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Break of Dark
A chilling and utterly absorbing short story collection.
Hitchhiker
Blackham's Wimpy
Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou
St. Austin Friars
Sergeant Nice
Hitchhiker
Blackham's Wimpy
Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou
St. Austin Friars
Sergeant Nice
244 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1982
4 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Robert Westall
122 books110 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.
His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille.
From: http://www.robertwestall.com/
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.
His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille.
From: http://www.robertwestall.com/
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
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May 31, 2025PLACEHOLDER REVIEW:
"Blackham’s Wimpey" takes place during WWII, with the radio operator and crew of a bomber (a "wimpey" in the popular parlance) experiencing another bomber shooting down a Nazi fighter, only to then have that other bomber seemingly drive crazy any crew that flies it. And, of course, as crews diminish, they get called to man the cursed bomber... Exceedingly well done, with a really authentic voice and peppered throughout with jargon of the time, this is a longish short story (or a short novella) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
"Blackham’s Wimpey" takes place during WWII, with the radio operator and crew of a bomber (a "wimpey" in the popular parlance) experiencing another bomber shooting down a Nazi fighter, only to then have that other bomber seemingly drive crazy any crew that flies it. And, of course, as crews diminish, they get called to man the cursed bomber... Exceedingly well done, with a really authentic voice and peppered throughout with jargon of the time, this is a longish short story (or a short novella) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
May 17, 2021
I have not read any of Robert Westall's non-supernatural fiction, so my judgments are based solely on enjoying the collections Antique Dust (1989), Spectral Shadows (2016), The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral (1991), and now Break of Dark (1982).
At his best, Westall is a superb writer. A novel like The Wheatstone Pond (1993) is unmatched in richness in an era known for excellent and unique UK voices: Bernard Taylor and John Blackburn, among others. Westall has a real strength in conveying uncanny locations, whether urban or rural. "Yaxley's Cat" (1991), for instance, is a strong evocation of rural wrongness and hidden crime; Westall's sure hand at pace and structure makes it a pleasure for the reader to assemble his puzzle. That he does it in under a hundred pages is stunning.
First person narrators are another strength of Westall's craft. Jeff Morgan, the worldly, successful antique dealer of The Wheatstone Pond (1993), completely sane and cosmopolitan at the start, slowly finds himself degenerating into a half-maddened vigilante as the pond reveals its horrors.
I would hesitate to term all the tales in Break of Dark (1982) supernatural stories. Weird, yes. Uncanny, definitely.
Full: http://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2021...
At his best, Westall is a superb writer. A novel like The Wheatstone Pond (1993) is unmatched in richness in an era known for excellent and unique UK voices: Bernard Taylor and John Blackburn, among others. Westall has a real strength in conveying uncanny locations, whether urban or rural. "Yaxley's Cat" (1991), for instance, is a strong evocation of rural wrongness and hidden crime; Westall's sure hand at pace and structure makes it a pleasure for the reader to assemble his puzzle. That he does it in under a hundred pages is stunning.
First person narrators are another strength of Westall's craft. Jeff Morgan, the worldly, successful antique dealer of The Wheatstone Pond (1993), completely sane and cosmopolitan at the start, slowly finds himself degenerating into a half-maddened vigilante as the pond reveals its horrors.
I would hesitate to term all the tales in Break of Dark (1982) supernatural stories. Weird, yes. Uncanny, definitely.
Full: http://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2021...
March 18, 2013
Excellent book of varied short stories. "Hitchhiker", about a seductive female alien, and "Blackham's Wimpey", about a haunted World War II plane, are classics in my opinion.
May 24, 2020
Don't read this in the dark. Not even kidding.
Effin' scary.
Effin' scary.
July 8, 2013
Break of Dark by Robert Westall consists of five short stories, all with a mixture of sinister and supernatural themes. They are easy reading, but all are expertly constructed and have well balanced plot and characterisation. My favourite is Hitch-hiker which manages to bring a different take to the unknown stranger hitching a lift in a remote locale theme, but who turns out to be something far more sinister. In Blackham's Wimpey Westall perfectly recreates the atmosphere at an isolated RAF base during the height of Britain's bombing raids on Germany during WW II. But this is no ordinary war story, as one particular plane seems to take on a life of its own...
I hadn't heard of Westall prior to stumbling across this book at a charity sale, but I am glad I did. Creepy and original.
© Koplowitz 2013
I hadn't heard of Westall prior to stumbling across this book at a charity sale, but I am glad I did. Creepy and original.
© Koplowitz 2013
June 30, 2014
A fantastic collection of eerie and weird tales, the best of which is by far the WWII story 'Blackham's Wimpey' which not only offers an fascinating insight into the lives and superstitions of bomber crews, who went into every day knowing it could be their last, but adds a genuinely chilling supernatural element. If you like Robert Aickman there's a good chance you'll like this too.
October 23, 2018
Yet another classic collection from Westall, this time with two stories veering into John Wyndham territory. Particularly enjoyable was "Sergeant Nice", a bonkers tale of alien abductions/theft in a small seaside community.
January 9, 2015
Effectively creepy ghost stories, with rather more sex than M. R. James would have approved. "Blackham's Wimpey" is seriously good.
March 1, 2021
Excellent collection of stories
July 30, 2020
3.25/5
July 26, 2022
Not particularly well written and not scary.
December 31, 2023
Aickmanesque, though sometimes a little too rambling.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews