Ghosts and Journeys

by Robert Westall, Sophy Williams (Illustrator)

A collection of short stories from an author who has won the Carnegie medal on two occaisions - the first time with "The Machine-Gunners" in 1975. In this collection he writes about journeys that are both physical and psychological.

Genres: Short Stories, Ghost Stories, Horror

168 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1992

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.

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.

From: http://www.robertwestall.com/

Reviews

[Isidore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inventiveness, clarity, and an absence of mannerisms and stylistic pretension are characteristic of Westall's work, and these stories are no exception. This particular collection comes across as a bit of a grab-bag, however. The stories are all good, but they don't really have much to do with each other. Two, which are set in girls' schools, might justify the 'YA' label which has always hindered wider appreciation of Westall's talent; on the other hand, there are others which are unlikely to mean very much to anyone who has not experienced the disillusionments of middle age.

All are supernatural fiction save "The Girl Who Couldn't Say No", a completely charming and warm-hearted story which is both gentle social satire and a fairy tale.

The two standout weird tales are both afterlife fantasies. "The Bus" is harrowing: it sympathetically depicts social alienation and the accompanying impulse to swap the horrors of the present for the more comfortable horrors of the past; nostalgia is both evoked and subverted. This story should have won awards. "Journey" is perhaps excessively didactic (Westall was not particularly shy about his Christianity), but the sheer strangeness of its vision of the afterlife compels admiration.

"The Borgia Mirror" and "Rosalie" are good weird tales, but break no new ground. "The Boys' Toilets" is a curiosity. I found myself wondering if Westall wrote it as a joke, or on a bet, although there is no trace of obvious humour in it. But, really, an M.R. James tale set in a lavatory? In which the ghost does not assemble itself out of crumpled linen, but from unrolled spools of toilet paper?

[Mr Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was a good gap filer of a book. Wouldn’t read it again but some okay short stories.

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se l'avessi letto quando l'ho comprato (seconda media) mi sarebbe piaciuto, a parte il secondo racconto, quel tedio non è sopportabile a nessuna età

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this quite a lot when I was younger. Still a quick and fun read. Spooky and fantastic stories of wonder and ghosts.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd never read any of the stories in this collection before, and while none of them were classics most were very solid. There were three weird/ghostly stories, one without a speculative element, and two "afterlife" stories that I didn't care for as much. Still, though, a good read.

My copy didn't have the plague doctor mask cover, though.