Author Description

Steelmen is a gritty, funny, thought provoking portrayal of a group of blast furnace workers on shift number 2 in the few years leading to the closure of Ravenscraig Steelworks. It tells how the men came out the other side with varying degrees of success, failure and for some downright human tragedy. The story focuses on a number of the men across the age spectrum particularly on young friends Jack and Ricky as they struggle to make the journey from boys to men against the culture of hard drinking and misogynistic behaviour that existed at the time, all the while with the spectre of inevitable redundancy waiting around the corner. Steelmen tells the hitherto untold story of Ravenscraig, stripped of romanticism, the real story of the dirt, the danger, the hard-drinking, the camaraderie and the triumph and tragedy that engulfed all of the men who worked there, none of whom were left untouched by their experiences in the giant plant affectionalty known by locals as "The Craig"