Friday, February 12 1993. Two outwardly unremarkable ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, began their day playing truant and ended it running an errand for a local video shop. In between they abducted and killed the toddler James Bulger. The Sleep of Reason is the harrowing, sensitive, definitive account of this terrible crime and its consequences. In a new Preface (which considers the re-arrest of Jon Venables in February 2010) David James Smith writes: 'It is as true now as it was then that the murder has never really been explained and the motive for the crime remains a mystery. This book, the result of considerable research and a painstaking, sometimes distressing assembly of the facts, was my attempt to offer some insight and understanding.' 'Surprisingly evocative, even moving . immensely valuable.' - The Times 'Dramatic and disturbing.' - Anita Brookner, Observer 'Compelling and compassionate.' - Times Educational Supplement

Author Biography

David James Smith was born in south London and has been a journalist all his working life. His definitive account of the James Bulger case, The Sleep of Reason, was first published in 1994 and then in an updated edition by Faber Finds in 2011. David wrote for Esquire before joining the Sunday Times Magazine, for whom he has travelled around the world writing cover stories, investigative articles, reportage and profiles. An article for the Magazine led to his second book, All About Jill: The Life and Death of Jill Dando (2002). The acclaimed Supper with the Crippens followed in 2005, then came One Morning in Sarajevo - 28 June 1914 (2008), a reconstruction of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. His most recent book is Young Mandela (2010).