This is an historical novel of miners and mining. Driven by economic hardships an ambitious coalminer, Jack Elks, leaves the Midlands to work in the 'Eldorado' of the Kent Coalmines. This new coalfield is growing but conditions are poor and the men exploited. The incomers are from all over the British Isles, hard men but in need of leadership. Jack is a self taught man who started work aged eleven, he works hard to form a union. Elected as Secretary and Agent, he guides the union through the depressions of the 1920's and 30's, including the Great Strike of 1926, and on through the war years until his death in 1950. When he died he believed he had secured the future of the Kent Coalfield. It had been a hard fought battle but it was all worthwhile. Now it has gone into history, along with the hopes of the mining community.