Available Formats
A Kestrel for a Knave
By (Author) Barry Hines
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Books Ltd
1st October 2016
4th August 2016
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
823.914
Paperback
208
Width 111mm, Height 181mm, Spine 13mm
117g
The powerful novel which inspired one of the most famous British films of the 60s, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave was published in 1968, and was made into one of the key British films of the sixties. 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.
Barry Hines was born near Barnsley, Yorkshire, in 1939 and was a promising footballer before taking a teaching qualification at Loughborough. He taught PE in London and in Yorkshire before writing full time. He has written nine novels, and co-wrote the screenplay of Kes with Ken Loach. He lives in Yorkshire.