The children see Rudi, and instantly grab his gun and take him hostage. After a few minutes of debate, they decide, for the sake of the fortress, to not turn him in. If they turned him in he would split about the base. I'm on a literary mission to re-read all the books I loved as a child. Well, the ones I remember anyway, I only started keeping a list in 1999.

The Machine Gunners, Used: Books - AbeBooks The Machine Gunners, Used: Books - AbeBooks

I have finished reading The Machine gunners finally! it was a really good book, it was very interesting, especially when they found the machine gun. I mean if you found a machine gun you would go mental, haha. Overall this book was a great read, i read it in 3 days of the holidays. i would definitly read another book from Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners was adapted by the BBC for television in 1983 and again for radio in 2002. A stage play by Westall also exists and had a run at the Polka Theatre in London, commissioned by the Imperial War Museum. The book won the Carnegie Medal in 1975 and was voted in 2007 as one of the ten most important children's novels of the last seven decades by the Carnegie Medal panel. After school, Chas and his friends “Cem” (short for Cemetery, his dad is the local undertaker) Jones and Audrey Parton return to the wood to retrieve the machine gun. Taking turns sawing it off, they finally free the gun and sneak it out of the wood up the leg of Cem’s Guy Fawkes effigy.* They get caught in an air-raid by Chas’ father, who takes the Guy and puts it in his greenhouse for safe keeping. The next morning Chas hides the machine gun in an old drain pipe. A few days later, Cem tells Chas he had returned to the plane and found four thousand rounds of ammunition clips for the gun. Oop North: Aye lad, we're gannin' oop North for this ane. Justified, since it's set in the North East of England and based on the writer's own childhood there.A boy's dream, becomes a nightmare. Well, perhaps his dream was a nightmare all along. Chas McGill is about thirteen in 1940. He lives in a small Tyneside town, in the industrial north-east of England, which is subjected to terrible bombing raids. The tea-time call-out is the worst. The air-raid siren goes just as supper is dished up and everyone must run for the Anderson shelter. Do you take your egg and chips with you or leave them until later? Sometimes you are in the shelter all night. Do you lie awake all night wondering if there's going to be a direct hit? Or do you fall into an uneasy sleep at last? And when you come out in the morning, how do you feel when you see that your friend's house simply isn't there any more? The Machine Gunners is a children's historical novel by Robert Westall, published by Macmillan in 1975. Set in northeastern England shortly after the Battle of Britain (February 1941), it features children who find a crashed German aircraft with a machine gun and ammunition; they build a fortress and capture and imprison a German gunner. The author also wrote a play based on the book, and others have adapted it for television and radio. A sequel, Fathom Five, set two years later, was published in 1979.

The Machine Gunners - Logo of the BBC The Machine Gunners - Logo of the BBC

But underneath all that is the unabashed childhood that springs to the surface that makes the characters in this book fearless and creative.

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His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille. My favourite part of the book is when Chas McGill, the main character is being chased by Chas' enemy, Boddser Brown, through the makeshift marshes in Garmouth. I found this passage very thrilling and it encouraged me to read on. I loved Rudi and Chas. I especially loved Rudi's character as it was so refreshing to see a German character not portrayed in a war book as a terrible person. It showed him as a human with feelings which was lovely. The relationship that he had with the children was heartwarming and that even when he could have escaped, he didn't want to as he viewed them as almost equals but definitely friends. I loved Chas and his sense of adventure, he had his head screwed on for someone so young. Robert Westall's gripping first novel for children set during World War Two and winner of the Carnegie Medal. Now with a brilliant new cover look and celebrating its fortieth anniversary. Includes a bonus short story - 'The Haunting of Chas McGill' - and an extended biography of the author. About This Edition ISBN: But, at the same time, you would have to admit it made an impact, left a mark, spoke to the young me in ways I probably couldn't quite understand.