Karen Joy Fowler Meet the Author

be back here in time for Christmas. More on our top stories at eight.

Now, meet the author. Karen Joy Fowler is an American

writer known for her novel about Jane Austin. Now she has written

this book. It is a cracking read, her sixth novel. It poses a problem

for reviewers and interviewers. On page 77, there is an unexpected plot

twist. Without revealing what it is, it is almost impossible to

discuss the book intelligently. So, if you don't want to know what

happens, look away now! Anybody who has read the publicity

for this book will know there is a big twist, an important twist, on

page 77. It is difficult to discuss the book in an interesting way

without revealing what it is, a spoiler. Does it worry you that some

people might be upset that they come to the book knowing what the twist

is? I have made my peace with it. When I wrote the book, I did imagine

that the reader would pick it up cold. Hopefully they would be

surprised by what is revealed. But when I turned the book in, it was

clear I hadn't given a great deal of thought to have the marketing

department would market the book. They were not able to tell anybody

what it was about. Worst of all, how would I talk about the book if I was

not able to tell anybody what it was about? I read review sometimes that

a definite anybody spoil the book for you by telling you. Then I think

how sad it would be if I am the person who spoils the book. But it

is difficult to talk about. Absolutely. So let's confess.

Rosemary, your narrator, is a student. She has a sister who

disappeared under mysterious circumstances, we gather. Pay 77, we

learned that she was a chimpanzee. Where did the idea come from? It

came from a natural experiment done in the 1930s by psychologists. A

psychologist, for a period of time, he sum of ten years he raised a baby

chimp with his infant son. -- he simultaneously raised. It was a

study of language acquisition, primarily, but also to find out what

the capabilities... A compere and a contrast. If the upbringing to

standardise and they spent a lot of time together. The experiment was

not a stand-alone. It was repeated. There was a chimp in the 1960s.

There were number of chimps who were raised. Fans there were children in

the house. But the Kellogg experiment is the only one I am

aware of where they tried to raise them simultaneously. Another one

that was talked about a lot involved a chimp called name. In the early

stages, she was put up alongside a large family of children. Let's see

a clip. I had a faith that he would learn science. We had to wait and

see. How do they start teaching the trial to sign? That looks idyllic.

But it didn't end happily. These stale -- stories rarely end happily

for the chimpanzee. As I have found out, they rarely end happily for the

Child. That is what you bring to this. You see it from the child's

perspective. When I began the research for this book, and as you

said, there are number of cases where Jews were home raised and the

number of books have been written about those experiments. -- where

chimpanzees were home raised. I could find out a lot about the

chimpanzees but almost nothing about the children. That was what I was

focused on. One of the interesting things that has happened to me since

the book came out is that children who were in these households have

begun to contact me. The information I could not get before I wrote the

book which would have been so useful, I am getting now! How

accurate was your imagination, then, in thinking up rosemary and

her predicament? I think I did pretty well. Not entirely, and it

certainly vary from case to case. The problem is, you have to remove

the chimps. They grow and they are quite strong and dangerous. To give

anybody the benefit of the doubt, when the experiments began, I don't

think that was understood. The people who took the chimps into

their house for they were making a lifelong commitment. -- thought. We

now know that was not possible. What happened to the chimps afterwards is

that they often end up in experimental facilities. A strong

theme of the book is what I think you would say are the evils of

animal experimentation. Yes, I guess. I certainly see a lot of

damage and unhappiness created. I would also say, however, that I feel

that our attitudes towards animals and our understanding of animal

cognition has changed and is in the process of changing. A lot of those

experiments have resulted in that. Hopefully, good has come as well.

You are the daughter of a psychologist. I am. Your central

character is also. Psychologists don't come out of this world. One of

the themes is the shortcomings of psychological theories, whether they

are dreamt up from looking at animals or human beings. They are

always overturned. Really, we know next to nothing about ourselves.

Isn't that amazing! We have been studying ourselves all these years.

That is when novelists come in. Thank you. Thank you.

Time now for a look at the weather. Here is John