The Machine Gunners

"The Machine Gunners" is a book by Robert Westall (1929-1993) that was adapted by the BBC into a British television serial in 1983. It was awarded the Carnegie Medal for 1975, and in 2007 it was selected by judges of the Carnegie Medal as one of the ten most important children's novels of the past 70 years.

The series is set during the Second World War and deals with a group of children living in the North East of England in a tow

n called Garmouth regularly suffering from bomb attacks by the German forces. One of the children raids a German aircraft that has crash-landed in the area and steals a fully operational machine gun, intending to set up their own fortress. In time, the gang also befriend a German pilot who is shot down. The book explores the impact on the community of living under war conditions, and importantly probes the deep effects on the children of that community. Their play reflects the terrors, paranoias and anxieties which were part of 1940s Britain.

Adaptation

The book was adapted in ten episodes for BBC Radio 4 by the writer, Ivan Jones in 2002.

A sequel, "Fathom Five", was published in 1979.

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