The classic book that inspired Kes, the famous film, now 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.
目前是英國皇家文學會(Royal Society of Literature)的會員,同時也是雪菲爾哈倫大學(Sheffield Hallam University)的名譽教授。
累積出版作品共八部,除了《鷹與男孩》之外,《Look and Smiles》也已拍成電影並勇奪坎城影展青年影片獎。他也撰寫了諸多電視劇劇本,並獲得英國影視藝術學院(BAFTA)及廣播媒體協會獎(Broadcasting Press Guild Award)的最佳單元劇獎肯定。
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.