''This is BRAVO TWO ZERO meets ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO''S NEST. Tom Read''s story had me on the edge of my seat. It also made me cry.''Andy McNabA former member of the British Parachute Regiment, Tom Read was preparing to freefall from more than 23 miles above the earth to become the first man to punch a hole through the sound barrier unassisted.

It didn''t work out that way. From his hospital bed in a French sanatorium, Tom began to review his life in an attempt to trace the roots of his madness: the tough childhood, moving from place to place; joining the Parachute Regiment at seventeen and confronting riots, IRA snipers and booby-traps; doing more than 1,000 jumps with the Red Devils and the first ever Parachute drop onto the Falklands; and the high-altitude work that may have created a chemical imbalance in his brain. Weaving backwards and forwards between a haunting present and a remarkable past FREEFALL is an unrelentingly suspenseful account of an amazing life.''Extraordinary''Mail on Sunday''A courag