Performing Arts Australian singer-songwriter Archie Roach A member of the Stolen Generations, Archie Roach is an iconic Australian singer-songwriter. Archibald William Roach: b. 8 January 1956-d. 30 July 2022. In 1956, Roach's family, along with the rest of the area's Indigenous population, were re-housed on Rumbalara mission. At the age of 4, Roach and his sisters, along with the other Indigenous Australian children of the stolen generations, were forcibly removed from their family and placed in an orphanage. After two unpleasant placements in foster care, Roach was eventually fostered by Alex and Dulcie Cox, a family of Scottish immigrants in Melbourne. Alex Cox would sing traditional ballads and introduced Roach to guitar and keyboards. Roach said "He was a big influence on me — a good influence. I'll love him to the day I die." At the age of fifteen, Roach was contacted by his natural sister, who told him their mother had just died. He spent the next fourteen years on the streets, battling alcoholism. External Website

Television Shows The Promised Neverland TV series 2019-2021 The Promised Neverland was adapted into an anime television series produced by CloverWorks and broadcast on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block. The series' first season ran for 12 episodes from January to March 2019. A second season ran for 11 episodes from January to March 2021. A live-action film adaptation was released in December 2020. At Grace Field House, life couldn't be better for the orphans. Though they have no parents, together with the other kids and a kind "Mama" who cares for them, they form one big, happy family. No child is ever overlooked, especially since they are all adopted by the age of 12. Their daily lives involve rigorous tests, but afterwards, they are allowed to play outside. There is only one rule they must obey: do not leave the orphanage. When three gifted kids at an isolated idyllic orphanage discover the secret and sinister purpose they were raised for, they look for a way to escape from their evil caretaker and lead the other children in a risky escape plan. External Website

Authors H The Woman in Black (play) ➝ Back to Top

Cartoons Emily's Story: Haringey foster care guide 2015 Commissioned by Haringey Council, this animation has been created to prepare and reassure young people going into foster care, explaining the process and people involved. Aspire (Haringey's Children in Care Council) were on hand as our expert consultants, steering Exposure in the right direction and ensuring the film was able to strike the right tone. The guide explores life in foster care, what a foster carer actually does, the role of adult professionals providing additional support, entitlements, education and preparing for the future. Emily’s Story will be made available to all looked-after young people in Haringey. While sensitive to the feelings of the intended audience and mindful of the need to get vital information across, the film was injected with humour, sound effects and music to help lighten the mood. External Website

Authors H Langston Hughes ➝ Ishbel Holmes ➝ David Hill ➝ Rico Hinson-King ➝ Janet Hitchman ➝ Kathryn Harrison ➝ Michel Houellebecqu ➝ Richard Hoggart ➝ Paolo Hewitt ➝ Herbert Hoover ➝ A. M. Homes ➝ Jan de Hartog ➝ Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (Writer) ➝ Hermann Hesse ➝ Kerry Hudson ➝ Patricia Highsmith ➝ Eric Hobsbawm ➝ Back to Top

Artists Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci[b] (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect. An illegitimate son of Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine notary, and Caterina, a peasant girl, he was brought up on the family estate in Anchiano by his paternal grandfather. His father married a sixteen-year old girl, Albiera, with whom Leonardo was close, but who died young. Leonardo was the oldest of 12 siblings and his family never treated his illegitimacy as a stigma. At the age of 14 Leonardo moved to Florence to begin an apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio, an artist who had been a student of Early Renaissance master Donatello. External Website

Authors F Ella Fitzgerald ➝ Back to Top

Authors A David Akinsanya ➝ Edward Albee ➝ Paul Abbott ➝ Back to Top

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles I left care at 15 and soon went to borstal. Young people can’t just be abandoned | David Akinsanya David Akinsanya (Left care at 15) 2015 The children’s commissioner says vulnerable youngsters should stay in care until they’re 25 – here David writes about the importance of having a mentor and how that human support can set young people on the right path, for good. External Website

Writers Regina Calcaterra 1966- Regina M. Calcaterra (born 1966) was in and out of foster care as a child and she went on to write about her experiences in Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island (2013). Regina is also an American attorney and a founding partner of Calcaterra Pollack LLP law firm. She served as Executive Director to two of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s investigatory commissions, Chief Deputy to Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone, and Deputy General Counsel to both the New York State Insurance Fund and New York City Employees’ Retirement System. External Website

Authors A USA, songwriter ➝ Violinist, teacher, composer ➝ US, Singer-songwriter ➝ TV Presenter, antiques collector ➝ Australian Rock Singer ➝ Trumpeter, composer, singer, actor ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience Elephants Can Remember Agatha Christie 2016 Hercule Poirot is determined to solve an old husband and wife double murder that is still an open verdict…Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff-top. Here, many years earlier, there had been a tragic accident. This was followed by the grisly discovery of two more bodies – a husband and wife – shot dead. The bodies of General Alistair Ravenscroft and his wife Molly were found shot dead near their manor house in Overcliffe. Left behind are two orphaned children, including daughter Celia. Ten years later, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, godmother to Celia, is approached at a literary luncheon by Mrs. Burton-Cox, to whose adopted son Celia Ravenscroft is engaged and asked to investigate who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder? Does Celia have bad blood? Poirot delves back into the past and discovers that ‘old sin leave long shadows’. External Website

Non Fiction The State of It Chris 2021 Government cuts, unregulated care homes, inadequate staff training - campaigner and care home consultant Chris Wild has seen it all. The low standards and frequent abuse of children in care has long been a focal point of his loud message: we are failing our young people and something needs to change. Chris delves deep into the lives of care home kids, from experiences with county lines, drugs, trafficking, knife crime, gang violence to child exploitation and sexual abuse. He tells the stories of the voiceless, the children who have been left behind, compounded by his own experiences of growing up in care. How is the care system failing our young people and controlling just who and what they can become? What help do we really give children after their time in care is over, left to fend for themselves? Is it too late to fix the state of it? External Website

Films/Videos Mr Church 2016 Care Experienced actor, Eddy Murphy (who was in foster care for about 18 months at about age 4 while his mother was sick) stars in the 2016 film, Mr Church. Mr Church is a cook who cares for a single mother who has breast cancer, and her daughter Charlie. There are 2 Care Experienced characters in the film: Poppy who is Charlies best friend is in kinship care with her sister while her parents are in prison, and Eddie Larson who was in juvenile detention after a car accident in which a 4-year-old child was killed. External Website

Radio & Podcast Dr Johnson's Black Heir Empire 2023 In this episode of the Empire podcast (there are 2 parts), historian Peter Moore recounts the story of how a Jamaican slave ended up living in England with the eccentric writer, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). The young Quashey (thought to be the original name) was legally owned by a Colonel Richard Bathurst and about 8 years of age when he was trafficked to England, baptised and renamed Francis Barber. He was initially sent to a boarding school in Yorkshire before being ‘gifted’ to Samuel Johnson. Francis Barber was ‘granted’ his freedom by Richard Bathurst in around 1754 after which the boy went to work for a pharmacist before joining the navy. He later returned to work for Samuel Johnson. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Great Expectations Charles Dickens 2004 Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel and his penultimate (completed) novel; a bildungsroman which depicts the personal growth and personal development of an orphan nicknamed Pip who is in kinship care, living with his sister in the marshes of Kent. Great Expectations follows Pip's childhood and young adult years, a blacksmith's apprentice in a country village. He suddenly comes into a large fortune (his great expectations) from a mysterious benefactor and moves to London where he enters high society. He thinks he knows where the money has come from but he turns out to be sadly mistaken. The story also follows Pip's dealings with Estella, a young woman he adores but who cannot return his love. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Orphans Annemarie Neary 2018 Eight-year-old Jess and her little brother were playing at the water's edge when their parents vanished. For hours the children held hands and waited for them to return. But nobody ever came back. Years later, Jess has become a locker of doors. Now a lawyer and a mother, she is determined to protect the life she has built around her. But her brother Ro has grown unpredictable, elusive and obsessive. When new evidence suggests that their mother might be alive, Ro reappears, convinced that his sister knows more than she claims. And then bad things start to happen. External Website

Children's Fiction The Unadoptables: Five fantastic children on the adventure of a lifetime Hana Tooke (Author), Ayesha L. Rubio (Illustrator) 2021 Way back in the autumn of 1880, five babies are discovered at the Little Tulip Orphanage in most unusual circumstances. Those babies are Lotta, Egbert, Fenna, Sem and Milou. The vile matron calls the children 'the unadoptables' but this talented gang of best friends know that their individuality is what makes them so special - and so determined to stay together. When a sinister gentleman tries to get them in his clutches, the children make a daring escape across the frozen canals of Amsterdam, embarking on an adventure packed with pirate ships and puppets. But is their real home - and their real family - already closer than they realize? External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Orphan Master's Son Adam Johnson 2012 The protagonist in The Orphan Master's Son is an orphan who grows up to become a model citizen and who struggles with life in North Korea. Themes of propaganda, state power, identity and the low status of orphans are entwined through out. The novel was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2013. Shortly after Jun Do’s birth in a North Korean orphanage, his mother is carted off to Pyongyang, never to be seen again. His father (the eponymous orphan master) is unable or unwilling to show favoritism, so Jun Do is punished, starved and over-worked along with the other orphans. This is a dark, satirical novel about what happens when love is forbidden and a totalitarian regime attempts to take the place of family. External Website

Authors T Three Girls ➝ The Glass Dome ➝ This is Us ➝ The Murder Room ➝ The Defeated ➝ Towards Zero ➝ Traces ➝ The Fosters ➝ The Twelve ➝ Triptych ➝ The Bay ➝ Woman of the Dead ➝ Tin Star ➝ Top Boy ➝ The Bambers. Murder at the Farm ➝ The Good Witch's Gift ➝ Travelers ➝ The Dumping Ground ➝ The Woman in the Wall ➝ The Mysterious Benedict Society ➝ The Story of Tracy Beaker (TV series) ➝ The Split ➝ The Last Tycoon ➝ The Day Will Come ➝ The Trial ➝ The Town ➝ The Clearing ➝ Three Days of Christmas ➝ Tracy Beaker Returns ➝ The Man Who Fell to Earth ➝ The Night Manager ➝ The Good Witch's Garden ➝ The Good Witch's Family ➝ The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling ➝ Hunt for Raoul Moat ➝ The Iris Affair ➝ The Rainmaker ➝ The Mandalorian ➝ The Underground Railway (tv show) ➝ The Irregulars ➝ The Chalk Line ➝ The Asunta Case ➝ The Count of Monte Criso ➝ The Killing ➝ Ten Pound Poms ➝ The Mill ➝ The Frankenstein Chronicles ➝ The Tower ➝ The Fall of the House of Usher ➝ The Cook of Castamar ➝ The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ➝ The Peripheral ➝ The Salisbury Poisonings ➝ The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (tv show) ➝ Talamasca ➝ Troppo ➝ The Inheritance (TV series) ➝ The Clocks ➝ Trying ➝ The Last of Us ➝ The Umbrella Academy ➝ Top of the Lake ➝ The Capture ➝ The Changeling (TV horror series) ➝ The Artful Dodger ➝ The Last Anniversary (tv series) ➝ The Coroner (S2.E2) ➝ The Gloaming ➝ The Pact ➝ The Hour ➝ The Sandman ➝ The Institute ➝ The Promised Neverland TV series ➝ The Good Witch's Wonder ➝ The Queen's Gambit ➝ The Gardener ➝ The Virtues ➝ Three Pines ➝ The Snow Girl ➝ The Good Witch's Destiny ➝ The Sally Lockhart Mysteries ➝ The Bletchley Circle ➝ The Rookie ➝ The Gone ➝ Thou Shalt Not Steal ➝ The Secrets She Keeps ➝ The Alienist ➝ The Serpent Queen ➝ The Last Thing He Told Me (TV series) ➝ The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (TV Series) ➝ The Fall ➝ The Outlaws ➝ The Gathering ➝ The English ➝ Tales of the Unexpected ➝ The Golden Hour ➝ The Family Next Door ➝ Total Control ➝ Ties That Bind ➝ The Lost Children ➝ The Chestnut Man ➝ The Boys ➝ The Asset ➝ The Valhalla Murders ➝ The One That Got Away ➝ The Long Song (tv show) ➝ The Runaway (tv show) ➝ The Truth Will Out ➝ The Last Detective ➝ The Good Witch ➝ The Residence ➝ The Good Doctor ➝ The Monster of Florence ➝ The Resident ➝ The Haunting of Bly Manor ➝ Tell Me Your Secrets ➝ Back to Top