A Kestrel for a Knave

When I was a child I used to live in a large city in the North of England. One day I was told that my brother, whom I idolised but who had moved to the bright lights of London, was going to pay us a flying visit. Apparently there was a new film which he wanted to see, and it was to be premièred - un......more

A wonderfully raw picture of Northern life. It's bleak and gritty, and written extremely well. Billy Casper is one of life's underdogs, he bears the brunt of everyone's exasperation with their own lives. This includes his bullying brother, his selfish mother, his fellow pupils at school and most of......more

What a brilliant book this is! There are at times I didn’t comprehend the flow of story but at other times “recalling the past” was all too obvious. Now that I put the pieces together what I am left with is a compelling story in which a Kestrel served as a ray of hope in the life of a helplessly kna......more

I read this as part of my English Literature GCSE over 15 years ago (!) and I think our class picked this over the other options because it was the shortest. And we got to watch the film after reading it. At the time I found it quite interesting, as it’s set in the North of England and depicted a le......more

Esta lectura me resulto algo extraña, huérfana, desamparada, en fin no todos los libros apasionan de la misma manera, me pareció una historia sin final, es como si el libro no hubiera culminado. Esta es la historia de un jovencito de quince años llamado Billy, que sin proyectarlo acaba entrometido en......more