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Book Review W H Auden / Pennine Poet by Alan Myers and Robert Forsythe 1999 60 pp 8 colour 9 B&W photos, maps, SB. Pub North Pennines Heritage Trust £3.50 I had always thought Auden to be the cavers’ poet, because of his “In Praise of Limestone” but, it appears that Auden is also the mining historian’s poet. Auden spent his childhood in Birmingham. This gave him a fascination for what today we would call, `industrial archaeology’. He gushes enthusiastically over gasworks and industrial landscapes and writes “Tramlines and slagheaps, pieces of machinery, that was, and still is, my ideal scenery”. In another poem he fantasises with himself as a mining engineer. Family holidays took him to mining areas and his love of the underworld repeatedly appears in his works, for instance when he refers to putting carpets on his bed to give the impression of being underground. This is further emphasised by his predilection for travelling on the Underground. When Auden offered to show his friend photos of his former loves, Alan Ansen was surprised to see pictures of pumping engines, water turbines, winding engines and roller-crushers. Throughout his life Auden hankered after “high wind and driving rain, autumnal weather”. He was not to be disappointed. The northern Pennines provided the landscape and the inspiration for his works which constantly refers to mines and mining. This book will appeal not only to the northern Penniner, who will revel in his glorifying of the northern landscape, but all those with a love of literature allied with industrial archaeology. Tony Oldham, Specialist Caving and Mining Bookseller %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%