Writers Sally Bayley Sally Bayley's early life was so blighted by neglect that she put herself into care aged 14 and didn’t see her family for the next 12 years. In 1990, She was the first child to go to university from West Sussex County Council Care services. She studied at St Andrews university, and then went to America, where she taught aesthetic education in midwestern schools and universities and foundation arts courses to adults in inner city Ohio. 'Girl with Dove' is part memoir, part fiction. Growing up in a dilapidated house by the sea where men were forbidden, Sally’s childhood world was filled with mystery and intrigue. Hippies trailed through the kitchen looking for God – their leader was Aunt Di, who ruled the house with charismatic force. When Sally’s baby brother vanishes from his pram, she becomes suspicious of the activities going on around her. What happened to Baby David and the woman called Poor Sue? And where did all the people singing and wailing prayers in the front room suddenly go? Girl with Dove combines the voices of literary characters with those of her real-life counterparts, Girl With Dove reads as a magical series of strange encounters, climaxing with a comic performance of Shakespeare in the children’s home where Sally is eventually sent. No Boys Play Here is a coming of age story told through Shakespeare. In Sally Bayley’s childhood, the men were often missing. Missing because they were drunk, or out of work, or in prison, or wandering. Or missing because their behaviour had provoked women to ban them from the house. The man who was around for Sally was Shakespeare, and he brought men with him to fill the gaps. Sally grew up with a troupe of sad kings and lonely heroes. Her mind ran away from home with Falstaff and Prince Hal, with deceivers and mavericks and geniuses. In her signature and extraordinary style, this is Sally’s story of her childhood – one lived with darkness snapping at heels, with real and imagined people passing through interchangeably, and with trauma a spiky memory to be skirted and avoided. Inventive, literary and adventurous, this is a story of poverty, missing fathers, sons and a testament to the way that great literature and its characters can guard an imagination against the bad. Bayley is currently a Lecturer in English at Hertford College, Oxford. She also teaches on the Sarah Lawrence visiting programme at Wadham College, Oxford. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Continuing Education of the Artist as a Mature Woman Rachael Romero 2015 As a teenager, Rachael spent 9 months living in one of the infamous Magdalene Laundries. In this chapter she tells of going to Art School, but also of needing to escape Australia. Living in America, Rachael practiced her art and became an activist. She later did a Masters Degree at Antioch University and became an art teacher. External Website

Children's Fiction Cinderella Giambattista Basile 1634 “Cinderella” is a widely told folk tale first published in the 17th century, about an orphan girl who is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters but, with magical assistance, attends a royal ball where she captures the prince’s heart and ultimately rises from neglect to happiness and success. External Website

Films/Videos Conviction 2010 Betty Anne Waters, who was in and out of foster care as a child, decides to become a lawyer after her brother Kenneth is convicted of murder. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Flight of Gemma Hardy Margot Livesey 2012 The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a modern take on a classic story—Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre—that will fascinate readers of the Gothic original and fans of modern literary fiction alike, with its lyrical prose, robust characters, and abundant compassion. Set in early 1960s Scotland, this breakout novel from award-winning author Margot Livesey is a tale of determination and spirit that, like The Three Weissmanns of Westport and A Thousand Acres, spins an unforgettable new story from threads of our shared, still-living literary past. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Films about orphans Anon 2020 Films featuring orphans. External Website

Television Shows Grimm 2011 Grimm (2011-2017) is an American police procedural with a Grimms’ Fairy Tales fantasy element. Set in Portland, Oregon, the story follows homicide detective Nicholas Burkhardt (David Giuntol) who was raised in the kinship care of his aunt Marie Kessler (Kate Burton). As his aunt nears death, she tells him he is descended from guardians called Grimms whose responsibility it is to keep the peace between humanity and the Wesen, or mythological creators. ‘Gifted’ with the ability to see the Wesen, Nick must cope with this knowledge while continuing to do his job as a detective. External Website

Writers Kenneth Grahame 1859-1932 Kenneth Grahame (1859 – 1932) was a British writer. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the 3rd of 4 children. In 1864, his mother died after giving birth to the youngest boy, and his father sent the 4 children to live in Berkshire, England, with their maternal grandmother who is described as ‘cold’ and ‘forbidding’. Apart from one brief attempt to live together, Kenneth never saw his father again. Kenneth Grahame is most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon. Both books were later adapted for stage and film, of which A. A. Milne's Toad of Toad Hall, based on part of The Wind in the Willows, was the first. Other adaptations include the Disney films The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Reluctant Dragon. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters The Orphan: A Journey to Wholeness Audrey Punnett 2014 The Orphan: A Journey to Wholeness addresses loneliness and the feeling of being alone in the world, two distinct characteristics that mark the life of an orphan. Regardless if we have grown up with or without parents, we are all too likely to meet such experiences in ourselves and in our daily encounters with others. With numerous case examples, Dr. Punnett describes how loneliness and the feeling of being alone tend to be repeated in later relationships and may eventually lead to states of anxiety and depression. The main purpose of this book is not to just stay within the context of the literal orphan, but also to explore its symbolic dimensions in order to provide meaning to the diverse experiences of feeling alone in the world. In accepting the orphan within, we begin to take responsibility for our own unique life journey, a privileged journey in which one can at some point in time say with pride, I am an orphan. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir From the Ashes Jesse Thistle 2021 Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now an Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about his Métis-Cree background. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts. Throughout it all, the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling with all that had happened, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. Finally, he realized he would die unless he turned his life around. Through sheer perseverance and education—and newfound love—he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family. An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help us find happiness despite the odds. External Website

Films/Videos The Scamp 1957 The Scamp (1957) features unofficial foster care. Teacher Stephen (Richard Attenborough) takes in Tod (Colin Petersen) while his abusive father goes to the US. Stephen & Tod bond over music. A year later the father returns...In 1957 Colin Petersen was voted one of the biggest stars at the British box office. He also appeared in Smiley (1956) and A Cry from the Streets (1958) - his mum took him back to Australia to focus on his education. He was the original drummer. in the Bee Gees! You can see his drumming skill in this film. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors The Seven Sisters Alex Wheatle 2003 Inspired by personal experience, the Seven Sisters explores the lives of children in care. Glenroy, Bullett, Curvis and Carlton – the best of friends, as tight as blood brothers. They all live in Pinewood Oaks, a home for orphans and children in care, besides the great forest named after the legend of the Seven Sisters. At the home they are looked after by ‘Uncles’ and ‘Aunts’, go to the local school and try to live like normal children. But, of course, they’re not. The four friends decide to run away from the horror of their everyday lives in a children's home in the English countryside. They head for the woods, their sense of freedom surprises them, and for the first time they feel the exhilaration of adolescence. Yet the forest slowly asserts its own power and what happens there will affect the four boys' lives forever. External Website

Children's Fiction The Ghosts and Jamal Bridget Blankley 2018 The Ghosts and Jamal is an intriguing story, touching on religion, terrorism and Nigeria s internal conflicts, following a young orphan who is negotiating an unforgiving society. Waking up in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, 13-year-old Jamal tries to piece together what has happened whilst simultaneously trying to evade capture by the attackers. It soon becomes clear that he has been living in a separate outhouse from his family on account of the bad spirits or rather his epilepsy that plagues him. As he wanders around his family s compound, he comes across red canisters leaking yellow gas, which he works out were the weapon that killed his family. With his family dead, he begins to search for his grandfather who he hardly knows; when his grandfather turns him away Jamal keeps walking. On the way he meets prejudice, exploitation and friendship, before finally discovering that it is people, not ghosts, that have killed his family, and they have plans to keep on killing. Young Adult fiction. External Website

Authors B The Coral Island ➝ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ➝ Madeline ➝ Paddington ➝ A Little Princess ➝ Peter Pan in Kensington Garden ➝ The Finding ➝ Peter and Lotta's Christmas ➝ My Forever Family: from fostering to adoption ➝ Tarzan of the Apes ➝ Cinderella ➝ The Outside Child ➝ The Ghosts and Jamal ➝ An Angel for May ➝ Back to Top

Authors E The Gathering ➝ Beulah ➝ James ➝ The Round House ➝ Girl, Woman, Other ➝ The Trees ➝ Crooked Heart ➝ Glyph ➝ The Orphan Collector ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd 2002 The Secret Life of Bees (2002) by Sue Monk Kidd was a major success on publication, with 2.5 years on the NY Times Best Seller list & 8 million copies sold internationally. Influenced by her experiences with racism as child, in The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd tells the story of a 14-year-old white girl who leaves her abusive father, T. Ray Owens, a churchgoing peach farmer, and heads off from her hometown of Sylvan, South Carolina in search of information about her mother in the town of Tiburon, also in South Carolina. With Lily Owens is African American woman Rosaleen who has been working for her father and was recently badly beaten by local white men because she wanted to claim her right to vote. When her father finally locates his daughter, she refuses to go back home, preferring to stay with August Boatwright, a Black woman who was at one point a carer for Lily’s mother and is now a successful businesswoman. External Website

Actors Charlotte Ayanna Charlotte Ayanna (born Charlotte Lopez; September 25, 1976) is a Puerto Rican American actress and former Miss Teen USA. Ayanna was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but moved to Vermont at an early age. She had a troubled childhood, spending sixteen years in foster homes after her mother, Emma, was judged to be mentally unfit to look after her children. In 1994, at age 17, she was adopted into a foster home. She has since become a spokeswoman for foster children. External Website

Television Shows The Last Thing He Told Me (TV series) 2023 The Last Thing He Told Me is an American mystery television series (on Apple) based on the popular novel by the same name by Laura Dave. Hannah Hall (Jennifer Garner) is the protagonist of The Last Thing He Told Me. She was raised in the kinship care of her grandfather and, like him, is a wood turner. When Hannah’s husband, Owen Michaels (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), goes missing, Hannah is left with the responsibility for her 16-year-old step-daughter, Bailey (Angourie Rice). The two go looking for Owen and uncover the truth about Bailey’s mother’s death. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Little One Peter Papathanasiou 2019 Peter Papathanasiou is the son of migrants and grandson of refugees. His parents emigrated from Greece to Australia in 1956 but were unable to have children, a huge sorrow - and shame - for them among Australia's Greek community and their own family. Finally, in 1973, Peter's uncle and aunt in Greece offered to have a baby and give it to his parents to raise as their own in Australia. Peter was that baby, born in 1974 and given up by his biological parents so that a childless sister could become a mother. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Love Child Sue Elliot 2012 This is an updated edition of this moving memoir of one woman's search for her birth mother, with a fascinating history of adoption in the UK weaved throughout External Website