About

Vanessa Forero returns to Lewes after presenting with her mother at the festival 2 years ago. She has since built her own home up a mountain in a jaguar reserve above the jungle in northern Colombia and was featured for a whole episode in January 2024 on Channel 5 TV in Ben Fogle’s: New Lives In The Wild. It was formerly an area controlled by a guerilla Marxist army called the FARC. She scored some of music for the series and even co-wrote a song with Ben, live on the episode. Vanessa will speak about her life in Colombia and that of her mother and play some of her original songs for us. Each has a story to tell. There will also be an exclusive peak into a follow-up book on her mother, "Out Of The Wild", which she hopes to complete this year.

Briefly here is the story of her mother Marina: In 1954, in a remote South American village, a four-year-old girl was abducted and then abandoned deep in the Colombian rainforest. So began the incredible true story of Marina Chapman, who went on to spend several years alone in the jungle, her only family a troop of capuchin monkeys. Using instinct to guide her, she copied everything they did and soon learned to fend for herself. At around 10 years old, a completely feral Marina was returned to civilisation by hunters, who sold her as a slave to a brothel until she escaped - to live the perilous existence of a Colombian city street kid until eventually she came to the UK where she is married to an English microbiologist.
Vanessa Forero is a composer, singer-songwriter and co-author of the bestseller: 'The Girl With No Name: The Incredible True Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys' - the story about her mother, with whom she co-wrote the book. Together they went on an investigative trip back to Colombia to piece together Marina's memories and Vanessa will be telling us of the many events and stories that came out of that trip and the documentary made of it that was featured on National Geographic. She will also tell the stories of her own relationship with Colombia and the calling of her roots in the wild. Vanessa spends her time composing music and re-foresting the cow-pasture where she built her home but will be flying into the UK to kick off her UK music tour with us in Lewes.