Details:
- author: Barry Hines
- full title: The Gamekeeper
- narrator: Luke R. Francis
- genre: literary fiction
- topics: #nature, #animals, #pheasanthunt
- publisher: Saga Egmont Audio
- publish date: 24 Aug 2023
- timing: 8:07:00
My Rating of the Audiobook:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
- narration: 💙💙💙💙💙
My Thoughts:
George lives with his family in the heart of the English countryside. He is a gamekeeper. His job is to breed pheasants for the Duke so that the pheasant hunt in autumn can be successful. It may seem like a simple job at first glance, but it is not. It’s hard to raise strong pheasants.
George possesses impressive knowledge about nature, the landscape, and the animals that inhabit it. He is very protective of the pheasants, fighting against anything (humans and animals) that could threaten their existence.
George Purse never killed anything for fun. He only killed to protect his pheasants, which were then killed by other people for fun.
Although first published in 1975, The Gamekeeper is, in one way, a timeless novel that outlines the connection between man and nature.
Many detailed descriptions show Hines’ excellent knowledge of this profession. But this also makes the narrative slow. And although The Gamekeeper is an interesting portrait of a working-class man and his connection to nature, it is also very slow, and sometimes the reader may struggle to read it. I highly recommend listening to an audiobook to make things easier.
About the Author:
Barry Hines (June 30, 1939 – March 18, 2016) was an English author, playwright, and screenwriter. His novels and screenplays explore the political and economic struggles of working-class Northern England, particularly in his native West Riding / South Yorkshire.
He is best known for the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), which he helped adapt for Ken Loach's film Kes (1969). He also collaborated with Loach on adaptations of his novels Looks and Smiles (1981) and The Gamekeeper, and a 1977 two-part television drama adaption of his book The Price of Coal.
He also wrote the television film Threads, which depicts the impact of a nuclear war on Sheffield.
