Savage Girls and Wild Boys

Description

This is an account of feral children - those brought up with no human contact, sometimes raised by wild animals, unable to speak or perform many of the functions we consider human. The cases discussed include those of Kamala and Amala, twin girls reputed to have been brought up by wolves in India in the 1920s; Genie, a girl kept in a single room in New York; a boy raised in a hen house in Northern Ireland; and a boy found among wild dogs in Moscow. The book examines their lives and the experiences of those who "rescued" them, looked after them, educated them or abused them.

Michael Newton grew up in Brighton, wanting from the age of six to be a writer.On graduating, he started a PhD on ghost stories at University College, London, but really spent his time writing 'bad' plays and novels. When his grant ran out, he went to Harvard for a year as a Visiting Research Fellow.He discovered the subject of his first book, Savage Girls and Wild Boys, by accident and he felt that the stories and the children themselves resonated in him.He has worked in various jobs, including tour guide, clerk, theatre reviewer, and above all, freelance lecturer - at one point, teaching in five institutions at once. In the last four years, he has taught part-time at University College, London, Central St Martin's College of Art and Princeton University in London. He has also written for the Times Literary Supplement.

'The stories Newton has to tell are spellbinding.' Mail on Sunday 'A collection of six, extraordinary individual histories, beautifully navigated.' Evening Standard