Return to Westall...

Just to let you know what's been happening in the past few weeks.

I had a lovely phone conversation this afternoon with Lindy McKinnel, the partner of the late, great Robert Westall.

I first spoke to her three years ago for a magazine article I was writing about the publication of The Making of Me, a collection of autobiographical writings by Westall.

(For fans of the author of The Machine-Gunners, Blitzcat and The Scarecrows, this book is an absolute must. You can see scans of the article I wrote if you look back in the Bookengine archives.)

I always felt I'd only scratched the surface in my conversation with Mrs McKinnel, so when I began the Bookengine blog I resolved to call her to see if she would grant me a longer interview. I was particularly keen to ask her about Westall's approach to the craft of writing.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I'm going to visit her in Lymm where she lives (still in the house she shared with the double-Carnegie Medal-winning author) in the next week or so. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, I've also been sent a book to review by Macmillan (coincidentally, Robert Westall's publisher). The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell is an adult novel with young adult crossover appeal, I'm assured by the publisher. I'm about to start reading it, so - again - look out for a post about that in the future.

That's it for now.