A 'Going Straight' genre life story which breaks new ground in taking as its focus the vagaries of the child care system and in doing so is re-assuring for professionals and young people in care alike. It is a shocking fact that whilst just one per cent of young people enter care to be 'looked after' by a local authority, foster parents and in children's homes, a whopping 27 per cent of prisoners have been in care at some time or another. Ben Ashcroft was one of these. Altogether - as the book's title implies - he was moved 51 times from his first placement as a ten-year-old until he left care at age 16, as he drifted into penal custody. With his experiences of young offender institutions behind him and out of trouble for ten years, his is a positive example of personal change.