Bleak Christmas
David Holding's
(Other Titles by this author Below)

Image: Courtesy of the author.

Above are four photographs from the website of 'The Bolton News' showing the memorial, the day of the explosion, a new pit truck, and fundraising efforts on behalf of the miners' families.
- Bleak Christmas - coal dust
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- David Holding
- Bleak Christmas - You are the jury
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- David Holding
- Bleak Christmas - the Pretoria pit now
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- David Holding
"The title of the DVD was ‘Black Christmas’ but for the book
I’ve changed it to ‘Bleak Christmas’.
Bleak is better because it is usually a happy time… but it wasn’t.
You had coffins coming left right and centre right over Christmas…
so it was a bleak Christmas. And butchers were giving
away food it was so bad. How do you celebrate
where there’s 344 men and boys killed?"
"There are some people who believe that disasters and other tragedies are too emotive and personal to be the subject of debate, scrutiny and analysis. And, as such, they are best consigned to history.
Now, as an historian, I find it very difficult to share this belief. I firmly believe that it is only be revisiting past events that one is able to fully understand the lessons of history and move forward with confidence. We owe it to future generations to preserve the legacy that history offers us and to bear testimony to those who have gone before. It is to the memory of those men and youths who lost their lives in the Pretoria disaster that this film is dedicated."
David Holding, speaking as Historical Advisor in a Steve Looker/Reel Visions film.