About This Project

On
3 May 1941 a public shelter in the basement of Wilkinson’s lemonade
factory, North Shields, was destroyed by a direct hit from a single
German bomb. 103 people died, the worst wartime incident in the North
of England. One of the rescue party was the father of young Robert Westall.

By the 1970’s Robert had become a best-selling children’s author and
many of his books are inspired by his wartime experiences.

This multi-media
project is the result of a successful bid to the DFEE Museums and Galleries
Education Programme. We seek to encourage cooperation between history
and English departments in years 7-9 and to support the implementation
of the literacy strategy at Key Stage 3.

This is achieved
by the analysis of fiction and non-fiction texts, linking Westall’s
exciting novel The Machine Gunners with supporting archival
material from the Home Front. An exciting additional aspect is provided
by the recollections of over a dozen survivors and relatives of casualties.
Westall’s War is radical in the presentation of education materials
in printed and ITC formats.