Right now I feel like the biggest Barry Hines fan that hasn’t seen the film adaptation of his most famous work. I never needed to.
Hines’ writing in A Kestrel for a Knave opened my imagination and truly inspired me to the point where I achieved my first ‘B’ grade in secondary school for producing an alternate ending to the book, written in Yorkshire dialect.
I think it was special to me because it was a dialect I understood, having been born in Sheffield and having very Yorkshire parents but being educated in Cumbria made me feel like I understood it differently to the other pupils. I was very familiar with the way the words would sound from how they were written on the page.
I wish I still had a copy of the work that won me a B grade in my English GCSE, but unfortunately the only handwritten copy was handed in to the teacher and never seen again!
From what I remember, my version ended with an art lesson after **spoiler** Billy buries the Kestrel, where he does a beautiful drawing of his lost friend and therefore finds his vocation. He plans to take the drawing to a youth employment meeting but bumps into MacDowell, who finds the drawing and rips it up. I believe the closing line of dialogue was “I’ll bloodeh kill ya, ya bastard!”
Rest in peace Barry Hines, the author that taught me it was okay to write how I speak.
