Freedom Flight

Teenager Tom Robinson Welton is described as living ‘a wanting sort of life’ – wanting, inter alia, to improve his literacy skills, to earn more of his father’s respect and to develop his relationship with Emma Thorpe, daughter of the local big house. When, however, he rescues Danni, a Polish ‘illegal’ immigrant from the waves off his native Suffolk coast and decides to become involved in her past history, her present predicament and her future welfare, these particular goals acquire a new focus. Ashley’s story reflects a young man’s growth from negative self-doubt to a credible sense of self-worth, a growth in which a key role is to be played by a first ‘real kiss, the deep kiss, the sexy kiss’ bestowed on him by the dramatic new arrival in his life. Whither Emma now? It all amounts to a story strongly contemporary in its theme if at times rather traditional and predictable in its narrative techniques.