He attracted a loyal readership who were absorbed in the stories that he propelled along at such pace.

He claimed to like writing for young adults because they have open minds and within his books he was always provocative, hoping to 'take readers by the scruff of the neck and shake them and scare them and make them think for themselves'.

Before his career as a writer he had taught for almost 30 years and he had an interest in and understanding of young adults. Westall was much more than a recorder of the way things are. I admire the feminist movement very much, and hope it takes over the world, but meanwhile I will write about things the way they are.' Of the accusation Westall said, 'My heroes are macho because I write about the real world, where about 98 per cent of men are macho, in spite of the feminists' best efforts. In the years after Chris's death, Westall's writing continued to be inspired by Chris but the 'macho' elements of his stories, most evident in the Devil on the Road (1979), began to wane. Westall paid direct tribute to Chris in his account of a biker's funeral in The Haunting of Chas McGill (1983). Tragically, Chris was killed in a motorbike accident in 1978. One boy's account of his experiences passed on to another. He was first inspired to write as a result of telling stories about the war to his son, Chris. True, he wrote mostly about boys and his appeal is stronger to male than female readers, but his stories are firmly in the tradition of adventure fiction, dependent on action but not violence.

In the late 1970s Westall was accused of being a macho writer.

The scarecrows by robert westall