Robert Atkinson Westall was a British author, teacher and journalist best known for his award-winning children's fiction, although he also wrote non-fiction and specifically for adults. Many of his novels, while aimed at a teenage audience, deal with many complex, dark and in many ways adult themes. His children's fiction includes The Machine Gunners , his first novel and winner of the Carnegie Medal; it was made into a BBC television serial in 1983. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1982 for The Scarecrows, the Smarties prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1991 for The... Kingdom by the Sea. Westall has been described at "the dean of British war novelists". Robert Westall was born in North Shields on 7 October 1929, and grew up there on Tyneside during the Second World War. Wartime Tyneside is the setting for many of his novels, for which his own life was a great source and inspiration. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Fine Art at Durham University and a post-graduate degree studying Sculpture at the Slade School of Art in London in 1957.
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| Birthdate: | October 7, 1929 |
| Birthplace: | North Shields |
| Date of death: | April 15, 1993 |
| Education: | Durham University |
| Also known as: | Robert Atkinson Westall |