The Best of Robert Westall

Robert Atkinson Westall was born on 7 October 1929 in North Shields, Northumberland, England. He spent his working life teaching art in secondary schools, writing only in his spare time. However, on retiring at the age of 55, he devoted himself to his writing, dying at the age of 63 in 1993.

His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) won him the Carnegie Medal, and he went on to win many more awards, including the Smarties Book Prize for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award for The Kingdom by the Sea.

The boxed set I'm sharing here features seven of his books;

The Machine Gunners

The Watch House

Fathom Five
The cats of Seroster
A Time of Fire

Stormsearch

Blitzcat

Plot summaries are as printed on the books.

Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth, and he desperately wants it to be the best. When he finds a crashed German bomber in the woods with its shiny black machine gun still intact, he grabs his chance. While the police search frantically for the missing gun, Chas and h

is friends build a secret fortress...

Alone and unhappy in Garmouth, Anne knows the shadows are following her. Spirits of long-dead sailors who won't rest. And from behind its empty windows, the Watch House is watching...

Chas McGill has set out to prove that there really is a German spy in wartime Garmouth, sending information to enemy U-Boats. But what started as a bet with his best friend Cem soon goes far beyond a game. Chas's obsessive search for the elusive spy leads him to the most terrible decision of his life...

It takes just a few seconds for the German bomber to drop its deadly explosives and disappear into the clouds. But those seconds change Sonny's life for ever.  His father leaves home, rage and grief at what has happened driving him to seek revenge on the enemy. Left behind with only his grandparents to look after him, Sonny finds himself pursuing his own dramatic and intensely personal confrontation with the Germans...




The Cats of Seroster; Among the marshes and swamps of medieveal Europe, Cam carried the message that had cost the blacksmith his life. And with it, the blood-stained knife that would never leave his side. When Cam finally reached the Seroster's town, the old Duke was dead - and the great, golden cats were waiting...    Blitzcat: She led the way to safety, out of the blazing hell of blitzed Coventry. People touched her for luck; feared her as an omen of disaster. Wherever she went, she changed lives...   

Stormsearch; When Tim finds an old model ship washed up on the beach after a magnificent summer storm, he knows he's stumbled upon something special. The tiny vessel has a hidden cargo - a mysterious secret from the past that Tim must try to solve. The boat's lonely journey has lasted over a hundred years - and only Tim can finish its perilous story...

The Best of Westall Seven books in slipcase, now sold thank you for your interest.

In other news - this little chap visited our garden last week

We were absolutely delighted. We've lived here for seven years, and although we see squirrels while out walking this is the first one that has paid us a visit. He was quite happy to have his photo taken but didn't stay for long.  Having seen no wild life in the garden we've now had a visit from a rabbit, a squirrel a couple of snakes and last year we made room for a wasp nest. It was fascinating to watch the nest grow, and the wasps were no trouble at all.  The snakes, on the other hand, were a bit troublesome; they had a habit of hissing at us whenever we tried to dig the garden. I rather hope they don’t come back this year. 

Wasp nest 2014

The nest was made from a substance similar to paper that the insects produce by chewing wood into a pulp and sticking it together with saliva.  They were busy with the nest through the summer but by the autumn, they were all gone and the nest slowly fell apart.