Break in the Sun

by Bernard Ashley

A suspenseful and probing novel about the difficulties of growing up explores a young runaway girl's frequently turbulent relationship with her mother, stepfather, and younger brother

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published June 26, 1980

About the author

Bernard Ashley lives in Charlton, south east London, only a street or so from where he was born. He was educated at the Roan School, Blackheath and Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School, Rochester. After National Service in the RAF Bernard trained to teach at Trent Park College of Education, specializing in Drama. He followed this with an Advanced Diploma at the Cambridge Institute and has been awarded honorary Doctorates in Education by the University of Greenwich and in letters by the University of Leicester. During his career as a teacher he worked in Kent, Hertfordshire, Newham and Greenwich, with thirty years of headships in the last three.

He is now writing full time. His first novel, The Trouble with Donovan Croft (recently re-issued by OUP), was published in 1974 and won the 'Other' Award, an alternative to the Carnegie Medal (for which he has been shortlisted three times). Nineteen further novels have followed, gaining him a reputation as a 'gritty' writer in sympathy with the under dog. In Margaret Meek's view he gets inside children's heads, who say that this is what it's like for them.

Of Tiger Without Teeth Philip Pullman wrote in The Guardian:
'A commonplace setting, an everyday situation, ordinary characters. Bernard Ashley's great gift is to turn what seems to be low-key realism into something much stronger and more resonant. It has something to do with empathy, compassion, an undimmed thirst for decency and justice. In a way, Ashley is doing what ‘Play for Today’ used to do when TV was a medium that connected honestly with its own time, and what so few artists do now: using realism in the service of moral concern.'

Johnnie's Blitz (Barn Owl), drew on his wartime experiences as a child in and around London; while Little Soldier (Orchard) sums up his writing: a pacy plot with an emotional turning point, a theme that concerns him, and characters that grip as real people. It was shortlisted for the 'Guardian' young fiction prize and for the Carnegie Medal. His latest novel is Flashpoint - a thriller, the third of the Ben Maddox stories.

Bernard’s picture books include Double the Love (Carol Thompson illustrating) from Orchard, Growing Good (Bloomsbury), Cleversticks, and A Present for Paul (Harper Collins). Tamarind published The Bush, illustrated by Lynne Willey. His popular stories for young readers include Dinner Ladies Don't Count (Puffin), Justin and the Demon Drop Kick, and I'm Trying to Tell You (both Happy Cat).

Television work has included Running Scared (from which he wrote the novel), The Country Boy (BBC) and his adaptation of his own Dodgem which won the Royal Television Society award as the best children's entertainment of its year.

Stage plays are The Old Woman Who Lived in A Cola Can (Edinburgh Festival and tour), The Secret of Theodore Brown (Unicorn Theatre for Children in the West End), and Little Soldier (published by Heinemann).

A strong family man, Bernard is married to Iris Ashley, a former London headteacher, and they have three sons. Their eldest, Chris, also a headteacher, co-wrote with Bernard the TV series Three Seven Eleven (Granada), and his latest "Wasim" books were published in 2007 by Frances Lincoln. David is a London headteacher and an expert on children's reading; and Jonathan is an actor, writer and director whose writing for theatre includes Stiffs; and who was writer and voice director in Los Angeles and London on Primal and Ghosthunter for Playstation 2.

Bernard and Iris have four grandchildren, Paul, Carl, Rosie and Luke.

Reviews

[Jonathan Norton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course we all know that "Break In The Sun" (1981) was a fantastic piece of children's TV that is still astonishing 40 years later, although we don't make the mistake of thinking it was the *very first* time tower blocks or working class kids were having adventures at tea time. If you got those 2 things wrong then consider your licence as a Modern British Intellectual revoked, hand your badge in, and get on with writing tweets about "woke culture".

The original book gives a further layer of texture: the anxieties about strangers hanging around and wanting to chat to passing children; the fear of "barmies" amongst them; what would now be called "fat shaming" and its impact of those who suffered it. Above all we get a very good picture of the beginnings of self-consciousness and maturity, the ability to see experience in "different levels", and also a faint perception of class differences: the amateur theatre group are well-off idlers, so clueless they set off without a full cast or even checking that the film version of their play was scheduled for TV screening. This is also a children's book that acknowledges that children swear and need the toilet at least once a day. Suicidal thoughts and depression are carefully depicted even though this was not a teenage drama.

Seeing as Ian Fleming and S.E.Hinton's stuff got elevated to Penguin Modern Classic status some time ago, I can see good reason why this shouldn't be reissued in that edition as well. Yes, really.

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting one. Not overdone, feeling like a dramatic chapter of Patsy's life.

[Janet Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all watched it on the telly so we then read the book, like you do. Excellent.

[Capn]

Books for Keeps (3 July 1980) has:

Bernard Ashley's latest book Break in the Sun is just out (OUP,0 19271434 1, £3.95). I think it's his best yet. Patsy, in trouble for bed-wetting, runs away with a bargeload of amateur actors. She finds herself playing a part in more ways than one trying to stop her new friends discovering that the police are looking for her. Also looking is Eddie Green, her stepfather (the major cause of her flight) and a reluctant Kenny. Kenny is a fat boy, a misfit and a marvellous creation; the relationship which develops between him and Eddie is one of the best things in a very good book. (Charles Keeping's double-page drawings of Thames-side scenes are an extra pleasure.) Due in Puffin in December, it's already being filmed as a BBC TV serial.
(photo) The barge, Dame Sybil — Patsy's escape route to Margate? Illustration by Charles Keeping from Break in the Sun

And in the 6 Jan 1981, an interview with the author:
Break in the Sun
The central character. Patsy, tries to return to a happier past by running away and gets a lift with a barge load of amateur actors; but in this story it is not only Patsy, the unhappy bedwetter, who learns something about herself. Eddie Green, her stepfather who pursues her, Patsy's mother, Kenny, Patsy's lonely fat friend, Joe, the barge owner, all emerge a little different because of what happens to them. Whether the change is permanent is for the reader to decide.
'I was a long time getting started with Break in the Sun, but then, gradually, bits and pieces came together, and I sat down one Sunday afternoon and wrote the first three pages. I showed them to Iris, my wife, and she liked them. I don't know where the girl and the enuretic thing came from. I just realised that she had to be unhappy, and I thought about some of the unhappy kids I'd known and the reasons for their unhappiness.'