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First published by Michael Joseph 1968

Published in Penguin Books 1969

Reissued with a new introduction in Penguin Books 2010

Copyright © Barry Hines, 1968

Introduction copyright © Ian McMillan, 2010

The moral right of the author and of the introducer has been asserted

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-0-141-95802-6

Contents

Introduction

A Kestral for a Knave

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PENGUIN DECADES

A KESTREL FOR A KNAVE

Barry Hines was born in the mining village of Hoyland Common, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. He was educated at Ecclesfield Grammar School, where his main achievement was to be selected to play for the England Grammar Schools’ football team. On leaving school he worked as an apprentice mining surveyor and played football for Barnsley (mainly in the A team), before entering Loughborough Training College to study Physical Education. He taught for several years in London and South Yorkshire before becoming a full-time writer. Barry Hines died in 2016.

His novels include A Kestrel for a Knave, The Blinder, Looks and Smiles, The Heart of It and Elvis Over England. Both A Kestrel for a Knave (as Kes) and Looks and Smiles have been filmed, the latter winning the Prize for Contemporary Cinema at the Cannes Film Festival. He has also written many scripts for television, including Threads, which won a BAFTA award and the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for the best single drama.

A Kestrel for a Knave, first published in 1968, has sold almost two million copies in Penguin. It was filmed as Kes, by Ken Loach, in 1969, and recently placed number seven in the British Film Institute’s list of all-time great British films.

Ian McMillan has been a poet, broadcaster and programme-maker for over twenty-five years, during which time he’s been a regular on Newsnight Review, Quote Unquote, Just a Minute and Have I Got News for You. He currently presents The Verb on BBC Radio 3, a weekly programme dedicated to investigating spoken words around the globe. He’s poet-in-residence for The Academy of Urbanism and for Barnsley FC, and his latest collection is the verse-autobiography Talking Myself Home.

THE BEGINNING