Barry Hines

Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley. Treated as a failure at school, and unhappy at home, Billy discovers a new passion in life when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk.

Billy Casper lleva una existencia llena de privaciones. Vive en una casa obrera en una ciudad minera del sur de Yorkshire con su medio hermano, Jud, un borracho brutal y violento, y con su madre, que cambia constantemente de novio y que carece del mas minimo instinto maternal. En cuanto a su padre, se largo hace tiempo. Peleado con la pandilla con la que solia pasar el rato, Billy incluso carece de amigos. No se le da bien la escuela y casi todos sus maestros le han dejado por imposible. Carne de reformatorio, todo indica que terminara trabajando en la mina, junto a su hermano. Sin embargo, tiene algo que le hace diferente: un halcon. Billy se identifica con la fuerza silenciosa de la rapaz, la entrena desde hace tiempo y extrae de ella la confianza, el amor y la pasion que a el le faltan.Kes, publicada en 1968, constituye una piedra angular de la ficcion britanica moderna. Una novela mitica, inedita en castellano, que explora la relacion del hombre con la naturaleza a traves del amor inesperado de un muchacho por un halcon.

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.

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.

George Purse is an ex-steelworker employed as a gamekeeper on a ducal country estate. He gathers, hand-rears and treasures the birds to be shot at by his wealthy employers. He must ensure that the Duke and his guests have good hunts when the shooting season comes round on the Glorious Twelfth; he must ensure that the poachers who sneak onto the land in search of food do not.Season by season, over the course of a year, George makes his rounds. He is not a romantic hero. He is a labourer, who knows the natural world well and sees it without sentimentality.Rightly acclaimed as a masterpiece of nature writing as well as a radical statement on work and class, The Gamekeeper was also, like Hiness A Kestrel for a Knave (Kes), adapted by Hines and filmed by Ken Loach, and it too stands as a haunting classic of twentieth-century fiction.

A tried-and-tested stage adaptation of Barry Hines novel A Kestrel for a Knave, about a troubled young boy who finds and trains a kestrel.Billy, a disaffected young boy, has problems at school and at home: hes neglected by his mother, beaten by his brother and bullied on all sides. He adopts a fledgling kestrel and treats it with all the tenderness he has never known. Slowly, he begins to see for the first time what he could achieve if only he tried.Lawrence Tills adaptation of Barry Hines 1968 novel retains its gritty charm and popular staying power. Kes was first performed at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1999.

Billy Casper lleva una existencia llena de privaciones. Vive en una casa obrera en una ciudad minera del sur de Yorkshire con su medio hermano, Jud, un borracho brutal y violento, y con su madre, que cambia constantemente de novio y que carece del mas minimo instinto maternal. En cuanto a su padre, se largo hace tiempo. Peleado con la pandilla con la que solia pasar el rato, Billy incluso carece de amigos. No se le da bien la escuela y casi todos sus maestros le han dejado por imposible. Carne de reformatorio, todo indica que terminara trabajando en la mina, junto a su hermano. Sin embargo, tiene algo que le hace diferente: un halcon. Billy se identifica con la fuerza silenciosa de la rapaz, la entrena desde hace tiempo y extrae de ella la confianza, el amor y la pasion que a el le faltan.