Gentlenesse

This evening I finished reading "No Way But Gentlenesse" by Richard Hines.

Raised in Hoyland, South Yorkshire, Richard was born into a coal mining family. He had an older brother called Barry who became famous for writing "Kes" in the late nineteen sixties. That novel was later made into an iconic film.

It was all about a boy called Billy Casper who had little going for him but he managed to capture a young kestrel and train it. He called the bird Kes.

As an English teacher, I taught "Kes" to several classes over the years and it became a standard GCSE English Literature text. One of the things that I always loved about that novel is that it portrayed a coal mining community with understanding and compassion. Barry Hines's lived experience was his principal source.

But how had Barry Hines found out about kestrels and falconry?  Simple really: in the mid-sixties his brother Richard had become something of a self-trained expert and had reared and trained two kestrels of his own. He called them both "Kes" and Barry Hines had observed his younger brother's hobby at close quarters. It is what sparked the creation of the famous novel.

David Bradley, Richard Hines, Tony Garnett and Barry Hines

during the filming of "Kes" in 1968

"No Way But  Gentlenesse" is a personal memoir in which Richard Hines recalls his early encounters with kestrels and how later he was employed as the falconer during the filming of "Kes".  The book also maps Richard's personal development from being an educational failure to becoming a university lecturer here in Sheffield where he lived with his childhood sweetheart Jackie and their two children - John and Kate.

I believe that Richard and Jackie have now moved down to Sussex to be close to their daughter and her family but until fairly recently they lived just fifty yards from us near the junction  at the bottom of our stretch of road. 

I saw the couple many times - leaving their house or getting into their car but I didn't know who they were then and now they are gone. I would have liked to shake Richard's hand and ask him a few questions. His memoir was a lovely read and I felt that our lives had various parallels even though I of course never trained a kestrel or even a flea!

Richard Hines as I remember him

-  just a few doors away from us.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/xdeY7EX