Barry Hines to be celebrated at book launch

Barry Hines who wrote the book of the film Kes.

Hines, whose novel A Kestrel for a Knave led to the film Kes, will be remembered at the city centre venue on Westgate on July 16 following his death last month aged 76.

Before he died, the event was organised to launch the autobiography of BBC director and producer Tony Garnett.

Garnett produced Kes and the two-part television drama The Price of Coal, also written by Hines and directed by Ken Loach..

In The Day the Music Died: A Memoir, Garnett tells of his childhood in war-torn Birmingham, through to his battle to bring controversial topics into the public eye through film and television.

Part One of The Price of Coal will be screened at the launch, which will be compered by broadcaster Ian Clayton.

The first episode, Meet the People, explores the preparations made at the colliery for a visit from Prince Charles.

First broadcast in 1977, both parts were filmed at the disused Thorpe Hesley pit, near Rotherham.

The launch event, organised by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, will be held from 2pm on Saturday, July 16.

For tickets, which cost £5, call 01924 831114 or log on to www.unityworks.co.uk

Tickets are also available from the Unity Works Box Office between 9am and 5pm, Monday-Friday.

Hines, who was born at Hoyland Common, near Barnsley, wrote nine novels during his 50-year career.

A Kestrel for a Knave, written in 1968, tells the story of a boy who escapes his troubled life by training a kestrel.

He also wrote Threads, a 1984 BBC film that dramatised the effects of a nuclear strike on Sheffield.