A Kestrel for a Knave was very well-written and I liked it very much, though it took me months to finish it due to its grim realism. This is not feel-good escapist fiction, like Swallows & Amazons. But I understand now how perfect this novel was for Ken Loach (known for his sympathetic portrayals of Britain’s working class) to adapt into a “kitchen sink” coming-of-age drama about a boy growing up in a mining town in northern England.
I’ve been curious about Loach’s Kes (1969) for a while now because I’ve always loved the idea of a kid training a falcon-like bird of prey. There’s a literary sub-genre about people who develop a close kinship with their pet raptor, the most famous probably being TS White’s memoir, The Goshawk (1951). Other examples are H is for Hawk (a 2014 memoir by Helen MacDonald), YA fiction like Summer of the Falcon by Jean Craighead George and Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Hawk Mistress!
I’d only heard of Barry Hines through Olman, as The Gamekeeper sounded intriguing. When I made the connection that Barry Hines also wrote A Kestrel for a Knave, I knew I had to read the book before setting eyes on Kes, the film. I even ordered it new via Indigo Books.
Even though I’m greatly intrigued by the raptor-relationship subgenre, I haven’t explored it to any extent. My interest may have originated back in Grade 6 when I was assigned to read Jean Craighead George’s My Side of the Mountain, one of my fave books in grade school. 12-year-old Sam Gribley runs away from NYC to the Catskill Mountains to live off the land. He finds an abandoned young peregrine falcon who becomes his closest companion. That book made me obsessed with learning wilderness survival skills and running away myself.
A Kestrel for a Knave was very different from My Side of the Mountain. It’s not an adventure story, but it is a kind of survival story. I also had no desire to be in Billy's shoes. The novel begins with him being bullied by his older brother in their shared bedroom. It’s quickly established they live in cramped quarters with their single mother and Jud works at the mine. Billy's also bullied at school, and is behind academically. In short, Billy’s a poor, neglected runt of a kid. The only thing that gives Billy any real happiness is his discovery of a young kestrel, whom he quickly dubs Kes. Training Kes gives Billy purpose, as well as something to love fiercely. He quickly figures out on his own how to acquire falconry books and teaches himself how to train and care for his kestrel, which is pretty impressive for a boy who's deemed a low performer at school. Billy’s passion even helps him to be more likeable with his classmates, after he's called upon by his teacher to explain falconry to the class.
However, this spell of happiness is short-lived. Even his well-meaning teacher has no power to help Billy get out of the inevitability of becoming a miner when he grows up, just like his older brother and most of the men in his town. Given Billy’s situation, seeing how the whole system is stacked against him, you know it’s going to end sadly. It was quite a depressing read and you can't help but feel bad for Billy. This was the main reason why I couldn’t read this book straight through, only being able to absorb portions of it at a time.
Barry Hines wrote an afterword for the 1999 edition that was very illuminating, as it touched on his collaboration with Ken Loach for Kes. I would definitely read more books by Hines, particularly The Gamekeeper. When I subscribed to the Criterion Channel, I was pleased to see that Kes was there when it first launched. Months later, when I finally finished the book and ready to watch Kes, it had already left the roster.
Edit: I finally watched Kes in late 2022 when it came back on CC! It was an extremely faithful adaption of the source material with perhaps a slightly more upbeat ending, if that's even possible. You can even read my Letterboxd review!
And wouldn't you know, the man who played young Billy Casper, also became a falconer!
