With prose that is every bit as raw, intense and bitingly honest as the world it depicts, Barry Hines’ “A Kestrel for a Knave” contains a new afterword by the author in “Penguin Modern Classics”. Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley. Treated as a failure at school, and unhappy at home, Billy discovers a new passion in life when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk. Billy identifies with her silent strength and she inspires in him the trust and love that nothing else can, discovering through her the passion missing from his life. Barry Hines’ acclaimed novel continues to reach new generations of teenagers and adults with its powerful story of survival in a tough, joyless world. Ken Loach’s renowned film adaptation, “Kes”, has achieved cult status and in his new afterword Barry Hines discusses his work to adapt the novel into a screenplay, and reappraises the legacy of a book that has become a popular classic. Barry Hines (b. 1939) was born in the mining village of Hoyland Common, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire.Leaving Ecclesfield Grammar School without any qualifications, Hines worked as an apprentice mining surveyor for the National Coal Board before entering Loughborough Training College to study Physical Education. Working as a teacher in Hoyland Common, he wrote novels in the school library after work, later turning to writing full-time. If you enjoyed “A Kestrel for a Knave”, you might like “The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories” by Jack London, published in “Penguin Classics”.

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Alan Bennett’s new award-winning play as heard on BBC Radio 3 features the National Theatre cast. “A superb life-enhancing play.” – “Guardian.” “Intensely moving as well as thought-provoking and funny.” – “Daily Telegraph.” After a sell-out national tour and an extended stage run Alan Bennett’s phenomenally successful play transfers to BBC Radio 3. Richard Griffiths Clive Merrison and Frances de la Tour star as part of the National Theatre cast. At a boys’ grammar school in Sheffield eight boys are being coached for the Oxbridge entrance exams. It is the mid-eighties and the main concern of the unruly bunch of bright sixth-formers is getting out starting university – and starting life. At the heart of “The History Boys” are four characters each with contrasting outlooks on teaching and school: Hector an eccentric English teacher with no interest in exams; Irwin a young supply teacher who sees history as ‘entertainment'; Mrs Lintott a traditionalist who teaches ‘history not histrionics'; and a Headmaster obsessed with results. Described as “the richest play Bennett has ever written” (“Financial Times”) staff-room rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence collide in an intensely moving and thought-provoking play. It is the winner of the Olivier Evening Standard Critics’ Circle and South Bank Show Awards for Best New Play.

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