Letter: Barry Hines made me want to become a writer

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/23/letter-barry-hines-made-me-want-to-become-a-writer

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When I moved up to Kirk Balk secondary school, in Hoyland, Barnsley, in 1982 it seemed an impossibly huge, confusing and sometimes frightening place. But I was aware that it also had a magical property – this was the school where Barry Hines had taught.

Barry was a legend in this little corner of South Yorkshire. I’d seen the film Kes, of course. The accents, the locations, the situations; they were all part of my everyday life, and yet somehow Barry had elevated them to a wonderful work of art through nothing more than his own imagination, and the tapping of his fingers on typewriter keys.

Knowing that Barry had taught at my school, talked to people I knew, and walked the streets I walked, was a huge inspiration to me. He gave countless people across Barnsley and beyond hope: hope that they could be whatever they wanted to be.

His writing was simple, with not a word out of place or an extraneous phrase; it was blunt as the Barnsley accent, and yet it spoke directly to the soul. His books and screenplays also showed his characteristic concern for his local community, and the social compassion that was at the centre of his creativity. It was Barry Hines more than any other novelist who made me want to become a writer.

After Barry’s return to his Hoyland Common roots, I often saw him in the streets or sitting at a table in the Star Inn. His trademark brown leather coat and round glasses were known to all, and yet he never tired of talking to people. When you got to know the real Barry, rather than simply a name on a book cover, your admiration for him could only grow.

Barnsley won’t see his like again, Britain won’t see his like again, but we’re all enriched for having known him and his writing.