A Kestrel for a Knave (Penguin Decades)

Hines, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140029524 ISBN 13: 9780140029529

Publisher: Penguin, 1973

Billy Casper is a boy with nowhere to go and nothing to say; part of the limbo generation of school leavers too old for lessons and too young to know anything about the outside world. He hates and is hated. His family and friends are mean and tough and they're sure he's going to end up in big trouble. But Billy knows two things about his own world. He'll never work down the mines and he does know about animals. His only companion is his kestrel hawk, trained from the nest, and, like himself, trained but not tamed, with the will to destroy or to be destroyed. This in not just another book about growing up in the north - it's as real as a slap in the face to those who think that orange juice and comprehensive schools have taken the meanness out of life in the raw working towns.

From the Back Cover:

The 1960s was the decade of social revolution, anti-war protests, liberal reforms, civil rights and psychedelia. Skirts got shorter and hair got longer, London swung, the Berlin Wall went up, a man walked on the moon, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones reigned and England even won the world cup.

Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave was published in 1968. One of those rare crossover books lovd by adults and children alike, it later became a widely admired film. Billy Casper is beaten by his drunken brother, ignored by his mother and failing at school. He seems destined for a hard, miserable life down the pits, but for a brief time, he finds one pleasure in life: a wild kestrel that he has raised and tamed himself.

With a new introduction by Ian Macmillan

About the Author:

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.