Underground art in its truest sense

FOR two delightful years in the mid-1960s, I worked as a reporter at the Nottingham Evening Post, a nine-editions-a-day newspaper read by nearly every adult in that glorious north midlands city.

For recreation, my colleagues and I often attended Miners' Welfare Clubs, where the beer was cheap and nubile strip artistes were often the entertainment of choice.

Together with my enduring enthusiasm for the works of D.H.Lawrence, these memorable evenings cemented my admiration for miners and their proud traditions.

It is in this spirit that I present you with Night Shift, my painting of colliers on their way to the coalface with their picks and shovels. Brave men whose arduous work kept us warm in tougher times.