Barry Hines has written  many  popular scripts for television and is probably best known for his novel A Kestrel for a Knave  the story of a poor school boy from a mining village in the north of England. It was first published in 1968 and has remained in print ever since; it has been re-launched by Penguin as a Penguin Modern Classic and translated into a number of foreign languages. It was adapted into the film Kes , directed by Ken Loach.  His other novels include  The Gamekeeper, Looks and Smiles and The Price of Coal.