Ex-head publishes new teen-fiction

5:38pm Friday 31st October 2003

Freedom Flight By Bernard Ashley £4.99, Orchard Books WITH a 30-year writing career, a host of award nominations and 50 children’s books under his belt, Charlton-based author Bernard Ashley proves fiction for young people can be as exciting and challenging as work for grown-ups.

Winner of the Other Award (an alternative to the Carnegie Medal) in 1974 for his debut novel The Trouble with Donovan Croft, a shortlistee for the Guardian Young Fiction Prize and a regular on the National Curriculum reading list, Ashley’s latest novel Freedom Flight (published on August 28), looks set to emulate his past success.

The former Greenwich headteacher outlines the novel’s intriguing plot.

“It’s an adventure story about a boy called Tom Robinson Welton. He suffers from dslexyia with attendant problems with self-esteem and fears his nasty stepfather doesn’t understand or appreciate him.

“But he’s marvellous with maps. He can’t read words too well but he’s wonderful with charts and navigation and the story starts with him actually rescuing a girl off the rocks in Suffolk. She’s Polish and at first says she is an illegal immigrant. This is the story of him making sure what happens is good for her,” he adds.

Ashley’s inspiration for Freedom Flight came three years ago when he began looking at statistics about illegal immigrants.

“The greatest number of applications for permanent UK residency came from Poles. It turns out most of these applications are from young Poles who’ve come over on work permits, worked in restaurants and want to stay.

“We also had terrific associations with the Polish during the Second World War so the story goes a bit deeper into this girl’s history.” Writing for young people is notoriously difficult to do well, so does Ashley change his style to accommodate a teenage audience?

“No, it’s just the way I write. I write quite like a film in a way. I believe in short scenes so I cut the book together,” he explains.

“People often say this would make a good film and then I try and chase the film companies,” he laughs.

“I can’t say much about this but I’m working on a new script at the moment, a children’s film of about 90 minutes for theatrical and TV release, but the money isn’t there yet.” Schooled in Blackheath and Rochester, Ashley emerged from National Service to undergo teacher training and worked as a headteacher for 30 years. It was in 1974, while working as a head in an East End school, that he penned his first novel.

He now writes full-time and says being a writer is much easier than his former profession.

“The writing enabled me to carry on doing a very difficult job. Graham Greene says that a man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep and writing was my way of escape.

“I have always written for children. I began writing a story about a kid (not a real one though) in an East End school where I was a teacher. It hit the spot in its day because it was about racism and other things that were going on.” The Charlton-boy loves his home turf and is also on the board of Greenwich Theatre but maintains he does not tread the boards himself.

“I’m just an old theatre buff,” he laughs.

“I do get a lot of inspiration from Charlton. A lot of my books are set in London, either east or south London. I’m proud to be a Londoner, I love it.”

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