A Kestrel for a Knave

With prose that is every bit as raw, intense and bitingly honest as the world it depicts, Barry Hines’s A Kestrel for a Knave contains a new afterword by the author in Penguin Modern Classics.Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a disillusioned teenager growing up in a small Yorkshire mining town. Violence is commonplace and he is frequently cold and hungry. Yet he is determined to be a survivor and when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk he discovers a passion in life. Billy identifies with her proud silence and she inspired in him the trust and love that nothing else can. Intense and raw and bitingly honest, A KETREL FOR A KNAVE was first published in 1968 and was also madeinto a highly acclaimed film, ‘Kes’, directed by Ken Loach.

Barry Hines was born in the mining village of Hoyland Common, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Educated at Eccelsfield Grammar School, Hines then worked as an apprentice mining surveyor and played football for Barnsley before studying Physical Education at Loughborough Training College. He taught for several years in London and Yorkshire before becoming a full-time writer. Hines has written 8 other novels and television scripts.