Biography of Care Experienced People Jane Austen at Home: A Biography Lucy Worsley 2018 In this biography, we find out that Jane Austen (1775-1817) was in foster care as a small child. Cassandra Austen apparently weaned her babies as soon as possible and then sent them to a foster mother (probably a Mrs Littleworth) who cared for them until they were walking and talking. The children’s parents visited the children daily, and sometimes the infants returned to the rectory for a visit too. But their home was in foster care. Lucy Worsley argues there were benefits to this arrangement in that all the children survived. However, the bonds between the children and their mother were weakened so much that her children barely noticed when Mrs Austen was absent from the rectory. Because Jane Austen also went to boarding school, Worsley estimates she spent nearly 5 of her first 11 years away from home. There are other Care Experienced family members too, as Jane Austen’s father was an orphan, her brother George lived in foster care all his childhood, and her brother Edward was adopted by the Knight family when he was 16. External Website

Films/Videos The Truman Show 1998 The Truman Show is a 1998 American psychological comedy-drama film starring Jim Carrey. Selected at birth and legally adopted by a television studio, Truman Burbank’s life is orchestrated from birth without his consent: and raised within a completely artificial environment. Truman lives his entire life as the unwitting star of a massive reality television show. Truman is constantly monitored by hidden cameras, his movements and relationships controlled for others’ entertainment. External Website

Children's Fiction The Leftovers Eleanor Spence 1983 When the home in which they've been living is about to be closed down to make way for a new road, four foster children write an advertisement for a real home with a proper family External Website

Performing Arts Bandmaster and academic Charles Nalden Charles Nalden CBE (1908-2002) was born John Leslie Simpson. He was renamed when he was taken to the London Foundling Hospital at the age of 29 days. When he was 14 he went into the British Army, becoming the bandmaster. After 25 years in the army, Charles Nalden arrived in Auckland, New Zealand and became an academic at the University of Auckland. He became a professor in 1956, and professor emeritus on his retirement in 1974. Charles Nalden was also a conductor and writer about music. In the 1976 Birthday Honours, Nalden was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to music. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Call Me Auntie: My Childhood in Care and My Search for My Mother Anne Harrison 2020 A truly original story of life in and after care. The author's own account of being left behind by her mother as a one year old and her life in foster homes and institutions. When eventually traced, 'Call Me Auntie' was the best her mother could offer, but this was just the start of a bizarre sequence of events. Call Me Auntie is a telling account of abandonment, 'Heartbreak House' care homes, family history and survival. It is also one of resilience and personal achievement as the author discovered she also had a brother left behind in the same way, forged a professional career, searched for her long lost relatives in Barbados and eventually came to understand that she 'may be a princess after all'. External Website

Authors W Chris Wild: Activist and Campaigner ➝ Indigo Willing: Advocate for Vietnames adoptees ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (Paperback) Gabrielle Zevin 2023 A.J. Fikry, the grumpy owner of Island Books, is going through a hard time: his bookshop is failing, he has lost his beloved wife, and his prized possession - a rare first edition book has been stolen. Over time, he has given up on people, and even the books in his store, instead of offering solace, are yet another reminder of a world that is changing too rapidly. But one day A.J. finds two-year-old Maya sitting on the bookshop floor, with a note attached to her asking the owner to look after her. His life - and Maya's - is changed forever. External Website

Authors B But We All Shine On ➝ Blood Relatives ➝ The agency accused of paying bribes for babies ➝ Baroness Lola Young: From foster care to the House of Lords ➝ Peter Bell and the singular quest of Kyung Ae ➝ Bluebells on Bunny Hill ➝ Series 4 Episode 1 ➝ The mums accused of poisoning their kids ➝ Brian Cox on The Book Shelf with Ryan Tubridy ➝ Alan Warner: Movern Callar ➝ Barry Keoghan ➝ The orphan hero: George King ➝ Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre ➝ Darcey & Chloe - How the system failed to save two baby girls ➝ Stacey Halls ➝ The kids who broke out of detention ➝ More to the story... Meeting your mum as an adult ➝ Mother of Lion, Sue Brierley, tells her story ➝ Foundling: Found - a new podcast series ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond Michael Oher 2012 The football star made famous in the hit film (and book) The Blind Side reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth. ooking back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, Michael talks about the goals he had to break out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family. Eventually he grasped onto football as his ticket out and worked hard to make his dream into a reality. With his adoptive family, the Touhys, and other influential people in mind, he describes the absolute necessity of seeking out positive role models and good friends who share the same values to achieve one's dreams. External Website

Authors T Alan Turing ➝ Back to Top

Authors D Singer, entertainer, Australian ➝ Sierra Leonean-American Ballet dancer ➝ Back to Top

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Kazuo Ishiguro Reflects on Never Let Me Go, 20 Years Later Literary Hub 2005 In this LitHub article, Kazuo Ishiguro writes about his motivation and influences for writing the novel Never Let Me Go (2005), including Dolly the Sheep and young writers willing to challenge what it means to write literary fiction. External Website

Films/Videos The Unforgivable 2021 The Unforgivable (2021) starring Sandra Bullock covers kinship and foster care. The film is based on the 2009 miniseries, Unforgiven, written by Sally Wainwright. Sandra Bullock plays Ruth Slater who has served time for a violent crime and is now desperately trying to get her life back on track. She's also trying to locate her sister, Katie, but the child protection system isn't helpful and the foster parents would prefer Katie not be told anything about her past. The film explores the topic of how some people are willing to give a former prisoner a second chance, but many others arent. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Winter Solstice Rosamund Pilcher 2000 A loosely connected group end up spending advent together in a house in Scotland. One of them Lucy is an unhappy teenager. By the end of the novel it has been agreed that she will live with her new found family for the next few months, but it is implied that she will actually stay there until she is an adult. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignacius Sancho Paterson Joseph 2022 The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignacius Sancho is Paterson Joseph's debut novel. and tells the story of the first Black man in England who could vote - because he owned property. Charles Ignatius Sancho (c1729-1780) who was born on a slave ship in the Atlantic, orphaned at the age of 2, and then 'gifted' to 3 sisters in Greenwich, England. Sancho lived with the sisters for 18 years then year away. He was taken in by John Montagu who educated the young man. Sancho ended up becoming a shopkeeper and involved in the abolitionist movement. He wrote essays, at least one book and 2 plays, and he composed music. External Website

Television Shows The Haunting of Bly Manor 2020 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James has been adapted numerous times for film and television and in literature. The most recent of these adaptations appears to be the Netflix 2020 one when the novella was adapted as The Hunting of Bly Manor for the second season of Mike Flanagan's The Haunting anthology series. External Website

Authors H Jim Hoffmaster ➝ Tiffany Haddish ➝ Lena Horne (actor) ➝ Back to Top

Authors M AUS, Singer, Songwriter ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Birdcage Library Freya Berry 2023 The Birdcage Library (2023) by British-Indian novelist Freya Berry was inspired by explorer Freya Stark (1893-1993) after whom she was named. In 1932 botanist Emily Blackwood takes a job cataloguing a collection of taxidermied animals for collector 92 year old Henry Vogel who lives in a remote Scottish castle named Parras. Henry Vogel & his brother, Charles, were children when they left Germany for the USA. In New York they “set up as animal dealers” becoming so successful they were able to set up an emporium. The Henry & Charles Vogel characters are based on Charles Reiche (1827-1885) & his brother Henry Reiche (1833-1887). After emigrating to the USA from Germany, they set up an animal trading business. Charles was 17 years old, and Henry only 11. While going about her cataloguing job, Emily Blackwood discovers pages of a diary hidden in the castle. The diary was written by Hester Vogel, who was married to Charles Vogel but who had disappeared decades ago. Emily finds out that Hester was born in the Parras castle. Her parents were so angry that their daughter was pregnant to a “lowly cage-maker” that they banished Hester’s parents and raised their granddaughter in the castle. After her mother died when Hester was 9, her father arrives at the castle & takes his daughter to live in a small town near Boston External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Entitlement Rumaan Alam 2024 Entitlement (2024) by American writer, Rumaan Alam, is a novel about money and morality. The protagonist is Brooke, a young African American woman who was adopted by a white woman. Brooke doesn’t need anything, but she wants a lot, including to impress her mother. She takes on a job helping an elderly billionaire given away his huge fortune and it’s not long before she decides she should be the recipient of that fortune. External Website