Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16637 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Sophie-Ann Leyland (Age 13) in The Historical Novels Review, May 02
...certainly the best war book I have ever read. It describes things very well and has a good story line.

Synopsis
'Some bright kid's got a gun and 2000 rounds of live ammo. And that gun's no peashooter. 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..."...not just the best book so far written for children about the Second World War, but also a metaphor for now." - Aidan Chambers, "Times Literary Supplement".

Customer Reviews

My Favourite Book Of All Time
A book so wonderful that, 30 years on, I can still recall the entire plot, the names of many of the fascinating characters, as well as several of the key scenes (in particular at the canal) seared into my brain forever. Just superb.

Classic
The Machine Gunners has to be the best children's book ever written. The moment you turn the first page you step into Chas McGill's magical world. It's the first year of the Second World War and the people of Garmouth expect an invasion by the Germans to happen any minute. Yet the children of Garmouth fight over who has the best war souvenirs collection. Chas McGill discovers the best find ever...a Browning machine gun still attached to a German Bomber. McGill and his friends now have a fortress and a gun capable of smashing though a brick wall over a mile away. How will it all end?

The Machine Gunners captures everything there is about childhood adventures. The ones we remember and the ones we wished we'd had. Everybody will be able to take something away from this book. And once you have read one Robert Westall book you will go on to read them all. The guy was a genius who understood children like he was still one himself. Hats off to a fantastic writer!

Enthralling
This was one of my favourite books as a child. I read and re-read my copy until the covers fell off, and even after reading it so many times I never failed to be thrilled by the story, excited and tense, even knowing the ending.

Chas McGill is a young boy growing up during the bombing raids of WW2. Like all young boys his age he is fascinated by the planes and plays imaginary war games with his gang. One day Chas discovers an extraordinary thing that turns his games into a reality and not only allows him to 'do his bit', but also makes him question what war is actually all about.

Westall wrote another book about Chas, Fathom Five, and although it is good, this for me will always be Westall's standout book. He also made Chas the subject of short stories, 'The Haunting of Chas McGill', which if you enjoy this, and I can't imagine that you won't, you will surely want to read to know what happens to Chas.

Westall also compiled a fascinating book in collaboration with the Imperial War Museum called 'Children of the Blitz'. He wrote The Machine Gunners mostly using his imagination, but when it became popular found that he was receiving letters from people who had grown up in the war who had had real life experiences like Chas'. Intrigued, he did some more research, and this book is a collection of first hand accounts of such episodes, which is fascinating and highly readable.