I lived in Fife (Cowdenbeath and Dunfermline) from 1969 to 1973. I played in a rock band with three young fife miners (the deep Michael? pit which stretched 5 miles out under the North Sea). When they were back on the surface, they were a wild bunch, but great fun (if you were into drinking large amounts of alcohol and getting into fights - back then, I was!). As an outsider, but a friend of the mining community, I was tolerated, but unless you go down the mine to work, you can never be a real part of that close-knit community.
I learned of Joe Corrie then, but it wasn't until later that I began to get into his work. Before the Internet, it wasn't easy to gather information from small local libraries. But today, with some of his poetry being set to music by the Battlefield Band, his poems and prose are becoming so much more available. There are a number of sites that feature his work. I just wish I had met him back then!
Here are some sites of this remarkable man.

site 1
site 2

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site 4