Robert Atkinson Westall[1] (7 October 1929 – 15 April 1993) was an
Englishauthor and
teacher known for fiction aimed at
children and
young people. Some of the latter cover complex, dark, and adult themes.[2][3] He has been called "the dean of British war novelists".[4] His first book, The Machine Gunners, won the 1975
Carnegie Medal for the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject.[5] It was named among the top ten Medal-winners at the 70th anniversary celebration in 2007.[6] Westall also won a second Carnegie (no one has yet won three), a
Smarties Prize, and the once-in-a-lifetime
Guardian Prize.
Westall was inspired to be a writer by telling his son Christopher stories about his experiences in the
Second World War.[1] His first book, The Machine Gunners, issued by Macmillan in 1975, told a Second World War story about English children who find "a crashed German bomber in the woods complete with machine gun".[5] It was
adapted as a
BBC television serial in 1983. He returned to its setting in Garmouth, a fictionalised
Tynemouth, in other novels, including The Watch House (1977) and Fathom Five (1979), which continues the Machine Gunners story. Christopher was killed in a motorbike accident at the age of 18 in 1978.[8] He became the inspiration for The Devil on the Road (1978), commended for the Carnegie Medal,[9] and for a short story in The Haunting of Chas McGill (1983).
Westall won a second Carnegie Medal for The Scarecrows (Chatto & Windus, 1981).[10] He retired from teaching only in 1985 and tried
dealing in antiques before focusing exclusively on writing.[3][7] For Blitzcat (Bodley Head, 1989) he won the annual
Smarties Prize in category 9–11 years, which in 1994 the
American Library Association named as one of the hundred Best Books for Young Adults of the Last 25 years.[11] He finally won the once-in-a-lifetime
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Kingdom by the Sea (Methuen, 1990).[12] Both that and Gulf (1992) were commended runners-up for the Carnegie Medal.[9][a] The latter tells of the
home front during the
Persian Gulf War.
From 1988 until his death Westall attended a writers' circle in
Lymm where he helped to assist and mentor new writers.
Death, memorial and legacy
Westall died on 15 April 1993 in
Warrington Hospital of respiratory failure from pneumonia.[3] At the time of his death, he lived in lodgings with his landlady, Lindy McKinnel, at 1 Woodland Avenue in the village of Lymm. He had his own cottage a few paces away, which he visited every day to do his writing. Previously he had lived at 20 Winnington Lane,
Northwich and run Magpie Antiques, Church Street,
Davenham.
As a journalist, Westall wrote for Cheshire Life, the Northwich Chronicle and the Warrington Guardian. A memorial service was held on 29 September 1993, at nearby All Saints' Church,
Thelwall, Warrington. Tributes were paid by former teaching colleagues and Miriam Hodgson, editorial director (fiction) of Reed Children's Books. A blue plaque was placed on Westall's birthplace, 7 Vicarage Street, North Shields, the following year. There is also a Westall Walk across locations used by Westall in his stories.[13]
In October 2006, A Trip to Tynemouth by the Japanese animator
Hayao Miyazaki was published in Japan. It is based on "Blackham's Wimpy", a story first published in Westall's Break of Dark collection. The rival
RAF crews in the story fly
Vickers Wellington bombers. The nickname "Wimpy" comes from
Wimpy in the
Popeye cartoons.
Selected bibliography
According to
WorldCat, participating libraries hold editions of Westall's books in 17 foreign languages.
The Haunting of Chas McGill and Other Stories (1983)
Rachel and the Angel and Other Stories (1986)
Ghosts and Journeys (1988)
Antique Dust (1989)
The Call and Other Stories (1989) (a.k.a. The Call and Other Strange Stories, 2003)
The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral (1991) (a.k.a. In Camera and Other Stories, 1992)
Fearful Lovers and Other Stories (1992, a.k.a. Fearful Lovers 1993)
Demons and Shadows: The Ghostly Best of Robert Westall (1993) (a.k.a. The Best of Robert Westall: Volume One: Demons and Shadows, 1999)
Shades of Darkness: More of the Ghostly Best Stories of Robert Westall (1994) (a.k.a. The Best of Robert Westall: Volume Two: Shades of Darkness, 1999)
Christmas Spirit: Two Stories (1994)
Shadows of War (2019)
Nonfiction
Children of the Blitz (1985)
The Making of Me (2006) (autobiographical)
Adaptations
Radio
Hitch-Hiker (first story in Break of Dark), BBC Radio 5 (1990) [14]
^
abcdToday there are usually eight books on the Carnegie shortlist. According to CCSU some runners-up through 2002 were Commended (from 1954) or Highly Commended (from 1966). The latter distinction became approximately annual in 1979; there were 29 highly commended books in 24 years including two in 1990 and one in 1992.
•No one has won three Carnegies. Of the seven authors with two medals, six were active in 1966–2002 and all wrote at least one Highly Commended runner-up, led by
Anne Fine with three and Westall with two. (Westall was also one of three "commended" for Devil on the Road (1978).
^Myers, Mitzi (2008). Elizabeth Goodenough & Andrea Immel (ed.). Under fire : Childhood in the Shadow of War. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 22.
ISBN978-0-8143-3404-1.