While Westall's fiction ranges from historical drama to time-travel fantasy, in all his works a quality in the rendering of character lends even the most fantastic tale an aspect of reality. Westall's adolescent characters often indulge in violence and profanity and are not always heroic--behavior that Westall believes is closer to children's lives than most librarians and critics would care to admit. This has caused some controversy, but neither his audience nor his critics have denied the emotional power of Westall's best writing.
Robert Atkinson Westall was born October 7, 1929, in Tynemouth, Northumberland, England. His father, to whom he attributes the variety and vigor of his writing, "was a foreman-fitter at the local gasworks," Westall wrote in his Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS) entry, "but to me he was the Oily Wizard. When he came home from work, he smelt of strange and terrible magic--benzine and sulfur hung around his overalls and a cap, so filthy you could see no pattern on it." Westall continued, "But his wizardry lay in more than that. I would watch him looking at an ailing engine, with his finger held lightly against it, feeling for vibration and his head cocked on one side, listening for the one tiny sound that would mean trouble.
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