An Elusive Freedom

For fifteen-year-old Suzanne Gaudion the years of waiting, longing and dreaming of this moment are finally ended. But never during those years had she dreamt that home was so beautiful. The lovely old town of St Peter Port glows pink in the early morning sun as the ship returning evacuees from the British mainland draws into the harbour. Suzanne had been evacuated with her school only a few days before the island was occupied by the Germans. Now, after five long years adrift among strangers, she is returning to her homeland, and the love and security of her family. Except might they not too, after five years separation, seem like strangers to one another? After all, Suzanne had left Guernsey a child, but was returning as a young woman. And she was returning to parents who had been forced to watch their home transformed from a virtual island-idyll into a land of repression and hardship during the occupation. Would Greg and Sarah Gaudion be the same loving care-free people of Suzanne's childhood memories? She is about to find out...