I spoke to David James Smith about his book The Sleep of Reason, which is about the murder of James Bulger.

David is a tremendous journalist who has written features for places like The Sunday Times Magazine and Esquire. We talked about his early career in journalism and how he came to be commissioned to write a book about the murder of James Bulger weeks after it happened.

We spoke about the ethics of the book and how he wrote it, including ingratiating himself with the solicitor of one of the murderers, getting to know police and attending the trial.

You can buy the book here:

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-sleep-of-reason-the-james-bulger-case-david-james-smith/3222824?ean=9780571340569

He recommended The New Journalism by Tom Wolfe:

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/new-journalism-tom-wolfe/121601?ean=9780330243155

And my books are here:

https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/andrew-hankinson

Thanks for listening.