The only way to read Robert Westall is to give yourself up to the spell of his storytelling. When his tales are about various kinds of magic, good and bad, that lurk in the everyday world of modern mechanical objects, there is a chance that they have roots deep in the past…. There is no adequate means of summarising the to-and-fro of then-and-now to make the allegory [of The devil on the road] clear, but readers of The watch house and The wind eye will recognise the Bunyanesque quality of this tale—all modern speech and long-ranging concern for the consequences of intolerance. A challenging read and a novel in the top class. (pp. 165, 168)