the darkness of the morning is a novel by gordon parker. it was published in 1975. the novel is about coal miners in 19th-century england. it follows the lives of fictional coal miners and their families through the great strike of 1844, the crimean war, and the hartley colliery disaster of 1862. the book was widely and positively reviewed. in 1978, it was re-published in english with commentary in russian for school reading.