There are always problems with time travels which involve real histories, and The Devil on the Road does not escape them, though Westall handles the transitions with great subtlety and skill. But the writing is so charged and vigorous, the timing of the plot so carefully measured, that the customary difficulties are minimized. John Webster seems very real indeed, and likable; and even better, there is a young cat, deeply involved in the story and central to it, who is surely one of the best and most charmin...

Set in both today's England and Civil War England, [The Devil on the Road] describes the experiences of John Webster in each time period. The author attempts to develop the main character and to set the basis for the novel before he allows Webster to traipse back and forth in time. The results are useless…. What sustains the story is a fictionalized account of a witch hunt in Cromwell's England. Transported back to that era, Webster finds himself forced to decide whether to accept passi...

At a first reading I felt that the historical sources for The Devil on the Road were too obtrusive in the narrative, but a second reading made the careful structure of the book and the skilful correlations of past with present a good deal more apparent. The infamous Witch-Finder General of the 1640's, Matthew Hopkins, and the sadistic false witness and greed he showed towards helpless victims in Suffolk, provide the basis for the story of a first-year student at London University who … is caug...

Robert Westall [in The Wind Eye] is primarily concerned with his characters, with the conflict between them, and with the way in which their attitudes and behaviour are changed, for better or worse, as a result of their experiences. By the end of the book, each member of the family has come to terms with themselves and with their relationship with each other; the benign influence of St Cuthbert has crossed the centuries and touched them all. The Wind Eye is a many-layered book, and it succeeds admirably on ...

The only way to read Robert Westall is to give yourself up to the spell of his storytelling. When his tales are about various kinds of magic, good and bad, that lurk in the everyday world of modern mechanical objects, there is a chance that they have roots deep in the past…. There is no adequate means of summarising the to-and-fro of then-and-now to make the allegory [of The devil on the road] clear, but readers of The watch house and The wind eye will recognise the Bunyanesque quality of this tale&#...

Robert Westall believes that he owes it to his readers (who will probably be twelve or over in the main) to be frank about adult frailty, allowing that children have more charity and fewer illusions than the average junior domestic novel recognises. His book is trenchant and candid and has something of the spontaneous, sardonic humour that is one of the more agreeable traits of the intelligent 'teens. The Wind Eye is not a swipe at orthodoxy nor at the older generation but an adept and adventurous at...

The setting [for The Watch House] is again the north-east coast, again the 'feel' of this part of the country is marvellously well conveyed, and the native character, dialect and turn of phrase are absolutely genuine…. Anne becomes involved in supernatural activities which will chill young spines in no uncertain manner…. Well up to Robert Westall standards, this one. Boys and girls alike will revel in it, and it is a 'must', particularly for Machine-gunners addicts....