But the weirdest question ever was in a school in Lincolnshire. I was sitting in the staff room waiting to talk to a class of children – the usual gang of demob-happy fifth-formers, last lesson Friday afternoon – when a teacher sitting next to me said, ‘You know that novel you wrote, A Kestrel for a Knave?’ I nodded. He said, ‘Did you write it on purpose or by accident?’ I didn’t know what to say. I can just about imagine somebody writing a line or two of verse by accident. But a novel! All those words. All those months and sometimes years of hard work. ‘Some accident!’ I should have replied. But before I could say anything, another teacher appeared in the doorway and announced dramatically that, ‘The Gay Gordons record has been stolen from the music room.’ Everybody rushed out of the staff room to find it and I was spared the embarrassment of coming up with a sensible answer. Another question I am asked, particularly in the south of England, is how I know so much about the countryside if I come from Barnsley.
What do You think about A Kestrel For A Knave (2000)?
