Review: Surviving Aberfan: The People’s Story and Aberfan: A Story of Survival, Love and Community in One of Britain’s Worst Disasters
From Planet 225
Frank Olding reviews
Surviving Aberfan: The People’s Story
by Sue Elliott, Steve Humphries, and Bevan Jones
and
Aberfan: A Story of Survival, Love and Community in One of Britain’s Worst Disasters
by Gaynor Madgwick
Grosvenor House, £9.99
These are harrowing books and make for a very difficult read. The story of Aberfan stands for so much in the history of the Valleys coal communities that it is almost impossible by now to sift through the layers of recollection, mythologizing and rhetoric to get some sort of grip on the reality of that horrendous day half a century ago. That is one of the reasons why Surviving Aberfan: The People’s Story is such an immensely valuable publication.
We are all familiar with the truism that the victors write the histories and this is, in large part, still true. How much more so when the all the power and vested interests of big business, the state, and political hierarchies combine to whitewash or bury the truth about a particular event? We must be eternally grateful to Sue Elliott, Steve Humphries and Bevan Jones (and the BBC) for having had the commitment, courage and common decency to produce a stunning, first-hand testament to the suffering of the people of Aberfan in 1966 and across the decades since.
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