Barry Hines ─ Kes, Threads and Beyond

This is the first full-length critical study of Barry Hines's writing. Hines's novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), adapted for the screen as Kes, is one of the best-known and well-loved novels of the post-war period, while his screenplay for the television drama Threads is central to a Cold War-era vision of nuclear attack. But Hines published a further eight novels and nine screenplays between the late 1960s and late 1990s, as well as writing eleven other works which remain unpublished and unperformed.

This study examines the entirety of Hines's work, arguing that he used a great variety of aesthetic forms to represent the lives of working-class people in Britain during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and into the post-industrial conclusion of the twentieth century. The authors argue that, as well as his literary flair for poetic realism, Hines's authorial contributions to the films of his novels show the profoundly collaborative nature of these works.

David Forrest is Lecturer in Film Studies in the School of English at the University of Sheffield

Sue Vice is Professor of English Literature in the School of English at the University of Sheffield