John ross artist huddersfield fc

"I was connected with the whole build-up to it over a period of time," explains John.

"Some of my close friends were union men, not necessarily the National Union of Mineworkers, but in the print unions...I was privy, certainly, to the union side, certainly to the feeling on the street about how it was going." That's how, in 1984, John first understood that something was going on - something which would soon enough become the bitter, year-long Miners' Strike.

It wasn't just his union connections which helped John got a feeling for what was in the air, there was the small matter of football: "I was also playing football for a team over in Huddersfield.

Alex ross artist

We used to play a lot of the pit sides in the various cups and leagues we were in, so I got to see a lot of that first-hand. I got to see it, if you like, right from the centre. I watched the whole thing."

Working at Leeds Polytechnic (later to become Leeds Met