Shadows of War: Stories
Robert Westall
Book Description
In ‘Adolf’, a young boy becomes convinced his elderly neighbour is actually Adolf Hitler in hiding. The British soldiers in ‘The German Ghost’ have an otherworldly encounter with a mysterious and sinister figure in black. ‘East Doddingham Dinah’ is a stray cat who takes up residence on an RAF base and seems to possess the unsettling ability to know which planes will be shot down. A late-night aerial mission at 24,000 feet becomes a terrifying supernatural experience for the crew in ‘After the Funeral’.
Master storyteller Robert Westall (1929-1993) loved writing about three subjects above all: World War II, cats, and ghosts, and all three of these interests are on display in this collection featuring eleven of Westall’s finest wartime stories, several of them supernatural. Originally published between 1982 and 1997, these stories are gathered together here for the first time and will delight readers of all ages.
Robert Westall
Book Description
In ‘Adolf’, a young boy becomes convinced his elderly neighbour is actually Adolf Hitler in hiding. The British soldiers in ‘The German Ghost’ have an otherworldly encounter with a mysterious and sinister figure in black. ‘East Doddingham Dinah’ is a stray cat who takes up residence on an RAF base and seems to possess the unsettling ability to know which planes will be shot down. A late-night aerial mission at 24,000 feet becomes a terrifying supernatural experience for the crew in ‘After the Funeral’.
Master storyteller Robert Westall (1929-1993) loved writing about three subjects above all: World War II, cats, and ghosts, and all three of these interests are on display in this collection featuring eleven of Westall’s finest wartime stories, several of them supernatural. Originally published between 1982 and 1997, these stories are gathered together here for the first time and will delight readers of all ages.
reviews
‘Fiendishly clever, spine-tingling short fiction’ - Publishers Weekly (on Antique Dust)
‘Marvelous M. R. Jamesian-style ghost stories’ - Michael Dirda, Washington Post on (Antique Dust)
‘So vivid and deft that it had me sweating with vertigo as well as superstitious terror’ - Daily Telegraph (on The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral)
‘Marvelous M. R. Jamesian-style ghost stories’ - Michael Dirda, Washington Post on (Antique Dust)
‘So vivid and deft that it had me sweating with vertigo as well as superstitious terror’ - Daily Telegraph (on The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral)
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1948405369 ISBN-13: 978-1948405362 $17.99 US, 212 pp. Trade paper Published 2019 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland in 1929. After taking degrees in fine art from Durham University and London’s Slade School, Westall worked as an art teacher and was also a freelance journalist and art critic for The Guardian.
It was not till later in life that Westall turned to fiction, having been inspired to become a writer after telling his son Christopher stories about his childhood during World War II. His first book, The Machine Gunners, was published in 1975 when he was 45; it was a major success, winning the Carnegie Medal, and has been recognized by critics as a lasting classic of children’s literature. He would go on to publish over 40 books for young readers, including works that drew on his boyhood during the war, stories involving cats, and tales of the ghostly and supernatural. Besides The Machine Gunners, Westall is perhaps best known for The Scarecrows (1981), which won him a second Carnegie Medal and which his obituary in the Independent called ‘one of the most searing and haunting child-eyed views of divorce yet to have been written’, and Blitzcat (1989), which won the Smarties Prize. The Watch House (1977) and The Machine Gunners were also adapted for television serials.
After retiring from teaching in 1985, Westall worked briefly as an antique dealer, an experience that partly inspired his sole work of fiction for adults, the ghost story collection Antique Dust (1989). The first edition’s jacket lists his hobbies as ‘nosing round old buildings, studying cats and looking for the unknown’ and notes that ‘he has never seen a ghost but has not yet given up hope’.
Robert Westall died in 1993 at age 63.
It was not till later in life that Westall turned to fiction, having been inspired to become a writer after telling his son Christopher stories about his childhood during World War II. His first book, The Machine Gunners, was published in 1975 when he was 45; it was a major success, winning the Carnegie Medal, and has been recognized by critics as a lasting classic of children’s literature. He would go on to publish over 40 books for young readers, including works that drew on his boyhood during the war, stories involving cats, and tales of the ghostly and supernatural. Besides The Machine Gunners, Westall is perhaps best known for The Scarecrows (1981), which won him a second Carnegie Medal and which his obituary in the Independent called ‘one of the most searing and haunting child-eyed views of divorce yet to have been written’, and Blitzcat (1989), which won the Smarties Prize. The Watch House (1977) and The Machine Gunners were also adapted for television serials.
After retiring from teaching in 1985, Westall worked briefly as an antique dealer, an experience that partly inspired his sole work of fiction for adults, the ghost story collection Antique Dust (1989). The first edition’s jacket lists his hobbies as ‘nosing round old buildings, studying cats and looking for the unknown’ and notes that ‘he has never seen a ghost but has not yet given up hope’.
Robert Westall died in 1993 at age 63.