Sophie Gee

Coal mining obviously was in the north of England, in the hills and dales of Yorkshire.

That's why the Midlands of England are such a mining hub.

And so mining became more regulated.

But paradoxically, one of the things that that meant was that the workers who were in coal mines became increasingly subject to various forms of exploitation as the industry itself became safer and more efficient.

There was another major explosion in Barnsley in the main colliery in 1942, so when Heinz would have just been a little boy.

So the idea that mining was not only a sort of cultural inheritance for his family, who were from South Yorkshire, the idea that it was also extremely dangerous and that

the danger as well as the sort of poverty of the mines were what brought the community together.

That's the story that Barry Hines would have known growing up.

So he grew up in a miner's terrace in a housing estate.

He had a shared outside toilet with several other families.

And like Billy Casper, he would

amuse himself by sliding down piles of rock and roaming around in nearby woods and fields.

And one of the things that Hines talks a lot about in interviews is that people were always really surprised when they read A Kestrel for a Knave that he has these incredibly beautiful, very moving descriptions of the countryside.

And people are surprised because they think of the 19th century north of England and the Midlands and the north as being this kind of hellscape of the mines, the dark satanic mills.

And Hines talks about the way in which there's this kind of juxtaposition between the pits and the poverty and the darkness of the mining towns, but then the absolute gorgeousness, the beauty of the countryside all around.

And that really comes through in the book.

And I wanted to look at that.

And actually, if you look at the film, what struck me about the town where they film Kess is that the town's quite small and there's loads of beautiful countryside all around.

I think he played in the national grammar school team.

So he was seriously good.