BLACK GOLD is the sixth and final volume in Iris Gower's superb novel sequence of novels about Swansea in the early years of the twentieth century. Set against the background of the General Strike, it tells the thrilling story of a conflict which divided the families of the town for generations. On one side are the mine-owners, men like Sterling Richardson, hero of COPPER KINGDOM, the first novel in this sequence, his weak and corrupt brother Rickie, and Luke Proud, a newcomer to the saga. On the other are the Murphy brothers, miners and rabble-rousers, the Llewelyns from FIDDLER'S FERRY and Jim O'Connor, the charismatic Irishman newly come to Sweyn's Eye. Between these two warring factions stand their woman. Mali Richardson and Mary Sutton, once working class girls, now women of substance. Delmai Richardson, Rickie's treacherous wife, riding devil-may-care towards her come-uppance, and Charlotte, Luke Proud's sister, born to sympathise with one side in the struggle, but in love with a man that ought to be her enemy. And above all, Katie Murphy, betrayed so often before in love, now caught in a deadly crossfire between her brothers and their masters, the mine-owners. BLACK GOLD is