Flying with the Lafayette Squadron and winning the Croix de Guerre, Charlie Halifax is shot down in 1918 and badly wounded. He deserts but is recaptured and exiled into the Foreign Legion in North Africa. In a bid for freedom he escapes to Paris and attempts to become the first man to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. In the Blue Light of African Dreams shows again Paul Watkins's remarkable command of narrative and the power of his cool, unsentimental prose.