Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    No Way But Gentlenesse: A Memoir of How Kes, My Kestrel, Changed My Life
    Unavailable
    No Way But Gentlenesse: A Memoir of How Kes, My Kestrel, Changed My Life
    Unavailable
    No Way But Gentlenesse: A Memoir of How Kes, My Kestrel, Changed My Life
    Ebook305 pages4 hours

    No Way But Gentlenesse: A Memoir of How Kes, My Kestrel, Changed My Life

    By Richard Hines

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    “There is no way but gentlenesse to redeeme a Hawke” Edmund Bert, 1619

    Born and raised in the South Yorkshire mining village of Hoyland Common, Richard Hines remembers sliding down heaps of coal dust, listening out for the colliery siren at the end of shifts, and praying for his father's safe return. It seemed all too likely that he would follow in his father's footsteps and end up working in the pits, especially when to his mother's horror and his own he failed the 11+, so that unlike his older brother Barry, who had passed the exam to grammar school and who seemed to be heading for great things, Richard was left without hope of academic achievement.

    Crushed by this, and persecuted by the cruelty of his teachers, Richard spent his time in the fields and meadows just beyond the colliery slag heap. One morning, walking in the grounds of a ruined medieval manor, he came across a nest of kestrels. Instantly captivated, he sought out ancient falconry texts from the local library, and pored over the strange and beautiful language there. With just these books, some ingenuity, and his profound respect for the hawk's indomitable wildness, Richard learned to “man”, or train, his kestrel, Kes, and in the process grow into the man he would become.
    Richard and his experiences with kestrels inspired Barry's classic novel A Kestrel for a Knave. When production began on what would become Ken Loach's iconic film Kes, Richard found himself training the kestrels that would soar on screen and into cinematic history.
    No Way But Gentlenesse is a superb, moving memoir of one remarkable boy's love for a forgotten culture, and his attempt to find salvation in the natural world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMar 10, 2016
    ISBN9781408868034
    Author

    Richard Hines

    Richard Hines has worked as a building labourer, in an office, and he was Deputy Head in a school but has spent most of his career as a documentary filmmaker, starting his own production company and working for the BBC and Channel 4, before becoming a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. He lives in Sheffield and frequently walks on the nearby moors.

    Related to No Way But Gentlenesse

    Related ebooks

    Birds For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      2. Making Marks

      Aug 6, 2021

      2. Making Marks
      3 min read

    • Article

      Chris Gambrell

      Aug 6, 2021

      Chris Gambrell
      5 min read

    • Article

      Colour On Colour

      Jul 1, 2021

      Colour On Colour
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Hermit Of Suvarov

      Jul 30, 2020

      The Hermit Of Suvarov
      5 min read

    • Article

      Delicacy And Strength

      Sep 3, 2021

      Delicacy And Strength
      5 min read

    • Article

      Diary Of A Young Naturalist

      Jun 4, 2020

      I was anxious when I opened Dara McAnulty’s diary. It isn’t fair to expect greatness from a 15-year-old – let alone from one known to be painfully self-deprecating and burdened with eco-anxiety and existential angst. The book covers an ordinary, extr

      1 min read

    • Article

      Love Bugs

      Apr 30, 2020

      Love Bugs
      7 min read

    • Article

      Camping In Siberia: On The Trail Of The World’s Largest Owl

      Aug 4, 2020

      American biologist Jonathan C. Slaght joins Russian ornithologists in studying the habitat of the endangered Blakiston’s fish owl.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Listen, Then Draw

      Feb 4, 2023

      Listen, Then Draw
      2 min read

    • Article

      Mycelium

      Jul 22, 2021

      Mycelium
      11 min read

    • Article

      Caring For Country, Shifting Camp

      May 6, 2019

      Caring For Country, Shifting Camp
      5 min read

    • Article

      Personal Views

      Jan 3, 2020

      Critic, Haaretz Top 10 Films (ranked) Holy Motors, Toni Erdmann, Girlhood, Margaret, The Act of Killing, Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, Moonlight, Get Out, Boyhood, Fire at Sea Best New Filmmaker Jordan Peele Filmmaker; Conservator, Smithsonian

      19 min read

    • Article

      The Book

      Oct 30, 2019

      The Book
      20 min read

    • Article

      Low Expectations

      Feb 1, 2019

      Low Expectations
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Story Behind…

      Dec 16, 2022

      The Story Behind…
      2 min read

    • Article

      On The Shelves

      Aug 5, 2018

      On The Shelves
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Lure of an Old House

      May 10, 2022

      The Lure of an Old House
      4 min read

    • Article

      How It All Began

      Feb 5, 2020

      How It All Began
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for No Way But Gentlenesse

    3.5/5

    5 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      The descriptions of the landscape and the birds of prey are very lovely. A good read overall, especially for hawk and falcon lovers, but it could have been much better if the descriptions of his own life were as passionately presented as the bits regarding the birds' aerial/hunting/training maneuvers. Does contain several interesting discussions on social class and academic channeling of students in the UK.
    • 4/5
      Richard Hines is a Yorkshire man through and through. Raised in, Hoyland Common, mining was the chosen career of his father and grandfather and many of the men in the village. He remember sliding down heaps of waste, hearing of accidents in the pit; knowing that his father would open the door the same time after a shift; there was that dread in the stomach that came when he was late. Sitting the eleven plus exam, it was hoped that he would pass and follow his brother Barry to grammar school. He failed and entered the local secondary modern school; a place that sought to crush the spirit and hopes of all children it was supposed to be teaching.

      Despondent because of the cruel antics of the teachers and the system, Richard spent time walking the fields beyond the slag heaps. It was whilst walking the grounds of a ruin he saw a kestrel fly into its nest. Spellbound by the sight, it motivated him to head to the library to discover more on the ancient sport of falconry. They wouldn’t lend him the book, so he ended up buying that and many others as he devoured every piece of information he could about raptors. Having read everything it was time to find a hawk, and a friend of his came up trumps bringing him his first kestrel; Kes. Just from the information in these books he trained his bird, from the very first stages to flying it with lures.

      If the name Kes is familiar, there was a film of the same name about a boy learning to love nature and training his kestrel. The film was based on the book, A Kestrel for a Knave written by one Barry Hines, Richards brother. Richard was employed on the film to train the actor and the three kestrels required for all the filming.

      This is a fine quality memoir, full of gentle, lyrical prose. It is a sad book to read too; he didn’t have that educational opportunity that his brother did, ending up at the secondary modern, future potentially dashed. Life as the son of a miner was tough too, you never knew if you would see your father again when he left for work in the morning. The descriptions of the natural world that surrounded the man made waste from the mine make for good reading too. Mostly this is about the birds; that you can take a creature that is so very wild, and with persuasion and gentle coercion make it respond to your commands.