TRUE INSPIRATION

The Wonder is based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Dublin-born writer Emma Donoghue, whose earlier book

Room was turned into a critically acclaimed film in 2016.

‘It is a very strange story but it is, in fact, inspired by fact,’ explains Emma. ‘There were about 50 or 60 cases of so-called “fasting girls” who hit the papers from the 16th century through to the 20th century. There was a fasting girl where nurses were hired by The Times to watch a girl in Wales. And I thought that was a weird kind of unholy alliance of the medical establishment and the media.’