A Kestrel for a Knave

First published in 1968, this novel follows Billy Casper, a boy in a South Yorkshire mining town who is ignored at home and punished at school. He lives with his mother and his older brother Jud, who works at the pit and bullies him. Billy's one sustained skill is the kestrel he takes from a nest and trains on a farm building, using a falconry book stolen from a shop. A sympathetic teacher watches him fly the bird; the PE master and Jud do not. The narrative stays with paper rounds, classrooms, and fields. The book is a social realist novel of one boy's days, not a handbook of falconry.

Bound in cloth printed with a design by the artist. Dust-jacket (no slipcase).