Early and unpublished material

Notes, drafts, press cuttings and associated material relating to early and/or unpublished work. The series represents early, journalistic pieces, written for a various publications by Westall and covering a variety of subjects, several of which were published (press cuttings, where retained, are kept with draft material). The series also contains examples of Westall's unpublished fiction; either short stories or potentially longer books and occasionally includes pieces illustrated by Westall. Individual pieces may be fragmentary, partial or complete. Associated correspondence (mostly letters of rejection) is also occasionally kept with draft material. The series includes work dating from Westall's period of national service to later in his career as a writer, although it mainly represents work undertaken during the 1960s and 1970s.

Explanatory notes for various pieces were provided by Lindy McKinnel and Laura Cecil, when the collection was originally loaned to Seven Stories. These have been included in catalogue descriptions where necessary.

Some arrangement and interpretation was provided by Lindy McKinnel and Laura Cecil prior to donation to Seven Stories. Their descriptions of pieces have been included in descriptions where appropriate. The material was originally kept as unsorted bundles with much duplication and little order. Material was divided by type during the sorting and arrangement process into notebooks, preparatory & research material and drafts. Since it has not been possible to consistently date all items, they have been arranged alphabetically by title (where no title given, the first line of text was used, and where this was not appropriate an assumed, descriptive title allocated).