The Machine Gunners.

London: Macmillan Ltd,, 1975. First edition, first impression, of this Carnegie Medal winner. Named one of the top ten Medal-winning works for the 70th anniversary celebration in 2007, this work, with "its desire to reflect working-class life authentically, and in its concern with questions of of children's agency, access to space, and community" marked a progressive move in children's literature (Pearson). Though well-represented institutionally, it is uncommon in commerce. Pearson notes that "a growing emphasis on the cultural needs of working-class and other underprivileged groups had been evident in the Newsom Report (1963) which had addressed the issue of education for 'pupils aged 13 to 16 of average and less than average ability', taking the view that 'each is an individual whose spirit needs education as much as his body needs nourishment'. This emphasis on children's rights movement continued into 1970s, with the Other Award launched in 1975, 'to celebrate books which offered 'a wider and more accurate representation of human experience and situations'. These developments were not confined to specialist publishing, but were increasingly present in the literary mainstream: the same year that the Other Award was established, the winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal was Robert Westall's The Machine Gunners (1975). The Machine Gunners, which was published by the main children's imprint at Macmillan, depicts working-class children who not only speak in dialect and swear, but whose "bad behavior" extends to concealing both a machine gun and a German pilot". It was dramatised as a BBC television series in 1983; adapted as a drama for BBC Radio 4 in 2002; and a stage version was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum and performed in 2011. Octavo. Original black boards, title to spine in silver. With dust jacket. A bright, square copy, light foxing to edges, contents clean. A very good copy, in price-clipped jacket, spine sunned, extremities lightly rubbed, minor creasing and couple of short closed tears to top edge. Lucy Pearson, "The Right to Read: Children's Rights and Children's Publishing in Britain", Strenæ, article online.