Barry Hines

Melvin Barry Hines, FRSL (born 30 June 1939) is an English author who has written several popular novels and television scripts. Hines is best known for the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), which he adapted for Ken Loach's 1969 film Kes.

Early life

Born in the mining village of Hoyland Common near Barnsley, England, Hines attended Ecclesfield Grammar School and played football for the England Grammar Schools team. After leaving school without any qualifications he took a job with the National Coal Board as an apprentice mining surveyor at Rockingham Colliery. A neighbour he chanced to meet at the coal face disapproved of his failure to meet his potential and Hines said that this was when he decided to return to school to take his examinations. He achieved four A levels and studied for a teaching qualification at Loughborough College. He worked as a Physical Education teacher for several years, initially for two years in a London comprehensive school, and subsequently at Longcar Central School in Barnsley where he wrote novels in the school library after the children had gone home. He later became a full-time author.

Author

Hines is best known for his novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), which he adapted for the film version Kes (1969) directed by Ken Loach. The story is that of a troubled schoolboy living in a mining village near Barnsley who finds comfort in tending a kestrel hawk that he named 'Kes'. Threads (1984), for which Hines wrote the script, is a speculative television drama examining the effects of nuclear war on Sheffield.

Recognition

Hines' film Looks and Smiles, directed by Ken Loach won the Best Contemporary Screenplay prize at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. Threads won a special award at the 1985 Monte-Carlo Television Festival, the Broadcasting Press Guild Award in 1985 for Best Single Drama, and was nominated for seven different awards in the 1985 BAFTA Awards. Hines has been made an Honorary Fellow of University of Sheffield.

Works

Novels

• The Blinder (1966)
• A Kestrel for a Knave (1968) (later filmed as Kes)
• First Signs (1972)
• The Gamekeeper (1975) (later made into a film of the same name)
• Looks and Smiles (1981)
• Unfinished Business (1983)
• The Heart of It (1994)
• Elvis over England (2000)
• This Artistic Life (2009)

Radio and television

• Billy's Last Stand (1970)
• Speech Day (1972)
• Two Men From Derby (1976)
• The Price of Coal (1977)
• Threads (1984)
• Born Kicking (1992)

Film

• Looks and Smiles (1981)
• Shooting Stars (1990)