The Promise

Bob begins visiting Valerie, the daughter of his father's boss. Her fragile health is belied by the force of her personality and her feelings for Bob. The relationship is built up with illicit pleasures - the forbidden delights for Valerie of walks in the world beyond her garden, through the town, by the docks (it is, once again, wartime North-East). Her sudden death is followed by insistent reappearances to Bob demanding that he honour a vow to find her if she were ever lost. There's a tremendous climax involving a German plane. Westall may repeat time and place but he's always original and compulsive reading - and not just for teenagers.