When it was originally published in 2015, Craig Oldham’s In Loving Memory of Work: A Visual Record of the UK Miners’ Strike 1984-85 was recognised for the way it brought together a range of protest materials used by the mining communities. In the intervening years, it has served to keep their stories alive, and in 2023, ahead of the 40th anniversary of the first of the main strikes of March 1984, the book was republished in an expanded paperback edition by Rough Trade Books.

The publication has become a vital piece of activism in its own right, contributing to the campaigning drive to establish an inquiry into one of the most infamous events of the strike – the violent confrontation between the police and striking pickets that took place at the Orgreave coking plant on June 18, 1984 – and the resulting cover-up. 

Thanks to the work of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, a complete and accurate picture of what happened at the site, which saw hundreds injured on the day and countless families affected over the four decades since, may now come to light. In July of this year, the UK government finally announced that a statutory inquiry into Orgreave will launch in the autumn.