Robert Westall's gripping first novel for children set during World War Two and winner of the Carnegie Medal. Now with a brilliant new cover look and celebrating its fortieth anniversary. Some bright kid's got a gun and 2000 rounds of live ammo. And that gun's no pea-shooter. It'll go through a brick wall at a quarter of a mile. 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 .

Robert Westall's gripping first novel for children set during World War Two and winner of the Carnegie Medal. Now with a brilliant new cover look and celebrating its fortieth anniversary. Includes a bonus short story -- "The Haunting of Chas McGill" -- and an extended biography of the author.