The Fox Boy: The Story of an Abducted Child

Description

Mutual kidnapping between the Maori and the English inhabitants in New Zealand had dated back to the 1769s. In 1869, after an English defeat in battle in the Taranaki forest, one more Maori boy, aged five, was captured. This little captive was to be adopted by the prime minister and educated to become a lawyer and an "English gentleman". Photographed, just a few days after his kidnap wearing a fine English suit and boots, the boy stands beside a vase of flowers and a weighty book placed on an abony stand, looking "as if he's seen a ghost." It was Peter Walker's question, "Well, I wonder what happened to you?" which set him off on this remarkable quest. As the story unfolded he discovered that this Maori boy, about whom perhaps five lines had ever previously been published, had played a crucial role in New Zealand's history. More surprisingly as he followed Ngataua Omahuru (or little "William Fox") out of the forest and into the drawing rooms of Wellington and London, he found himself on a personal journey which converged unexpectedly with the tale he had uncovered.

Peter Walker is a New Zealander who has lived in London since 1986. He worked for seven years on the INDEPENDENT and three on the INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY where he was Foreign Editor. He has also written for the FINANCIAL TIMES and GRANTA. He is currently writing a novel.

'Walker build a strange, touching narrative about the collision between two cultures' Financial Times 'The Fox Boy is a triumph' Independent on Sunday