Barry Hines

Barry Hines was born in a small coal-mining village in the north of England just as World War II was beginning. His father was a coal miner. Hines was a decent student and qualified for grammar school, the most academic of the three educational tracks under England’s Tripartite System of Education. A successful athlete during his youth, Hines played for a youth football (soccer) league and was given a chance to try out for Manchester United. Hines initially declined to continue his education beyond high school, and he entered the workforce as an apprentice mine surveyor. Ultimately, however, he returned to school and studied to become a physical education teacher at Loughborough College. Hines began writing while working as a teacher. His short play, Billy’s Last Stand, was produced on the radio by the BBC in 1965, and the success of this program helped him to find a publisher for his first novel, The Blinder, which came out in 1966. A Kestrel for a Knave, Hines’s second novel, was published in 1968 and turned into a film, Kes, shortly thereafter. During a career that spanned four decades, Hines wrote nine novels, one short story collection, and seven works for radio, television, and stage. Much of his work focuses on social issues, including the way the educational and welfare systems impact the lives of the working class, particularly in the industrial north of England. He was married twice and had two children. Hines received many nominations and awards for his work throughout his career, including a BAFTA for his television drama Threads and fellowship in the Royal Society of Literature. An Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis in 2006 ended Hines’s writing career, and he passed away seven years later at the age of 76.