Seven Stories - The Centre For Children's Books

Seven Stories is proud to present Westall's Kingdom - A Writer's Life, celebrating the work of Tyneside-born author Robert Westall (1929-1993). Opening 20 October.

Westall is perhaps best known for The Machine Gunners which sprang from a wish 'to share childhoods' with his twelve year old son Christopher.

Visitors can discover the North East's regional heritage with manuscripts and artwork from The Wind Eye and The Kingdom by The Sea. Find out what it was like to grow up on Tyneside during World War II by exploring the secret den from The Machine-Gunners, equipped with a real machine gun and period comics. Be spooked by ghostly stories and scary skulls in the supernatural section and encounter original artwork for Westall's younger stories by Sophy Williams, William Geldart and Tony Ross.

Further information

Robert Westall grew up in North Shields on the banks of the River Tyne and set many of his books in the places that we know and love today - Tynemouth, the Northumbrian Coast and the Farne Islands. His writing for children captures the essence of the North East, breathing new imaginative life into our regional history, buildings, landmarks and speech.

Westall's Kingdom has been curated by Seven Stories working in collaboration with Robert Westall's partner, Lindy McKinnel, who says: "It seems to me eminently suitable that Robert Westall's life, having started in 1929 in North Shields, should come full circle and that he be commemorated in the Seven Stories' Robert Westall Gallery, not ten miles away from his birthplace,."

Mary Briggs, Chief Executive says: "We are delighted about the fact that not only is Westall's Kingdom - A Writers Life, a powerful and exhilarating exhibition, but it is the first exhibition at Seven Stories that is based entirely on the work of our collection."

Who knows, this stimulating exhibition may bring out the storyteller in you.

Click here to download an information pack (Word .Doc).