Kes

[ardcarp]

What a great evening's viewing on BBC4 from 9pm onwards this evening. Firstly there was a programme about Barry Hines' first novel A Kestrel for a Knave which was pounced on by Ken Loach and the rest is history. But in the programme were Hines' two wives, his brother...who in real life reared a kestrel....the actor who played Billy in the film, and the denizens of the working men's club where Hines hung out. Hines himself died from Alzheimer's a while ago, but there was footage of an interview with him from about 30 years ago or more.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bh0n

But to crown the evening was a ballet Kes re-imagined, by which I was totally enthralled.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bh0q

Incidentally, has anyone read The Goshawk by T.H. White?

[BBMmk2]

Loved that film. A pity I missed it.

[ardcarp]

There's always catch-up BB!

[johncorrigan]

There's always catch-up BB!

I didn't see the balletic reimagining of Kes, ardcarp, but thought the documentary with Greg Davies was great. I've seen the film a couple of times over the years, but I have never read the book. After watching this I decided I was going to get a copy. There was a very good adaptation of 'A Kestrel for a Knave' on Radio 4 a few months ago which I enjoyed very much, if enjoyed is the right word.

[Richard Tarleton]

The film Kes unfortunately led to a spate of young kestrels being taken from the wild illegally by boys aiming to do the same.

The Goshawk interesting as literature but is an appalling account of how not to train a goshawk - basically it's a study in animal cruelty. Interesting articles here and here. Read Helen MacDonald's H is for Hawk, much better for you!

[ardcarp]

Thanks for the warning Richard. Fortunately, training a hawk is not on my immediate 'to do' list! However...

The Goshawk interesting as literature

...which is why I read it. T.H. White's best know book is, I suppose, The Once and Future King which is what led me on to read The Goshawk, but so long ago I can't remember much about it....fortunately as it turns out!

Going off topic now. The Once and Future King is actually a tetralogy:

The Sword in the Stone (1938), detailing the youth of Arthur
The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939), published separately in somewhat different form as The Witch in the Wood
The Ill-Made Knight (1940), dealing mainly with the character of Lancelot
The Candle in the Wind, first published in the composite edition, 1958

The first book, The Sword in the Stone, was undoubtedly written for children and was notably made into a film. It is by far the most charming and readable. The other three get increasingly dark, and are (possibly like The Goshawk) not for the faint-hearted.

[DracoM]

esp 'Candle in the Wind'. Suspect editors [who they?] got a bit scared maybe?

[cloughie]

I always liked Kestrel for a knave/Kes but maybe I am biased as I went to the same school as Barry Hines.

[ardcarp]

Interesting he was 'a Grammar School boy', and yet was able to portray the awfulness of the secondary mod in Kestrel for a Knave. The positive thing about Grammar Schools, now rather thin on the ground and not quite PC, is that they could give a 'working class lad/lass' an educational opportunity he/she wouldn't otherwise have had. The thinking now is that one should not select on 'ability' any more than one should select on wealth.

[LMcD]

Interesting he was 'a Grammar School boy', and yet was able to portray the awfulness of the secondary mod in Kestrel for a Knave. The positive thing about Grammar Schools, now rather thin on the ground and not quite PC, is that they could give a 'working class lad/lass' an educational opportunity he/she wouldn't otherwise have had. The thinking now is that one should not select on 'ability' any more than one should select on wealth.

I'm not sure whether I was a 'working class lad', but my family's circumstances were very modest, and - like Alan Bennett - I'm very grateful that I had the opportunity to attend the local grammar school, which is now part of a seriously underperforming academy, and go on to university, emerging debt-free.

[Dave2002]

The thinking now is that one should not select on 'ability' any more than one should select on wealth.

Individual programmes of instruction - matched to each student - are (perhaps) better than grouping everyone into one or other set. I don't know whether this approach is used in UK schools, but it is an approach used in some American schools.

[ardcarp]

and go on to university, emerging debt-free.

Yes we were a lucky generation in many respects.

[DracoM]

Ever think back to the number of stepping stones through life that have been incrementally upended / broken up by generations of politicians since 1944...!??
e.g. 1944 Education Act, e.g. the NHS, transport systems etc?

Sigh.