Fighting Spirit

There were many shocks and surprises lying ahead in Massenden, a normally tranquil village hidden deep in the Weald of Kent.
Gus Wright-Smith had idly picked up his father, Justin’s Leica camera and aimed it nonchalantly into the large arena where the owner of the camera was presenting a trophy to the extremely attractive winner of the side saddle class. For Justin and his wife Anna, the consequences of their son’s innocent act would be life changing.
Meanwhile, young Joshua West and Mimi Wright-Smith were finding living together in the Garden Flat at Lake house not to be the idyll they had imagined, as the signet ring which had been Mimi’s birthday present to Josh made many visits to Sparkler’s Jewellers, as the inscription was changed numerous times.
However, the day nine year old Sukie Smith arrived in a coach with forty nine other children from a deprived area of East London, destined to spend a day at Lake House a life was about to change for ever as she looked at the lake and turned to Joanna Wright-Smith, taking her hand and telling her. ‘I doesn’t loik warta. One doi me dad troid ter draan me in the Thames.’ A few hours later, as the coach drove up the drive, Joanna was waving to a small girl who was looking out of the rear window. Sukie Smith was not the only one who was crying, as Joanna waved until the coach was out of sight.