A recent trip overseas gave me lots of time on trains, planes and waiting for said transport. As a result I read quite a few books.

I found Barry Hines' book A Kestrel for a Knave quite by accident at a charity book fair, and it was a good find. This short book is a gem - simple, direct but very touching.

It tells the tale of a youth in a British mining town. It is a very difficult, working-class environment and one he doesn't manage very well. During the course of the book the teenager finds and trains a kestrel hawk, and this relationship gives him a new outlook on life.

That sounds ridiculously cheesy, but the book is a lot more honest than that. It reads easily and give one a great insight into some of the difficulties faced by someone trapped in an unforgiving environment.