the wider community shaped in service to this work. Reflecting on their precarity, he goes back to Zola’s novel for hope that ‘a new world is germinating underneath the ground. And when it arrives, it will crack open the earth.’
More about
the book
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.
More about
the book
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.
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
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
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
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
Praise for John Berger:
John Berger has made the world a better place to live in. I do not say this lightly
Arundhati Roy
[He] reminds us of what most contemporary writing would have us forget, which is that great writers are distinguished, ultimately, by the quality of their humanity
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