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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.… (more)
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The setting of the novel is bleak, a grey, colourless indefinite miner's town northern
In an act of thoughtlessness, more as a prank, he pulls a young kestrel hawk out of a nest, and decides to tame it.
Training a hawk is no mean feat. The first step is for Billy to take his responsibility, having taken down the young kestrel. Unable to find the books he needs in the library, he steals a book about falconry from the bookstore. Training the kestrel involves knowledge, skill, courage, self-confidence and perseverance. Unknown to himself, the young Billy experiences incredible personal growth, noticed by one of his teachers who comes out to observe Billy's mastery in falconry.
The novels ends with a drama, as his envious and mean brother, finds a way to hurt Billy deeply over a trivial matter, weighing a small amount of money more than immaterial culture and achievement.
A kestrel for a knave will inspire educators. It is nowadays classified as a YA novel, which epithet however should not withhold adult readers from picking it up and reading it, as it is a very moving story.
Penguin Books has included A kestrel for a knave, originally published in 1968, in its series of Modern Classics, with a new afterword by the author, Barry Hines, written in 1999. The afterword discusses the background to the novel, its reception and success, and the very successful film adaptation.
Firstly a quick summary for those of you, who unlike me, are not old old enough to remember the 1969 film adaptation of this book. Set in an unnamed 1960s northern England
Many, many years ago I served in the Royal Navy and when some years later, as part of my resettlement package before returning to 'civvy' street, I visited HMP Dartmoor with an idea of becoming a prison warder. Now whilst I recall little about the actual visit itself, what I certainly do remember was my sense of dread when the prison gate closed behind me. And I was only visiting.
If like me, when you read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein you wonder just who is the real monster, Victor or the creature, in this book you wonder who is the real prisoner? Kes or Billy? Yes, Kes was taken from its family and is kept in a garden shed only allowed out to exercise yet Billy is also a prisoner. Only instead of one keeper Billy has many. Society.
Billy has no tangible aspirations in life. He will leave school virtually illiterate and a future marked by low expectations and little chance of real freedom. Those who have an opportunity to guide him, (family, teachers and the careers officer), instead treat him with indifference and violence. In fact most of the teachers at Billy's school have given up trying to teach preferring instead to try to flog knowledge into the boys. Whereas Kes, when off the leash, has the opportunity to fly away, non-lifer prisoners have the chance of reforming and staying out of prison Billy has little chance of escaping his pitiful lot. A point underlined right at the end, when despite knowing that he is likely to be given a good thrashing by his brother he meekly returns home to an empty house and goes to bed, he has virtually given up before his adult life has even begun. He believes that the highpoint of his life is already behind him.
I found this a heart-rending read but amid the hardship and broken dreams there is humour and a healthy dose of Northern banter, I particularly enjoyed the ridiculously competitive PE teacher. Hines depiction of the countryside and the kestrels themselves is beautifully written. I wish I could say that this book was a product of its time I fear that there are still pockets of hopelessness today. Kids whose only future seems to be one spent in low value, low pay work or on social security. This means that this book is still relevant today and as such is a real gem.
I've never been a big fan of books
Billy lives a bleak life, his mother appears indifferent to her boys and is in the habit of bringing men home with her some nights. Billy’s brother, Jud, is older and is working full time at the local pit mine. Billy and Jud have an adversarial relationship with the bigger Jud usually getting the upper hand. In flashback, we learn that Billy caught a young kestrel and has trained it. This is a boy who is never going to get an opportunity to escape what fate has in store for him. There is no higher education waiting for him, he will most likely end up working in the same pit mine as his brother. His escape from his daily life is his kestrel, he can release the bird and watch it soar into the air and fly high above the dreary world. On this particular day, Jud’s bullying and rough ways cause Billy to make a decision that ends up costing him dearly. In the course of this one day, the bleakness and hopelessness that is Billy’s life is vividly illustrated.
A Kestrel For A Knave is not a charming or sentimental story. Instead the author highlights the harshness of Billy’s life that is filled with bullying and neglect. The reader is left with a sense of inevitability about what a narrow future awaits this boy. Although sad, this story evokes strong emotions and is a powerful tale.
It is the story of Billy, who lives with his single mum and his abusive older brother in a northern mining community in the 1960s (?).
It is a gritty slice-of-real-life book, grim at the start and
The thing that makes Billy the subject of this book is that he has stolen a kestrel chick and a book on falconry, and managed to train his beautiful, fierce bird Kes. From Billy's skill and Billy's patience and the way Billy so clearly sees the beauty in Kes we see so much of value in Billy, hidden from most of the world.
It is all a bit laid on with a trowel in places - Billy is told to write the tallest tale he can think of in English, and we get such simple wholesome things, like a good breakfast, and chips and beans for his tea, and his Dad coming home and a trip to the pictures.
The ending is bleak and sad and strange. What happens to Billy? Have we as a country failed so many poor angry young men? Do we still?
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Omslagsfoto viser Dal Bradley i filmen Kes, instruktør Ken Loach, producer Tony Garnett
Omslaget viser en dreng med en falkonerhandske og en falk
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Dette eksemplar har en dedikation: For Janne. With best wishes. Barry Hines.
Janne er formentlig Janne Arbon, Hadsten.
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823.914 |