WE LOVE YOU, ARTHUR

by Evans, Fiona

Fiona Evans’ We Love You Arthur tells the story of Julie and Lisa, two girls coming of age in a community being torn apart. Growing up is never easy, especially in Easington Colliery during 1984. Achieving ‘big hair’ can be a problem, but how can you look like Cyndi Lauper when your dad’s on strike and you can’t afford food, never mind a can of extra-hold, permwelding Elnett? And will you ever fit in when the poster-boy you adore is neither Simon LeBon nor Adam Ant, but a middle-aged ginger bloke with a comb-over?

As chaos erupts and their families disintegrate around them, Julie and Lisa are determined to achieve their ambition of meeting their hero and unlikely love object, Arthur Scargill. The duo have a plan and they’ll do anything to see it through - even if it involves a slightly criminal scam, and the theft of a policeman’s dog . . .

This brilliantly comic shaggy-dog story provides the backdrop for a searing drama about a small Durham village, caught in the midst of the most devastating social confrontation of the late 20th century: the miners’ strike.