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Sid Chaplin was born at 23 Bolckow Street, Shildon, and worked as a miner until 1946. He published his first collection of stories ‘The Leaping Lad’ (1946) in that year. It gained him a prize which enabled him to take a year off and produce his first novel ‘My Fate Cries Out’ about the lead miners of Weardale.

Sid Chaplin may be said to have influenced a whole generation of post-war British writers, including Keith Waterhouse and Stan Barstow. He also helped to form Northern Arts, the country’s second (and largest) Regional Arts Association in 1961. Meanwhile his 1950 novel ‘The Thin Seam’ formed the basis for a successful and moving musical play.

Chaplin wrote television scripts, including some for ‘When the Boat Comes In’. His two important novels ‘The Day of the Sardine’ and ‘The Watcher and the Watched’ are set among the working class communities of Scotswood, Byker and Elswick.

In April 1965, Chaplin presented ‘HANDS’, a story in Mining Review 18th Year No.8.

Sources

http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/faculties/art/humanities/cns/m-chaplin.html; Accessed 22/5/2006: NoS Number 346283; Mining Review 18th Year Number 8; Date released April 1965.