Table 1 Participants interpretations of smoking experiences:

Smoking Initiation

'I was about 10. Didn't realise because in them days, smoking wasn't bad for you, it was considered to be good for you, if you smoked Marlboro, kids wanted to be a cowboy, a tough guy, all my heroes smoked, Bogart, Cagney, all had a fag in their mouth........'

'Smoking was good for you when I started.'

'I think it was when I started down pit, everybody, they'd come up and they had a fag straightaway, I just done the same thing.'

Smoking behaviour and addiction

'Most people have a coffee, sit down with a cigarette to get their bearings, you stop to think about what you're going to do in the day ...' by the time you've put the fag out you're ready to go out there and challenge every one, it perks you up a bit.'

'You finish washing up and you have a fag, when you have a cup of tea you have a fag, when you sit down and watch Neighbours you have a fag ...'

'I'll be honest with you now, I'm sitting here now and I'm getting really, really sort of agitated! It's like I can't talk to people normally without a cigarette and I know that I'm talking here, but I'm slowly twiddling, my toes are tapping ...'

'If they gave me £50 m, I still couldn't stop, not for £50 m I couldn't.'

Who's in control, you or the fags? 'The fags, definitely the fags.'