Best-known for his Children's and Young Adult fiction, Robert Atkinson Westall was born in 1929 in North Shields and grew up on Tyneside during the Second World War. He held a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from Durham University and a post-graduate degree in Sculpture from the Slade School of Art in London. After spending two years in the British Army he went on to teach Art and write for various publications, including being an art critic for the Guardian newspaper.