In his books, paintings and private life, D H Lawrence was never far from controversy and scandal, but he could not understand why...

The Eastwood of Lawrence's boyhood was set amidst the grime and dirt of collieries. Slag heaps towered over villages and hamlets whose character was shaped by the quest for coal. The men were hard, straight-talking... their women fiercely loyal and obedient. For many reasons, Lawrence did not fit the mining mould even though he was the son of a collier.

Lawrence, a sickly child from the start, was born in 1885 into a life of conflict. His father, Arthur, was typical of the breed. A huge, rough man, poorly educated, prone to great rage and a liking for ale. He must have seemed a fearful figure to his family. Lawrence's mother -- perhaps the greatest influence on his life -- came from different stock. Lydia Beardsall was the product of a middle class religious family who never came to terms with life in a mining community.

In Lawrence's birthplace, now a fascinating museum dedicated to the author's early years, there is a photograph of Lydia. She looks careworn and tired, old and, somehow, defeated. She was 38 at the time. "She was not born to mining and she had a different outlook on life. She did not want her sons to go down the pit," says Jean McVea, the Lawrence Birthplace Museum guide and self-confessed devotee of the great man.

As a child, Lawrence would wander the country lanes and follow the Erewash canal. He visited the big houses of the colliery owners and recorded in his mind's eye the personalities of his youth. He saw the deprivations suffered by the colliers and recoiled at the ugly scars mining cut into his beloved valley. And, at one time or another, almost every sight, sound and face he saw, he recreated in his work. The most vivid images occur, perhaps, in his autobiographical Sons and Lovers, depicting his father Mr Morel, as an evil, violent man. But, according to Jean McVea, the writer came to realise he had misjudged his father. "I believe, had he lived longer, he would have rectified the things he wrote in Sons and Lovers."

From an article that first appeared on This Is Nottingham.