Customer Reviews
Long live Lord Gort! - By: G. Munday, 16 Sep 2008 
Lord Gort is a female black cat, growing upin WWII England. She is quite happyin lazingin & around the house of her owner, until the young man disappears to fulfil his duties of war. Reluctantly, she leaves the suddenly deserted home & begins her search for her companion, made possible through psi-tracking: a debatable & paranormal quality that enables cats to find their owners over hundreds of miles. Her journey leads her all over the country, living off of kills, corned beef & housing up with various surprised humans along the way.
The striking quality of `Blitzcat' is that the main character (Lord Gort) is believable, loveable & undeniably an animal, meaning that the author has cleverly portrayed a cat's perspective with what feels like little to no human bias. The cat is the thread that draws the random human characters together & serves as a cunning tool to lure the young reader into learning about the lives of British people during the war.
This read is borderline Year 6 due to the hard content & upsetting turn of events that may be too much for the sensitive pupil. But for a child that is interestedin world events (WWII) & 20th century history, this vivid & real book offers a gateway to the further study of history.
Probably Westall's best, but I'm prepared to discuss!!! - By: The Librarian, 15 Mar 2005 I never tire of recommending Westall to readers (and the parents of readers), he is one of my favourite authors for children, & this is probably his best book - although I can't actually think of a BAD one! One of his best qualities is that he never talks down to his audience. This particular book is probably appropriate for age 11+, as there is a little bit of sexin it, & it does deal with adult emotions of all kinds, but he has written for much younger kids too, & his touch is always sure. Blitzcat gives children the feeling of being trusted with grown-up material, without boring or disturbing them.
The story is toldin episodic form, each encounter that the cat has being a discrete tale, completein itself, but adding up to a deeply satisfying whole.(It would make a great TV series! - Come on, some scriptwriter somewhere!!) Three of Westall's favourite things are ghosts (he writes AMAZINGLY good ghost stories), cats, & the World War II setting, & here he manages to use 2 out of 3!! He explores "psi-trailing", the term given to the way cats have been known to find their owners again after being separated,in some cases by hundreds of miles. Here the cat sets off to look for her "special person", & all along the way she touches the lives of others, from the miserable, lonely housewife, to two farmers trying to rescue their horses from the hell of the firebombing of Coventry, from the scared young men facing nightly anti-aircraft firein their bomber to the doomed UXB squad. It's very exciting, deeply movingin parts, reads aloud brilliantly, & is a children's classic.
Greatest book of all time - By: Steph Norton, 09 May 2004 I really enjoyed this book. It was full of wit, culture & humour. I would reccomend this book to someone who is interestedin WW2.
A wonderful book - By: T. Wilson, 21 Sep 2003 This book is truely unique. Robert Westall has managed to write a book with an animal as it's main characture without resorting to 'cutie-pie' Disneyesque characterization. The cat IS a cat; all the luck (good or bad) that follows her is purely down to human interpretation of events.
It brings to life the horror of Coventry during the blitz, the fearin flying bombers over Germany, & the terror of being shot down. It shows human nature, how peoplein times of hardship have to have an explanation for what's happening. It also gives hope.
The story is simple. Blitzcat (real name Lord Gort, although its a she) looses her owner; he's gone to fly Blenheims. She can sense him, & sets off to find him. She goes from Dover to north Norfolk to Coventry, at one point even gets shot down over Germany & then rescued from Portugal.
This is not just a children's book, Adults will enjoy every single word too.
