Frederick Grice Quotes

“All his life Dick Ullathorne had expected to follow his father and brother into the mine. Mining seemed the only natural employment for boys in the pit village where he lived”

“Other people were wondering that too, but it took the heartbreaking starvation of a bitter strike and a dangerous pit accident to make Dick break loose from the pit for his future.”

″ Where people could hear dull subterranean sounds below the floors of their houses, and boys explored ancient, deserted shafts as one of their entertainments.”

“Dick had never questioned this way of life until the night Mr. Sleath, the owner of the mine, was taken ill and Dick had to help him home.”

“That set him wondering by what right Mr. Sleath lived so well and held such power over his workers’ lives. ”

“Dick assumes that living in a mining town means that he’ll soon be asked to leave school and start working in the pit like his father and brother before him.”

“A wonderful tale telling the story of a little pit boy called Dick Ullathorne who just like his grandfather, brother and father follow them down into the pit.”

“On the north side of the colliery stood the school, a gaunt clay-coloured brick building with tall narrow windows like a church. With its ugly shape and muddy colour and dull green doors it looked more like a prison than a school.”

“It was a murky night and the sky was overcast. The blackened walls of the houses and yards and privies seemed to sweat, and the street had been churned into a muddy paste.”

“As soon as Dick came into the kitchen he knew that something had happened. His mothers was short-tempered and his father’s brows were down; and his brother’s boots, caked with mud, were drying in the hearth.”