Gripping tale of love and hope

In 2008, I interviewed Marina Chapman who had battled against the odds, arriving in Bradford speaking not a word of English, to achieve a childcare qualification.

She told me she was working on a book about her life to raise money for charities helping street children in Colombia, where she is from.

Marina told me about she had no memory of her early life prior to being kidnapped, aged four.

“I must have been kidnapped, because I remember someone putting their hand over my face,” she said.

“Kidnapping is common in Colombia. There is no baby registration and children go missing all the time.” Marina said she’d managed to escape her kidnappers and ended up living on the streets.

She spoke of an emotional journey back to South America that she’d made with her daughter, who was working on the book about her life.

“I started writing it, but I was going to put it on the fire because I thought I couldn’t do it. I never thought my life was that interesting,” said Marina.

She said eventually she was rescued by a family who sent her to Bradford, more than 30 years ago, to work as a cook for their children.

Five years on from that interview, I received a phonecall from a former colleague, now running the newsdesk on a national newspaper.

“We’re trying to get hold of Marina Chapman. You did an interview with her,” he said. The name rang a bell. “She’s claiming she was raised by monkeys. We’re thinking of sending a reporter out to Colombia.”

I thought back to when I’d met Marina; at no point did she mention being raised by monkeys. I guess she was saving it for the book.

Last week, the new paperback version of Marina’s book, The Girl With No Name, landed on my desk. The hardback was a Sunday Times bestseller when it was released earlier this year.

Written by Marina, with her daughter Vanessa James and author Lynne Barret-Lee, it’s the fascinating story of Marina’s life, from being abducted as a child from a remote village and abandoned in the Colombian rainforest.

Marina recalls her years alone in the jungle, her only ‘family’ a troop of capuchin monkeys, and how she used animal instinct to survive.

It’s a remarkable account of life in the wild.

“Though I had by now become aware that my new family sometimes changed – some animals disappearing and returning with tiny babies, others disappearing and never being seen again – I began to get to know some of the monkeys quite well. There was Grandpa, of course, who was a constant during my time there. But also energetic Spot, gentle, loving Brownie and timid White-Tip...who would often jump onto my back, throw her arms around my neck and enjoy being carried wherever I went.

“Of course, I hadn’t actually given any of the monkeys names at the time. By now I had no use for human speech at all – only my crude version of monkey language...

“My life had become all about sounds and emotions. And ‘missions’. Missions to find food. Missions to find company. Missions to find a safe place to hide if there was danger.”

It’s a nicely written, gripping read with some wonderful moments, not least when Marina first catches sight of herself in a discarded shard of mirror and realises she’s a “different animal”.

And there are harrowing recollections, including the account of Marina’s later life in a brothel, where she was beaten for walking on all fours.

But it’s also a story of love and hope, particularly when Marina is finally given a name and feels “like an individual – no longer like an animal”.

A documentary about Marina, called Woman Raised by Monkeys, is on the National Geographic Channel on Thursday, December 12.