- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan; 5 edition (7 May 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0333753119
- ISBN-13: 978-0333753118
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
25,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Historians > Sereny, Gitta
- #85 in Books > Biography > True Crime > Murder
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Product Description
Product Description
Gitta Sereny pieces together the fractured life of Mary Bell, convicted of manslaughter when she was only eleven years old.
Book Description
Renowned journalist and biographer Gitta Sereny covered the Mary Bell case in the 1960s and wrote about it at the time. Mary, then eleven, was charged and subsequently convicted of the manslaughter of two younger boys. Now, following Mary's release on licence, and in collaboration with her, Sereny provides a thought-provoking biography of someone who was considered to have committed an evil crime of unparalleled horror. She brilliantly delves into the mind of this complex and damaged human being and reveals how little was done to investigate Mary's own troubled circumstances. A powerfully disturbing book, it will resonate with all who read it.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
64 of 68 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I, like countless others found the Bell case and the more recent Bulger case totally heinous. I formed the opinion that these 'evil' children deserved to be detained indefinitely, and that Mary never should have been allowed to have a child of her own.
I read this book purely out of curiosity, and I finished the book with a totally different judgement.
The author Gitta Sereny followed the initial case, attended the trial and wrote the book 'The case of Mary bell'. She wrote in a recent publication of her hopes of one day writing Mary's own account of the terrible tot murders in Newcastle in 1968.
Mary finally decided to talk to Gitta Sereny in 1995 and for a year, they collaborated to produce 'Cries Unheard'. At no point in the book does Mary attempt to excuse the terrible crimes she committed. The book concentrates on the painful suffering childhood Mary endured at the hands of her Mother, a prostitute who introduced Mary to the most horrendous kind of child abuse and how the legal system appallingly mismanaged her time in detention.
Gitta Sereny searches for reasons as to why certain children take the leap from being simply 'off the rails' to committing heinous crimes. Contrary to the judges opinion at Bell's trial that she was a monster and born evil, that all children are born good and pure and that childhood influences mainly parental can take a child to breaking point and commit crime.
After reading this book I think you will feel what I now feel towards Mary Bell, utter sadness and pity that social workers or the legal system did not intervene or become aware of Mary's disturbances. The saddest thing of all is that if they had been as vigilant as Gitta Sereny and probed a lot deeper into the reasons behind Mary's actions, the two little boys would have very likely been alive today.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sensitively written, well researched, story of Mary Bell, dubbed a 'child murderer' but clearly presented here as more sinned against than sinning. Her story should be compulsory reading for all who have to handle children in such circumstances, but especially by parents and police, social workers and journalists, and the general public before they rush to pass judgement. One of the best books I have ever read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gitta lifts the lids on life's sewers and jumps into the swirling effluence. Emerging with a fistful of kohinoor diamonds, whether exploring child sexual perversity, Nazism or child killers She appears as a fearless feminine archetype a kindred spirit to Alice Miller.
Gitta never takes the presentation of the world for reality. The baying for blood, the mass hysteria, the pronounced sentence, it's all part of a charade. This is all too easy for her as the lessons why these forms of behaviour appeared never become learnt and history repeats, repeats, repeats ad nauseum. Her careful archeological sifting of the evidence provokes strange reactions, from the bystander. The most common is that she is justifying monsters. Understanding why these people emerge creates a range of psychological projections and ripples. Some people wish those broom cupboards of the dark imagination to be carefully locked, sealed and forgotten. Gitta is all for take a firemans' axe and battering down the doors, then drawing the curtains to let in the light. The question is why do these people shirk away from the reality and want to condemn without asking why? What are they hiding?
In this book Gitta takes on the world. Mary Bell, as the Bulger killers, was sentenced by the media well before the judge pronounced. Grown adults were shouting abuse at a child and banging on her prison van with pounding fury. No one came to her emotional rescue, remaining more conmdemned than the series of adults; fathers and mothers who murdered their children in gruesome tortures. Child killers are the bete noire of society, their whipping boys and girls.
Gitta's book is a page turning expose of Mary's life. She investigates the impact of her mother's behaviour on her inability to inculcate empathy and the tragic consequences. This was the desire to revenge her own abuse, transplant it onto others, a physical substitute revenge. Mary chose to re-enact, most other young people internalise their grief and transform it into self medication. Mary differs from other children in her externalisation through murder inflicting her misery onto other families. This transfere her grief in a rippling effect of misery.
This is a singular lesson for all of the "caring" professions who made, and still make huge blunders, based on their inability to understand children's worlds. I would posit, from experience and immersion, this is because they have emotionally shut down their own worlds and do not have basic empathy. They cannot understand others as they do not understand themselves.
Gitta's gift is to make those who wish to run away from themselves make the confrontation through the alchemy of Mary Bell's story.
This is a particularly acute problem still in social services, mental health, substance abuse, counselling, psychology (drive theory) and everyday common sense parlance.
Gitta ascended the Everest of despair and Mary appears human all too human.
Gitta never takes the presentation of the world for reality. The baying for blood, the mass hysteria, the pronounced sentence, it's all part of a charade. This is all too easy for her as the lessons why these forms of behaviour appeared never become learnt and history repeats, repeats, repeats ad nauseum. Her careful archeological sifting of the evidence provokes strange reactions, from the bystander. The most common is that she is justifying monsters. Understanding why these people emerge creates a range of psychological projections and ripples. Some people wish those broom cupboards of the dark imagination to be carefully locked, sealed and forgotten. Gitta is all for take a firemans' axe and battering down the doors, then drawing the curtains to let in the light. The question is why do these people shirk away from the reality and want to condemn without asking why? What are they hiding?
In this book Gitta takes on the world. Mary Bell, as the Bulger killers, was sentenced by the media well before the judge pronounced. Grown adults were shouting abuse at a child and banging on her prison van with pounding fury. No one came to her emotional rescue, remaining more conmdemned than the series of adults; fathers and mothers who murdered their children in gruesome tortures. Child killers are the bete noire of society, their whipping boys and girls.
Gitta's book is a page turning expose of Mary's life. She investigates the impact of her mother's behaviour on her inability to inculcate empathy and the tragic consequences. This was the desire to revenge her own abuse, transplant it onto others, a physical substitute revenge. Mary chose to re-enact, most other young people internalise their grief and transform it into self medication. Mary differs from other children in her externalisation through murder inflicting her misery onto other families. This transfere her grief in a rippling effect of misery.
This is a singular lesson for all of the "caring" professions who made, and still make huge blunders, based on their inability to understand children's worlds. I would posit, from experience and immersion, this is because they have emotionally shut down their own worlds and do not have basic empathy. They cannot understand others as they do not understand themselves.
Gitta's gift is to make those who wish to run away from themselves make the confrontation through the alchemy of Mary Bell's story.
This is a particularly acute problem still in social services, mental health, substance abuse, counselling, psychology (drive theory) and everyday common sense parlance.
Gitta ascended the Everest of despair and Mary appears human all too human.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Cries unheard
I found this book to be very slow reading. I gave up half way through. Too much court room jargon. You need to have a degree in literature to reed it.
Published 9 months ago by shazzer
Very, very good
This story is very good and very compelling. I wish I was able to get in touch with Mary and tell her how sorry I am for the life she has led. Read more
Published 21 months ago by M. Taylor
Brilliant!
I knew very little about the Mary Bell case until I read this book and what an eye opener it is, I really couldn't put it down. Read more
Published on 9 Jun 2008 by ReviewBlog51
I wanted someone to be there for mary bell..
which may put me in the minority, but the thought of an eleven year old girl standing trial for murder - alone - disturbed me. Read more
Published on 15 April 2008 by Leeds lass
Disturbing, Inside the mind of a child who kills
Mary Bell was an eleven year old child living in a poor district of Newcastle, when instead of playing with her dolls one day, decided to play with peoples lives. Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2007 by KEN SCOTT author
Mary Bell's real father
Excellent book for many reasons. No matter what one's opinion is of Mary Bell, her sentence, her receiving money for the book, etc. Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2007 by C. Palmer
Disturbing... how could it happen
Mary Bell was an eleven year old child living in a poor district of Newcastle, when instead of playing with her dolls one day, decided to play with peoples lives. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2007 by James Parker -Rothchilds
The story the public doesn't want to know...
I had to critically review this book for my degree. This was no chore. The book is open and incredibly honest. Read more
Published on 1 May 2003
Praise to Gitta Sereny
A thought provoking biography of what at the time was considered to be an evil crime of unparalleled horror. Read more
Published on 6 April 2003 by Francis Seamus Smith
A lesson to us all about how to reduce crime.
The furore that surrounded the publication of this book must have in part be due to the fact that it is likely to be used as salacious entertainment by the sort of sick people who... Read more
Published on 6 Nov 1999
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