The Case Of Mary Bell by Gitta Sereny - ISBN: 9780712662970
Paperback
In December 1968 two girls who lived next door to each other - Mary, aged eleven, and Norma, thirteen - stood before a criminal court in Newcastle, accused of strangling two little boys;

The Case Of Mary Bell

A Portrait of a Child Who Murdered

$32.77

  • Paperback

    352 pages

  • Release Date

    15 February 1995

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Summary

What kind of child murders another child? First published in 1972, The Case of Mary Bell still stirs controversy today and is a work of extraordinary and compassionate journalism.In December 1968 two girls who lived next door to each other - Mary, aged eleven, and Norma, thirteen - stood before a criminal court in Newcastle, accused of strangling two little boys; Martin Brown, four years old, and Brian Howe, three.Norma was acquitted. Mary Bell, the younger but infinitely more sophisticated …

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780712662970
ISBN-10:0712662979
Author:Gitta Sereny
Publisher:Vintage
Imprint:Pimlico
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:352
Release Date:15 February 1995
Weight:352g
Dimensions:214mm x 135mm x 26mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Gitta Sereny has worked with disturbed children, and her dignified, compassionate book is a mile away from the usual tawdry accounts of sensational murder trials… The story of Mary Bell in all its terrifying detail is told here with fine lucidity, joined to remarkable charity and understanding. – Julian Symons * Washington Post *
Accurate and scrupulously fair – T.C.N. Gibbons * New Society *
Gitta Sereny’s clear and readable book will help many people to make sense of the story… She also draws out the lessons to be learned both by professional workers, and by society at large. – W.H. Allchin * Mind *

About The Author

Gitta Sereny

Gitta Sereny is of Hungarian-Austrian extraction and is trilingual in English, French and German. During the Second World War she became a social worker, caring for war-damaged children in France. She gave hundreds of lectures in schools and colleges in America and, when the war ended, she worked as a Child Welfare Officer in UNRRA displaced persons’ camps in Germany. In 1949 she married the American Vogue photographer Don Honeyman and settled in London, where they brought up a son and a daughter and where she began her career as a journalist.Her journalistic work was of great variety but focussed particularly on the Third Reich and troubled children. She wrote mainly for the Daily Telegraph Magazine, the Sunday Times, The Times, the Independent and the Independent on Sunday Review. She also contributed to numerous newspapers and magazines around the world.Her books include- The Medallion, a novel; The Invisible Children, on child prostitution; Into That Darkness; and a biographical examination of Albert Speer. Gitta Sereny died in June 2012.

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