Absorbing detail presented so readably that no one with a spark of imagination and a twinge of interest in people could fail to find this book a pleasure

Evening Standard

A brilliant book about a magnificent and vanished race of men

Listerner

Coleman's vivid and perceptive study of Victorian railway navvies is something of a landmark

Guardian

Coleman's pioneering work of industrial history is handsomely illustrated with prints and photographs from the time with a new introduction from the most distinguished recent historian of the railways

The National (Glasgow)