Robert Westall

Experience the drama and the danger of living through the Second World War with the children in these short stories.

She made her way down the cliff, and on to the beach. At the edge of the waves, she stopped, shaking her wet paws. She knew that somewhere ahead was her person, but far, far away. She miaowed plaintively; stood staring at the moving blur of uncrossable sea.

She led the way to safety, out of the blazing hell of blitzed Coventry. People touched her for luck; feared her as an omen of disaster. Wherever she went, she changed lives...

From her beginning to her end she never wavered.

She was the Blitzcat.

The quest to find the legendary Seroster, guardian of the cities' great golden cats, leads Cam to unimagined perils.

A thrilling Christmas ghost story set in Tyneside in 1930.

Robbie, growing up in England during World War 2, is a hugely fat boy and the butt of taunts and jokes. Later the fat turns to muscle and he becomes the star of the school rugby team. Emma Harris, one of the teachers, begins to notice him and she and Robbie begin a flirtation that turns into a passionate affair.

Shortly after the beginning of the Gulf War, Figgis (Andy) starts talking in his sleep in a strange language that his brother Tom doesn't understand, and calling himself "Latif". "Latif" gradually starts to take Figgis over - and Tom realises that Figgis has somehow become a boy in the Gulf.

After his parents are killed in World War 2, 12 year-old Harry and his dog set off on an incredible journey.

Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth, and he desperately wants it to be the best. When he stumbles across the remains of a German bomber crashed in the woods - its shiny, black machine-gun still intact - he grabs his chance. Soon he's masterminding his own war effort with dangerous and unexpected results...

Simon is outraged that his Mum plans to remarry. He can't bear her new fiancé or the way his mother and sister seem to have forgotten his late father. Overwhelmed by hatred and anger he seeks solace in a nearby abandoned water mill. But another, powerful hatred lingers within its walls. And it is about to be unleashed...

Two stories of the supernatural, in the first, evil is leaking from the stones of Muncaster cathedral as a dark presence re-awakens. In 'Brangwyn Gardens', Harry Shaftoe's lodgings hide a sinister secret that he is now obsessed by.

When Anne is sent to stay with her old Nanny, Prudie, in Garmouth she is lonely, bored and unhappy. Fascinated by the old Watch House, she gradually believes that she is being followed by someone or something from the building.

Sally is lured from her bed and into the night by a vision of St Cuthbert. Mike knows the only way to get her back is by using the boat which is controlled by the awful power of the Wind-Eye.

When Yaxley's cat returns to his cottage to find his missing master, the villagers fear that a secret will come to light.