The Underground Sea

<p><b>John Berger </b>was born in London in 1926. His seminal <i>Ways of Seeing</i> was one of the most influential books on art in the twentieth century. His many books innovative in form and far-reaching in their historical and political insight include <i>To the Wedding King</i> and the Booker Prize-winning novel <i>G.</i> He died aged ninety in January 2017.<br><br><b>Tom Overton </b>is John Berger's biographer. He catalogued the Berger archive at the British Library and edited <i>Portraits: John Berger on Artists </i>and <i>Landscapes: John Berger on Art</i>. He lives in Sheffield.<br><br><b>Matthew Harle </b>is a writer and curator. His latest books include<i> Black Arsenal </i>and <i>Mirror Reflecting Darkly</i>. His curating explores the cultural histories of everyday life most recently in the retrospective <i>People Make Television</i> at Raven Row in 2023.</p> <p><i>The Underground Sea </i>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 <i>The Underground Sea</i> marks the 40th Anniversary of the 1984-5 Strike at a time when people are rediscovering the necessity power and possibilities of collective action.<br><br>Including transcripts and image-essay of his rarely-seen BBC programme<i> Germinal</i>; 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.'</p> <b>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 </b> <b>Praise for John Berger: </b>'John Berger seems to me peerless John Berger has made the world a better place to live in. I do not say this lightly [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 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 An ongoing inspiration as to how books should be written (and photography used)