The Machine Gunners

Robert Westall's gripping Carnegie Medal-winning novel celebrates its 40th anniversary

"Some bright kid's got a gun and 2000 rounds of live ammo. And that gun's no pea-shooter. It'll go through a brick wall at a quarter of a mile."

Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth, and he desperately wants it to be the best. When he stumbles across the remains of a German bomber crashed in the woods—its shiny, black machine-gun still intact—he grabs his chance. Soon he's masterminding his own war effort with dangerous and unexpected results. Robert Westall's first novel for children is presented here with a bonus short story, "The Haunting of Chas McGill," and an extended biography of the author.