Barry Hines
| Barry Hines | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Melvin Barry Hines 30 June 1939 Hoyland, England |
| Died | 18 March 2016 (aged 76) Hoyland, England |
| Cause of death | Alzheimer’s disease |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Ecclesfield Grammar School |
| Occupation |
|
| Years active | 1966-2016 |
Melvin Barry Hines, FRSL (30 June 1939 – 18 March 2016) was an English author who wrote several popular novels and television scripts. He is best known for the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), which he helped adapt for Ken Loach's film Kes (1969).
Hines was born in the mining village of Hoyland Common near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. He attended Ecclesfield Grammar School and played football for the England Grammar Schools team. After leaving school with five O levels 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; Hines later said that 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 writer.
His first play, Billy's Last Stand, appeared on the BBC Radio Third Programme in 1965, with Arthur Lowe and Ronald Baddiley. Hines is best known for his novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968); he co-wrote the script for the film version Kes (1969), directed by Ken Loach. It tells the story of a troubled schoolboy living in a mining village near Barnsley, who finds comfort in tending a kestrel that he named 'Kes'. Hines also wrote the script for the BAFTA award winning TV film Threads (1984), a speculative television drama examining the effects of nuclear war on Sheffield.
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