This gritty musical about the coal industry in northeast England is regularly staged by all kinds of theatre companies, from professional to school to amateur. The play, adapted from stories by Sid Chaplin, and with the songs of Alex Glasgow, is frequently revived. It has been described as a hymn of unqualified praise to the miners who created a revolutionary weapon without having a revolutionary intent. Alan Plater has written numerous radio, television, theatre, and film scripts, as well as fiction.

When 'Hymns and Arias' rang out at Cardiff Arms Park some fifty years ago, those great Welsh anthems 'Calon Lân' and 'Cwm Rhondda' had found a companion and the valleys of south Wales had produced a new folk hero. From his early days touring the folk clubs and small concert halls of his native south Wales to sell-out shows at some of the world's most iconic venues, including the Albert Hall, the London Palladium and the opera houses of Sydney and Durban, Max has become an original and treasured performer whose songs and stories have become part of folk culture. His albums, including the No. 1 album We All Had Doctors' Papers and the iconic Live at Treorchy, have sold in their millions and earned him several gold discs. His greatest influence has always been the Valleys of Wales, with their inherent warmth and humour, their sadness and passion, and he has the remarkable ability to heighten, to an art form, the 'hwyl' that attends his nation's national game: rugby union. Compiling – in some instances for the first time in print – the very best songs, poems and stories from across his celebrated career, Max Boyce: Hymns & Arias is the definitive selected work of a major cultural figure who, through his inimitable humour, uniquely Welsh pathos and masterful wordcraft, has defined a nation and its people for more than half a century.

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Published in 1975, Ragtime changed our very concept of what a novel could be. An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century and the First World War. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family and other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.

This comprehensive study formulates an original theory that dramatic song must be perceived as a separate genre situated between poetry, music, and theater. It focuses on John Arden, Margaretta D'Arcy, Edward Bond, Peter Barnes, John Osborne, Peter Nichols, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Peter Shaffer, and John McGrath.

What is power without principle? What are principles without power? It's Spring 1996: Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United are riding high in the Premier League and Tony Blair's New Labour are gathering pace. Hope is in the air and victory seems within reach. Len, a long term traditional Labour left activist, has decided to run as a candidate for local Labour MP, but the arrival of Victoria as front runner throws a spanner in the works. With loyalties tested and tensions reaching fever pitch, the winning team will be decided in an explosive head-to-head challenge. Love It If We Beat Them is a new political drama from writer Rob Ward that explores a time of significant change in the identity of North East communities and perfectly captures a moment in recent history that defines who we are today. A knockout play about Labour, love, and the beautiful game. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Newcastle's Live Theatre, in March 2023.