A NORTH-East author is working on a new piece telling the stories of the women of County Durham’s mining communities.

Lucie Brownlee is writing the commission for this year’s Durham Book Festival, which was looking for pieces inspired by 100 years of women’s suffrage.

Her piece, which will be published as part of the festival, explores the stories of four women across three generations of the same family, spanning 100 years of activism in Durham’s coalfields.

Her starting point was speaking to Heather Wood, and her mother Myrtle MacPherson about their work during the 1984/85 miners’ strike, when they both worked in the free cafe in Easington.

The women were also able to share the stories of Heather’s grandmothers, Gerty Welsh and Sarah MacPherson, who were both part of the mining community.

The author, who has been doing an eight-day residency at the Miners’ Hall at Redhills, said: “We hear stories from the world below the ground but not so much of the mining community above the ground. Women’s stories are often told through the prism of men.”

She added: “Heather has been massively generous with her information and photos and stories. It’s been a fabulous opportunity.

“She’s a really inspirational woman, as is her mother Myrtle and her grandmothers, who weren’t as politically vocal but were very politically astute.

“I was really interested in looking at that lineage. You can see her drive for activism and trace it back through those women.”

“It’s about retelling their stories and giving a platform to voices that haven’t had a platform before,” she added. “I come from a family of very strong women. I wouldn’t describe myself as an activist but I’m fascinated by these people who have that drive.

“Myrtle has been doing things for her community all of her life and Heather is the same. A lot of women I’ve spoken to are the same. I could have gone down several avenues because there were any number of inspirational women I could have looked at.

Dr Brownlee, who lives in Bishop Middleham, in County Durham, has been writing since 2010.

Her work since then has included a memoir Life After You, written following the death of her husband Mark, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and one of Richard and Judy’s Autumn Book Club picks for 2015.

Particularly interested in the stories of real people, she has also written a novel based on the life of American sculptress Mary Callery.

She is now hoping to get funding to extend the commission for the book festival into a longer piece.

She said: “There’s so much material there. The stories need to be told and the voices are dying out. It’s an important part of our heritage in the North-East.”

She added: “I was only nine when the miners’ strike happened to I have vague recollections of it but I never fully understood what was going on.

“It’s been fantastic for me a native North-Easterner to delve into the history which is so pivotal to the region.”

This year’s book festival, which takes place between October 6 to 17, features a number of specially commissioned pieces on a range of themes.

Dr Brownlee’s piece will be presented at an event at Durham Miners’ Hall on Sunday, October 7.

Starting at 5.30pm, it will include a soundscape featuring the voices of the women of Durham’s coalfield as well as a projection on the front of the historic hall.

There will also be a reading of an extract from the piece, followed by a discussion by a panel including Dr Brownlee, Ms Wood and young activist Charlotte Austin.

Dr Brownlee added: “It’s great to bring women into this very male environment.”

She added: “I’m sure these stories will resonate with a lot of people in the region. I hope they will come and share their own stories.”

Tickets are £8/£6 and are available from www.durhambookfestival.com.