school records were discovered - through his publishers Farrar, Straus and Giroux that there had been earlier rebel attacks when he lost his family and fled into the bush. But he also writes: "My story, as I remember it [my italics] and wrote it, began in 1993." This retreats from earlier assurances.

As the book was being edited

in 2006, A Million Little Pieces, the 'memoir' by James Frey, was famously exposed as a fraud. Grilled by his editors, Beah insisted that every detail was accurate because "growing up in an oral tradition had honed his memory" and publication went ahead in 2007.

Laura Simms (left), who discovered Beah in a camp in 1996, claims she was captivated by his open laugh and bright-eyed gaze. She brought him to America, adopted him, and nurtured him through