Sojourns in Ireland and Spain
Tommy Turnbull:
A Miner's Life
Tommy Turnbull: A Miner's Life had its Irish launch at Wexford Arts Centre in November 1996 which included a short theatrical presentation by former miner John Ewens, now a professional actor.
Joe Robinson's uncle was a Durham miner. Growing up in the gritty North East, only two miles from Durham city, he headed down t'pit when fourteen and retired through ill-health and died in 1982. He survived the depression years and this earthy biography tells his story underground working in the dangerous Durham coalfield. With a foreword by the Rt Hon. Tony Benn MP, Tommy Turnbull's story is told with passion. Mining has always been a dangerous activity and Tommy Turnbull's story is similar to that of almost half a million men who once worked in Britain's coalfields.
Tommy Turnbull: A miner's life With a Forward by Tony Benn, MP (Tups Books) (Tempus Publishing - The History Press)
Tups Book was a miners' cooperative started as a trade union printers when they were made redundant after Thatcher's pit closures with little capital and few resources; they published a few books about mining.
'This is a most enjoyable book ... it would be difficult to find another book that expresses so well the texture and feel of a miner's life and this particular north east community,' John L. Halstead. Labour History Review.
'I must have read dozens of books about miner's lives but this one is the best....what Tommy says sounds like every pitman I have ever known.' Robert Colls, Northern Review
'It will be read and treasured for decades to come. ...' Peter Fryer, Workers Express
'...this is a vivid, well written and convincing book' Philip Bagwell, Tribune
A Difficult Man to Work With
The author, a hospital microbiologist, returns with his wife and young son to Tyneside, after five years overseas, to get a job that would allow them to buy a house and settle down. Vacancies prove hard to come by and he suffers harrowing unemployment for many months.When at last he is offered a post at one of the North of England's most famous hospitals, he is jubilant. However, he soon finds that the technology used is antiquated and that relations between medical and non-medical staff are little better than feudal. He is resented for his overseas experience, rebuffed for trying to introduce modern methods, and finally becomes persona non grata because of his unwillingness to conform to being treated like a skivvy. No system for dealing with industrial complaints exists in the Hospital service and his situation becomes impossible. With no chance of getting a job elsewhere, he embarks on a course that eventually brings him some distinction but costs him his job, his career and his health.
Poms and Pakehas
An account of the author's experiences when he emigrates to New Zealand in 1962 on one of the last ships to transport emigrants to the Antipodes. He lives, works and travels widely in the North and South islands, experiencing the six o'clock swill and the blunt attitude of New Zealanders towards Poms (English men and women). He relishes the wonderful climate, topography and wildlife - as well as that descended from the ape, as he enjoys a life that has now largely disappeared under the depredations of tourists and political correctors.
The Making of a Microbe Hunter
Although ordinary people know scarcely anything about microbes, they are becoming increasingly aware of their importance as governments and their media use the threat of killer plagues to manipulate them. But there is much more to microbiology than annual plagues and politics. Joe Robinson, author of two popular biographies, The Life and Times of Francie Nichol of South Shields and Tommy Turnbull - A Miner's Life, is a microbiologist who has worked in many different fields, both in Britain and abroad. His adventures as a young microbiologist (the 'microbe hunter' of the title), which include two years in the Royal Army Medical Corps, are highly entertaining as he encounters as motley a collection of human beings as one might find anywhere. By reading this book we learn something of microbiology, but more about the kind of people who work in it, because the book is primarily about such people, some likeable, some of them less so, but all of them treated in an amusing light.
The Life & Times of Francie Nichol of South Shields
The Life & Times of Francie Nichol of South Shields (George, Allen & Unwin) 1975, Futura, paperback edition, Francie (Tups Books) 1997.
This was the biography of the author's grandmother, Francie, and a chronicle of life in South Shields in the early part of the last century.
Notes of Interest about Francie Nichol
The manuscript was sent to Alex Glasgow a local Tyneside chansonnier who liked it and sent it to north east writer Sid Chaplin who then sent it to his publishers, George, Allen & Unwin who gave it the go ahead for publication.
A BBC docu/drama was to be made with Francie being interviewed by BBC Director, Eric Davidson for two weeks in her home in South Shields, but then was stopped because the BBC thought that it had too many Tyneside works going at the time, including The Likely Lads, When the Boat Comes In, Close the Coalhouse door.
It was made into a stage production by Live Theatre, Newcastle on Tyne with a young Robson Green as a boxer, a BBC radio play and Francie: The Musical by Customs House, South Shields.
A book in a thousand .... Times Educational Supplement
'Social history as it should be written ....The Sunday Times
'A raw, vivid slice of life.' Daily Express
Claret and Cross-Buttock or Rafferty's Prize Fighters
The story of the Robinson family of North Country prize-fighters, the boxing side of the author's family, with a recommendation by Henry Cooper. (George, Allen & Unwin)
