Book rummage - 1: Kes

Oh bollocks. I just discovered these.

And though I know that the title of this blog is Music That I Like (taken from an old slogan at Careless Talk Costs Lives is anyone cares), these seem too priceless not to reprint. Written around the same time as the Record Rummage series - 2001 - and with the same co-author (Jamie Sellers), I believe. The first in this series had its credibility rating upped by several thousand (like it needed it) when Electrelane guitarist and sometime Pitchfork contributor Mia Clarke reviewed the film's music, very favourably in CTCL.

P.S. Building a decent book collection from charity stores is way easier than building a decent record collection these days. Why, only two weeks ago I picked up 30+ issues of Wired for under $10. Whether this is a good or a bad thing remains to be seen.

KES by Barry Hines (Penguin, 1st pub 1968, 1980 reprint)
First off, it’s a cracking good film. Gritty Northern boy in a gritty Northern town, surrounded by his gritty Northern family and gritty Northern friends, discovers a kestrel, not gritty. Plenty of Northern dialect, as was the fashion of the day: “Hel’ me ge’ undresh, Billy. Am pish. Am too pish to take my trousher off.” “Gi’o’er, Jud, I’m asleep.” The book cover features the young hero cum scallywag of the tale, Billy giving the famous Harvey Smith two-fingered salute to the world, taken from the film. (It’s a little known and barely sought after fact, but the original title of this tale is A Kestrel For A Knave, taken from a 1486 manuscript.) (EDITOR'S NOTE: ... or at least it was, until Wikipedia came along.) Kes is an extremely early example of pubescent male’s alienation and indeed overall disaffection with the outside adult world that later reached its nadir with Ant and Dec in Byker Grove, or alternatively a very late example of Northern male angst as depicted in A Taste Of Honey and The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner. On the minus side, though, there are no chapter headings, perhaps part of the no-nonsense, gritty approach of its gritty Northern writer. We’re not talking Gregory’s Girl, Claire Grogan lying on her back staring up at the stars, younger sister being sensitively supportive during difficult teenage years, lovesick teen years here. (EDITOR'S NOTE: much as we'd like to.) Kes is a rights of passage book that generations of boys read at school. Yes, of course the bloody kestrel dies at the end.
Cost: 30p
Bargain value: 5 (not exactly hard to come by)
Cover: 8 (classic shot)
Author’s authenticity count: 9 (Barry Hines’ father worked down t’pit in Barnsley)