Catherine Urben, who has children aged one and two, said

He remembers a collective attitude of "Can we get through Christmas?", despite sensing the fatigue of nine months without regular income for mining families."It was quite extraordinary," says Keith, who later co-authored a book about the strike in Easington with The Damned United author David Peace.

"There was a buzz and a party atmosphere. But in some of the pictures I took there's a resigned weariness and a sense of 'How do we keep cheerful?'"There was a determination that no-one would be starved back to work."Back in South Yorkshire, while Aggie might have been reconciled to no presents, Christmas without a Christmas tree proved a bridge too far.

"I was absolutely gutted my kids weren't going to have one", she recalls."I went upstairs so the kids wouldn't see me crying and I looked out the window and saw my neighbours had a nice fern tree in the middle of the garden.

"At 02:00 GMT I went and cut it down and brought it back and that was the tree.

"I'm sure the neighbours knew it was me but they never said anything.""We've had a really, really great year and summer... and that's proof that if you've got the right recipe, people will come.”

However, some restaurants told the ONS the football tournament had had a negative impact on footfall.Despite some travel agents seeing an increase in bookings because of the Paris Olympics, overall bookings fell month on month, the ONS said.

Business owners are worried a sinkhole which appeared in a Dorking road is damaging trade.It first appeared in West Street - home to many of the Surrey town's antique shops - on 30 August, and has since been investigated by Thames Water.