Hayao Miyazaki and Robert Westall

I have been doing a little online research into the life and works of Robert Westall, one of the most successful and accomplished ghost story writers (in English, anyway) of the late 20th century. Imagine my surprise when I found a link to the founder of Japan's famous Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki, often considered to be on the truly great creative minds of our time, was a huge Westall fan. So much so, in fact, that he wrote a manga (Japanese comic for adults), about Westall's stories and his own response to them.

Entitled A Trip to Tynemouth. the manga was obviously inspired by 'Blackham's Wimpy', a World War 2  ghost story from the collection Break of Dark. You can see an entry on the Ghibli blog here, which shows some pages from this remarkable work. Here is an extract from the blog.

Miyazaki discovered in 1990 a short story by the British author Robert Westall “Blackham’s Wimpy” when it was reprinted in Japanese. He was already familiar with Westall’s work but upon reading found that this story was about the war, and more importantly airplanes! Miyazaki loved the book and in 2006 he chose it as the basis for his latest manga novel (...) 

In the manga Miyazaki, drawn as a pig, visits Tynemouth in an attempt to meet Robert Westall, drawn as a terrier, and gets to have a conversation with him over a pint of beer and a walk along Tynemouth Longstands beach.

All rather wonderful. And proof, I think, that the British ghost story tradition has a wider influence than one might expect.