Later, as a secondary school teacher of English I read "Kes" with a succession of classes and showed them the film version too. Almost magically, "Kes" had the ability to capture the hearts of the roughest and most disinterested kids. They really engaged with Billy Casper's story - how a skinny lad of low academic ability from a council estate trained a young kestrel. It was inspirational.
And I met Barry Hines once at the Sheffield Trades and Labour Club. We talked for several minutes about the book and whether or not everybody has a hidden talent. He was softly spoken and charming. It was very much a two-way conversation.
Later still, in the 1990s, he was living in Sheffield and my wife became his practice nurse. He had a few ongoing health issues to deal with. And even later than that he began to show signs of Alzheimer's and spent the last decade of his life in a care home in the mining village of Hoyland where he had been born and raised. Tragically, he had lost the ability to read years before his death in 2016.
Hoyland is a few miles north east of Sheffield and today I drove up there for a walk, parking Butch close to the rather isolated churchyard where Barry Hines and his wife are buried. Then I walked over the M1 motorway into Hoyland where I located a house that Barry Hines lived in during the 1970s. Across from there is a metal sculpture that depicts Billy Casper with his kestrel but it is not as good as the statue I photographed in Barnsley town centre earlier this year.
I also passed the ruins of Tankersley Manor where Barry Hines's brother Richard gathered his own pet kestrel and trained it - just like Billy Casper. By the way, eighty year old Richard Hines lives fifty yards away from this house and though I have often said "hello" to him, we have never had a proper conversation.
I have found that contacting authors and telling them how much you enjoyed their work always lights a fire of gratitude. Of course, it's too late for Barry Hines but perhaps his brother would like to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your pilgrimage with us, Neil.
ReplyDeleteI have heard only good things about the book and the film (isn't there a newer version, too?), but so far have shied away from reading it because I am a 100 % sure it will make me cry.
Hoyland is where a friend of mine comes from. She married Steve's best friend from school who I'm still in touch with, and they now live in his house in Wath-upon-Dearne where Steve was born. Before they were married, Steve and I once visited her in Hoyland, but I can only remember that hers was a small terraced brick house with a bay window - nothing about Hoyland as such.