The crime was a tragedy. James’ death should never have happened. The crime was also a tragedy for the two boys involved and their families. This story is heartbreaking and I feel the bulger family had no voice in this book I pray that what is now 30 years since their beautiful baby was taken they have some sense of peace. Which would be hard to get knowing that the state has provided nothing but opportunities money and resources at Robert Thompson and Jon venables their life’s after the murder of James got better they were provided with new names and spent only eight years in what can only be described as orphanage not one day spent in jail for the murder of James bulger. The facts are very easily stated. One day a mother and her friend went shopping in a big mall in Bootle, Merseyside. She took her almost three year old along. He was toddling around the shops with her. She was buying meat for the Sunday roast and when she looked round, he was gone. He was there one minute, playing at the shop entrance, and gone the next. That was the last she saw of him. Two ten year old boys, truanting from school, had led him away from the shop, away from his mother, and away from the shopping mall. Here’s the famous CCTV image, discovered by the police some hours later. James and his family are lost in this tale that focuses mainly on the 10 year old murderers, Venables and Thompson.

Smith writes, ‘Such limited research as exists in this area suggests that most young people who commit serious crimes – murder, manslaughter, rape, arson – have one thing in common. They have been abused physically or sexually, or both, and emotionally, in childhood. Not all young people who commit serious crimes have been abused. And not all young people who have been abused commit serious crimes. But the pattern is there.’ Largely this book is a recollection of events from the day that two year old James Bulger was abducted and killed by two ten year olds, Jon Venables and Bobby Thompson, starting with the two older boys 'sagging' school and ending with them returning home in the evening, their crime undetected. Details of the discovery of James, the investigation and the trial follow. These details will be familiar to anyone who has seen media coverage of the case. None of that was happening to Jon Venables and Bobby Thompson, the two truanting ten year olds. They were little kids, and they decided to murder a littler kid. Might it have been some kind of crazy adventure (let’s play kidnap) gone wrong? Doesn’t look like that – why not just abandon the kid next to the police station? The two year old didn’t know their names, he couldn’t have said who they were so they wouldn’t have got in trouble. So did they really mean to kill him? If so, where did that horror come from? That’s what we all wanted to know. I have always known Nelson Mandela as a man who has accomplished more than would seem possible for one person to do, and he definitely is one of the most important people of all time, but it's nice to see his "human" side as well -- that he actually has flaws and faults. He gives a very detailed explanation of events of that day, unfortunately this explanation cant follow the boys too closely once they reach the railway line as, in their interviews, both Venables and Thompson vacillated, blaming each other, offering alternative narratives and, sadly a thorough picture of what occurred has ever been gained.In his new book Let Us Prey, available on Audible, crime writer David James Smith journeys into his dark mind and the diary entries where he fantasised about smothering the entire neighbourhood. This book was first published in 1994 and was updated in 2011. Two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, had killed two-year-old, James Bulger, in February 1993. It was the most horrific and evil killing. It is immediately obvious, from the Preface, that the author is looking at why the two boys did what they did. What would make two 10-year-old boys do something like this? There must be a reason other than being just pure evil. This is not sensationalist tabloid fodder. He says ‘…Venables had seemed to me to be the more disturbed of the pair’. The teachers said that Robert was ‘…the dominant one in the friendship, and though he was quiet and seldom a problem in class…’ They carried on to say that he ‘was cunning and a liar’. It came down to the simple fact that I have heard about James Bulger all my life as a fear mongering tactic to stay close when out with my own parents. I didn't know enough about the crime even though I've grown up listening to this tragedy, besides the heartbreak of the crime reading this book allowed me to know the real facts, not the rumours I had been led to believe were true about certain parts of this case. Jon Venables leads James Bulger, aged 2 and 11 months, away. His friend Bobby Thompson is just in front of the two.) I think Smith should have made more mention of the fact that there were two perpetrators, this is known to be a strong disinhibitor and I imagine that, for two children giving each other encouragement and normalising each step of this crime, this would have been a powerful factor. I think this area should have had more coverage.

Typos aside, I also took issue with some grammatical issues. That is probably only a personal issue, though. The story of Nelson Mandela as a young man is fascinating. Most of us have a vision of him later in his life, after finally being released from prison, after becoming president of South Africa. This book is the story of his younger life, his burgeoning political life, his change from a non-violent approach to militancy. The book ends around the time he was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was interesting to read about the different factions, about the role of communism in the uprisings, and racism on both sides of the fence, about political infighting. As far as personal information about Mandela, I don't know that I would have liked him very much if I had been part of his family. He withheld so much from them, and could, it seems, be quite emotionally distant and even cruel. There was a short reference to a criminal act by his wife Winnie, and I would have liked to know more about that. Incapable of ordinary human emotions such as empathy, he observed those qualities in others and copied them for himself. He was all a pretence. Fantasises about 'suffocating neighbours' in twisted diaries It's harrowing and not an easy read at all. There are many moments I had to stop reading and literally take a walk, cuddle my cat or just take a breather. Its not that I'm naive to the abhorrent crimes of human beings at all - it was just simply awful to take in, it puts a heartbreaking image in your mind of a helpless 2 year old boy crying for his mum whilst reading. I can't possibly begin to imagine what any parent would feel reading this, or james's parents who lived this nightmare.I think it’s valuable to meditate on the moments when the situation turns from something ordinary to something murderous – the months before the Rwandan massacres, the balmy years before 1939, the two hour walk of Jon, Bobby and James. David James Smith presents a well-researched and fascinating account of the events leading up to the trial, as well as creating a picture of Edwardian Britain that brings the story to life in great detail. I had read a book about the case many years ago, but this author highlights information that has only come to light recently, leaving no doubt that, despite the Doctor’s mild-mannered appearance, it’s likely he did kill his wife for the love of another woman. Another thing, I felt like the book focused a lot on the truanting, now I don't know if this was because they were truanting the day of the killing but it started to feel like this was being used as an excuse at one point. Robert was brought up by a single mother, Robert's mother was an alcoholic, Robert truants from school, this is why he's done this. It was exhausting!

The horrific murder of James bulger is one of those events that stands out in human history and author is wrong when he states there is no such thing as evil people the darkness that exists in this world was strong the day these too no doubt budding psychopaths met each other. The inhumanity these two monsters showed to James bulger is the definition of evil and can’t be explained away by a subpar childhood. They were put on trial, found guilty, and became Britain’s youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century (the youngest for 300 years). David has a close interest in criminal justice and served five years (2013-2018) as a Commissioner at The Criminal Cases Review Commission, appointed by HM The Queen to oversee investigations into miscarriages of justice. He was a local newspaper reporter and wrote for the monthly magazine Esquire before joining The Sunday Times Magazine, for whom he travelled around the world writing cover stories, investigative articles, reportage and profiles. It was an article for the Magazine that led to his second book, ALL ABOUT JILL: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JILL DANDO, which was published by Little Brown in 2002. Barry George was convicted and later acquitted of the infamous 1999 shooting of the television presenter on the doorstep of her London home. He almost certainly gently suffocated Peter at the moment of his death in October 2015 after first priming him with drugs and alcohol.

2012 Orwell Prize

He wrote that he fantasised about hitting Peter with a hammer, which led to a darkly comic exchange in court.