Barry Hines and Kes.

 

Barry Hines

Ken Loach's film 'Kes' is a great film based on the book 'A Kestrel for a Knave' by the author, Barry Hines, from the mining village of Hoyland Common in South Yorkshire.

Many of us of a certain age who are northern working class, can relate to Billy Casper and his life in this film. Many of us have encountered school teachers like the neurotic headmaster of Billy's school, Mr Gryce. My secondary modern school was like being in Borstal. The teachers, many of whom, were ex-national service men and a waste of taxpayers' money, would knock you about with their fists for the fun of it. A few of the teachers were quite decent and did actually teach you something. One of the teachers who taught my father, gave me a book prize.

The only thing these bastards instilled in me, was dislike of teachers, the middle-classes, and a dislike of authority. I've been a recusant for most of my adult life. Barry Hines wrote this book to show how young working-class lads like Billy Casper were thrown onto the scrap heap at a tender age by the British state education system in the I960's and early 197O's. If you went to a secondary modern school, you were destined to be factory fodder. Poor Billy was destined for the pit. Although Barry Hines, qualified and worked as a teacher in Barnsley schools, he knew what side he was on even if many don't.