Most Popular Books by Robert Westall

There were three people, standing in the darkest place, watching him. Simon is outraged that his Mum plans to remarry. He can''t bear her new fiancé or the way his mother and sister seem to have forgotten his late father. Overwhelmed by hatred and anger he seeks solace in a nearby abandoned water mill. But another, powerful hatred lingers within its walls. And it is about to be unleashed... Westall''s immense talent is evident from the opening line - Simon''s anger and unhappiness are tangible, and the Scarecrows'' ill-intentions terrifying.

''Some bright kid''s got a gun and 2000 rounds of live ammo. And that gun''s no pea-shooter. It''ll go through a brick wall at a quarter of a mile.'' Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth, and he desperately wants it to be the best. When he stumbles across the remains of a German bomber crashed in the woods - its shiny, black machine-gun still intact - he grabs his chance. Soon he''s masterminding his own war effort with dangerous and unexpected results . . . The Machine Gunners is Robert Westall''s gripping first novel for children set during World War Two and winner of the Carnegie Medal. Now with a brilliant cover look celebrating its fortieth anniversary. Includes a bonus short story - ''The Haunting of Chas McGill'' - and an extended biography of the author.

She made her way down the cliff, and on to the beach. At the edge of the waves, she stopped, shaking her wet paws. She knew that somewhere ahead was her person, but far, far away. She miaowed plaintively; stood staring at the moving blur of uncrossable sea. 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 . . . From her beginning to her end she never wavered. She was the Blitzcat. Blitzcat by Robert Westall is the Smarties Prize-winning book about one brave cat''s experiences during World War Two. Now with a brilliant new cover look and including an extended author biography.

Six tales, set in England, in which people engaged in ordinary pursuits attract the attention of supernatural forces.

Is there a barrier that divides the dark unknown from the everyday world around us? If so, is it broken sometimes by the dead returning, by the undead, or by alien creatures? What else could account for the chance meeting (or was it?) between a young student and hitch-hiker who turns out to be so much stranger than she seems? Why else should three successive crews flying a Second World War bomber - Blackham''s Wimpey - be driven to madness, despair, even to death, though the plane returns from each mission without a scratch? Who are Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou; the figments of Peter''s imagination that become a real life nightmare for Roger and Biddy? There is St Austin Friars, too: a church without a congregation - until a burial service, oddly arranged a month ahead, is attended by a sinister assortment of the living and the dead. And Sergeant Nice, an ordinary policeman in an ordinary seaside town faced with a series of quite extraordinary thefts; the work surely, of no human hand. Chilling, but often humorous as well, these stories creep up on you and take you by surprise.

Tom Higgins, a British schoolboy during the Persian Gulf War, narrates his younger brother''s struggle with an apparent mental illness or "mystery of nature" which drives the child to assume the role of an Iraqi.

Geoff Ashden, one-time bomber pilot, is now demobbed and trying to make an honest living in the antiques business. As he buys and sells, he encounters mysteries, such as the little-boy-lost call which the police refuse to deal with and the empty antique bed which seemed to contain a moving female body. These mysteries seem to occur only when Ashden is around. Why?

Believing his parents to be killed by the bomb which destroyed his home, twelve-year-old Harry sets off on a journey of survival.

Stolen from a temple in Egypt, a mother cat finds her life changed forever when she shares the humble stable where the Christ Child is born.

Caught in a freak storm, John Webster takes shelter in an old barn with weird symbols carved in the doors. The landowner offers him a place to stay and John, on leave from University, takes him up on the offer. But it turns out the barn has more history than he first suspected. A portal back in time, to be precise. He meets the beautiful Johanna, who is being tracked by the Witch Finder General. Modern science says that witches aren''t real... but then, neither are portals back in time, so what can John believe? John finds himself torn between the past and the present, caught in a web of magic, mystery, suspicion and witchhunts.

In England during World War II, with his mother dead from a German bomb and his father off in training and action but keeping him informed by letter, Sonny tries to understand the darkest truths of war and retribution.

While spending the summer with her old nurse on the north English coast, a teen-age girl discovers that her presence in the nearby Watch House, a museum containing relics of shipwrecks and rescues, releases a powerful and evil ghost.

"Chapel farm: Ralph has everything, and wants Margaret to follow him. But she is desperate for space and freedom. As their time ends, the questions begin ... . Blizzard: Perfect for each other, Simon and Angela have split up over one important issue. Can they be reconciled if their lives depend on it?" --Back cover.

Cam is quick-witted and clever - sometimes too clever for his own good. When he finds himself in a spot of trouble, he''s keen to take a job that will get him out of the way for a while, even if it means he doesn''t look at it too closely. Tasked to take a letter to a far-off city - simple enough, you would think - he instead finds himself caught up in intrigue and dangers beyond those he was escaping, and in possession of a cursed knife he cannot get rid of. And that''s before he even looks at the city''s cats. The city''s very unusual, unexpectedly intelligent cats. The city''s unusual, intelligent and slightly magical cats, whose fates are now entwined with his.

A teenage boy and his friends spend the spring of 1943 trying to discover who in Garmouth, a sleepy English seaport, is passing information to the Germans.

"A rip-roaring collection of supernatural short stories, guaranteed to set spines shivering" --Back cover.

Life is simple where Ralph lives, up in the Pennines. It''s peaceful. Ordinary. Until one day, when out with the sheep, he finds something strange, too strange to be from Earth. The alien grave holds secrets of the past, but also draws Ralph into the middle of an epic war between two alien races, taking place among the stars above his head. Has he thrown his planet into a battle it can''t possibly fight? This war has raged for centuries, but perhaps Ralph could hold the key to ending it once and for all.

While vacationing on a remote part of the Northumberland coast, a troubled English family has a series of unsettling experiences traveling back in time and confronting the legendary power of St. Cuthbert.

YA. A boy promises his life to a girl who dies. She pulls him to the brink of his own life during WWII.

Tales of psychological suspense and the possible supernatural.

Growing up in a northern English town after World War II, seventeen-year-old Robert, clever student and formidable rugby player, finds himself drawn into a passionate affair with a young teacher at his school.

In the highly organized society of twenty-first-century Britain the system is not to be questioned, but Kitson, a young computer wizard, and his partner Keri are determined to find answers to some important questions.

After Yaxley disappears, the inhabitants of an English village fear that his ugly old cat will uncover the truth about a secret they are hiding.

It''s 1940, and Britain is at war. Young Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in town, but desperately wants it to be the best. Amidst the bombs and air raids, Chas and his friends plan their own war effort in their newly built bunker. Friendships are forged and loyalties tested, in the adventure of a lifetime. Robert Westall''s "The Machine Gunners" has been read, studied - and loved - by successive generations of younger readers. It won the Carnegie Medal and was voted one of the most important children''s novels of the past seventy years. This thrilling stage adaptation comes from the award-winning playwright Ali Taylor, and premiered at the Polka Theatre, London. It provides rich opportunities for discussion in the classroom, and for staging by schools, youth theatres and amateur companies.

While seeking shelter from a sudden rainstorm in an old barn, a young motorcyclist finds himself catapulted into a mid-17th century England troubled by witch hunts.