busker

Boy A

I shall be found one morning, head bashed in and drawn and quartered on some Amtrak siding rail for my tireless (and, no doubt, tire*some* to many) reminders of the Bulger/Venables/Thompson murder.

I'm *most* impressed by the efficiency with which the baby-biffing duo have been tucked away, eluding both net sleuths and the tabloid reptiles.

OK, I *do* happen to know from moles that a fairly precise file lies with the disgusting News of the World (to whom no decent person would link) but which they can't act on for fear of the law courts.

I'm still puzzled why they haven't done their usual slimey trick of leaking it elsewhere and then printing the carrion.

How Are They Now: I carry around tweaked pics of the baby-faced murderers as they might look today and scrutinize all newcomers on the ferry - so far to no avail, save for the occasional odd look (countered by flashing my "Nautilus Marsec Marshal of the Waves" badge (free with four Weetabix box-tops). That usually does the trick.

I clearly have a bee in my bonnet over tracing these naughty boys because I'm even posting a link about a book that the author specifies is NOT about the Bulger bashing.

I don't care: any excuse to keep the names afloat and my readers on the alert.

Actually, Jonny Trigell's Boy A sounds rather worth mentioning anyway: Début novel about a child murderer returning to the community with a new identity. *And* it's won the Waverton Good Read Award for its ski instructor author now living in the French Alps, lucky bugger.

The interviewer asks:

"I'm presuming that the book is loosely based on the Jamie Bulger case?"

To which the alpine skier responds, "It is very specifically *not* about that case, particularly in relation to the victim.

But it does deliberately mirror some of the things that happened to Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, the two boys who murdered James -although they were eventually released without spending any time in a prison, unlike my character.

The fictional crime occupies the press and public consciousness in the same way as the Bulgers tragedy. But that aside, it is a very different series of events.

I did quite a lot of research on children who murder and on prison, trying to get the feel and language of those chapters right."

Actually, now I type it out, it sounds *exactly* pinned to the Bulger case and I can't see why the author pretends it isn't.

So, I feel perfectly entitled to post it here as a worthy addition to my growing library of tasteless probes and reminders of the case.

Some angst riddden links