I have owned this book for years, and have very hazy memories of having read it when I was much younger.

It is the story of Billy, who lives with his single mum and his abusive older brother in a northern mining community in the 1960s (?).

It is a gritty slice-of-real-life book, grim at the start and grim at the end, and grim for quite a lot of the middle. Billy is no angel, lightfingered and close mouthed and always looking for small ways to get back at his brother. But it really shows the world that shapes him, the lack of love, lack of respect, and the unfair (and sometimes sadistic) ways the system treats him.

The thing that makes Billy the subject of this book is that he has stolen a kestrel chick and a book on falconry, and managed to train his beautiful, fierce bird Kes. From Billy's skill and Billy's patience and the way Billy so clearly sees the beauty in Kes we see so much of value in Billy, hidden from most of the world.

It is all a bit laid on with a trowel in places - Billy is told to write the tallest tale he can think of in English, and we get such simple wholesome things, like a good breakfast, and chips and beans for his tea, and his Dad coming home and a trip to the pictures.

The ending is bleak and sad and strange. What happens to Billy? Have we as a country failed so many poor angry young men? Do we still? ( )

At times the depiction of working class Northern life feel like cliche, but only I expect because the influence of this book and the film based on it was so great. It’s a wonderful piece of literature. Gripping, moving and very real feeling. At times it is raw and emotional, at others calm and soothing on its depiction of the countryside. All in all a great book. ( )

It took me 40p to get truely involved in this story - approx. 1/4 of the book. That quarter sets the background for what is to come in the remainder, when the protagonist, Billy, goes to school and one day shows the hilarity, banality, hopelessness and tragedy that surely will be a microcosm of Billy's whole life.

For me, school was not nearly so grim as for Billy, but I could relate strongly to his experience; casual cruelty (from teachers), injustice, bullying, that one teacher who is still capable of seeing pupils as human beings, fighting a losing battle against the indifference of all the others. Best days of our lives? I always thought that was some kind of sick joke. I was never so glad as to be out of that environment. Billy is 15 and will shortly be out of it, too. He doesn't have the fun and excitement of University and myriad possibilities afterward to look forward to, though. He's not that bright and there aren't many options. All he really knows is that he doesn't want to go down the pit. A mine that twenty years later would probably be closed, like almost every other in Britain, leaving him almost middle aged with no useful skills, not that he or the author would have known that. Since his father left home, his mother is going through the motions of raising him, more interested in her affairs, his brother hates him and there's little money. About the only thing Billy has of any value, and that to him alone, is the kestrel he trained himself. Is that enough?

Powerful, simple writing carries this story of working class northern Britain in the 1960s to an end likely to induce despair. ( )

This was the book that put Barnsley on the map in literary terms in 1968, made more famous by Ken Loach's film Kes the following year. The author paints a sharp picture of life at the time and there is some evocative description of the countryside where Billy Casper found his kestrel. But I'm afraid I found the narrative dull and have given up just over a quarter of the way through. ( )

“It's fierce, an' it's wild, an' it's not bothered about anybody, not even about me right. And that's why it's great.”

Firstly a quick summary for those of you, who unlike me, are not old old enough to remember the 1969 film adaptation of this book. Set in an unnamed 1960s northern England mining town, Billy Casper lives with his inept mother and bullying older brother and is often left to fend for himself. At school Billy is viewed by most as a troublemaker, bullied by teachers and students alike. One night Billy steals a kestrel chick from its nest, rears and pores all his love and passion into it. Pretty simple tale then? Or maybe not.

Many, many years ago I served in the Royal Navy and when some years later, as part of my resettlement package before returning to 'civvy' street, I visited HMP Dartmoor with an idea of becoming a prison warder. Now whilst I recall little about the actual visit itself, what I certainly do remember was my sense of dread when the prison gate closed behind me. And I was only visiting.

If like me, when you read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein you wonder just who is the real monster, Victor or the creature, in this book you wonder who is the real prisoner? Kes or Billy? Yes, Kes was taken from its family and is kept in a garden shed only allowed out to exercise yet Billy is also a prisoner. Only instead of one keeper Billy has many. Society.

Billy has no tangible aspirations in life. He will leave school virtually illiterate and a future marked by low expectations and little chance of real freedom. Those who have an opportunity to guide him, (family, teachers and the careers officer), instead treat him with indifference and violence. In fact most of the teachers at Billy's school have given up trying to teach preferring instead to try to flog knowledge into the boys. Whereas Kes, when off the leash, has the opportunity to fly away, non-lifer prisoners have the chance of reforming and staying out of prison Billy has little chance of escaping his pitiful lot. A point underlined right at the end, when despite knowing that he is likely to be given a good thrashing by his brother he meekly returns home to an empty house and goes to bed, he has virtually given up before his adult life has even begun. He believes that the highpoint of his life is already behind him.

I found this a heart-rending read but amid the hardship and broken dreams there is humour and a healthy dose of Northern banter, I particularly enjoyed the ridiculously competitive PE teacher. Hines depiction of the countryside and the kestrels themselves is beautifully written. I wish I could say that this book was a product of its time I fear that there are still pockets of hopelessness today. Kids whose only future seems to be one spent in low value, low pay work or on social security. This means that this book is still relevant today and as such is a real gem. ( )