Writers Soren Sveistrup Soren Svestrup (b. 1968) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was adopted as a baby and taken to live with his adoptive parents on a small remote island, Thuro in the south-east of Denmark. He returned to Copenhagen to study at university, studying history, literature and scriptwriting. He started writing episodes for television shows for Danish Broadcasting, but is best known for The Killing, a police procedural featuring a detective who was in foster care, Sara Lund. His first novel, The Chestnut Man (2019) became Netflix Series in 2021. Child protection is the theme in The Chestnut Man; one man has decided the child protection system is inadequate and he has become a vigilante on behalf of neglected children. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Tell No One Brendan Watkins 2023 In Tell No One One, Brendan Journey traces his footsteps in discovering his birth parents Brendan was 8 when he was told he was adopted (he grew up in Melbourne) – which made sense for him of why no one in his family looked alike. In his 20s, Brendan began seeking out his birth parents. He was surprised to find out that his birth mother was 27 when she ‘gave him up’. It took until 2018 before Brendan found out – via a DNA test – that he was “the son of a celebrated missionary priest.” Tell No One includes Brendan’s research on ‘children of priests’. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Bridgeburn Days Lucy Sinclair 1956 The Bridgeburn Days by Lucy Sinclair is a memoir of her childhood and adolescence spent in a children’s home in the North of England during the 1920s and 1930s. The story follows Kitty Barrowell, whose deep sense of being different shapes her experiences—from life in Cottage Number Six, where her sensitivity, stubbornness, and strong sense of justice set her apart from the other girls, to the village school, and later, as she enters adult life and takes up work “in service.” External Website

Radio & Podcast Muhammad, Cervantes and the Algarve LRB Podcast 2021 Tariq Ali talks to Thomas Jones about a newly reissued biography of the Prophet by Maxime Rodinson, and the historic prevalence of Arabic culture in the West, from Don Quixote to Trafalgar Square. External Website

Authors T Charles Dickens: A Life ➝ You Should Be Grateful (book) ➝ Back to Top

Biography of Care Experienced People Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox Lois Banner 2013 This is a biography of Marilyn Monroe which includes the account of Norma Jean's time in foster, kinship and residential care. Lois Banner explores Norma Jean's difficult childhood and her journey from there to making it in Hollywood, marrying Joe DiMaggio and her tragic end. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Home Bird Fran Hill 2025 Home Bird, the sequel to Cuckoo in the Nest, follows 17-year-old Jackie Chadwick as she navigates ‘aging out’ of the state care system in 1979, balancing school, work, and a turbulent home life with her recently released father, while finding strength and hope through the support of teachers, former carers, and her own determination. External Website

Cartoons Not all Superheroes wear capes! 2021 Linus has created these animations to help promote The Christmas Dinner Middlesbrough & Teesside. Linus Fossu! Linus is autistic, has learning disabilities and suffers from PTSD and he is also a care leaver! Linus taught himself to animate. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir A Place called Hope Tom O'Neill 1981 This book is written by Tom O'Neill, older brother of Dennis O'Neill who died in foster care in England in 1945. Tom O'Neil worked in residential child care, becoming a superintendent. In his book, Tom tells the story of his family and what happened before and after Dennis' death. He also talks about the importance of providing love and care to children who are in distress. External Website

Radio & Podcast Historical fiction with Jodi Picoult The Penguin Podcast 2024 In Episode 7 of the Penguin Podcast, you can hear how American writer Jodi Picoult was inspired by the story of Emilia Bassano/Lanyer to include her in her lastest work, the historical fiction novel By Any Other Name. In By Any Other Name, Picoult writes Lanyer as one of those who wrote Shakespeare’s plays, a controversial position to take but as she says, the book is fiction. https://www.penguin.co.uk/podcast External Website

Films/Videos Shape of Water 2017 1962 Baltimore. Elisa Esposito, found abandoned as a baby with scars on her neck, has been mute all her life, that disability which has largely led to her not having opportunities. She works a manual labor job as a cleaner at a military research facility where she has long been friends with fellow cleaner, Zelda Fuller, who often translates her sign language to others at the facility. From master storyteller Guillermo del Toro comes THE SHAPE OF WATER, an otherworldly fable set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. Rounding out the cast are Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Doug Jones. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Feathers of the Snow Angel: Memories of a Child in Exile Lionel Pearce 2002 Lionel Pearce was orphaned at a young age and was brought to Australia under the Fairbridge scheme. He grew up in the Fairbridge Farm School in Western Australia and after working as a farm laborer and serving in the Army during the war, he returned to study, eventually becoming a medical practitioner. His mother's death, his rejection by her family and his institutionalism left him damaged and vulnerable. External Website

Authors J Innocent Blood ➝ Fifty Shades of Grey ➝ The Late Train to Gipsy Hill ➝ The Fish ➝ Paper Nautilus ➝ Death in Holy Orders (Novel) ➝ Codename Villanelle ➝ The Orphan Master's Son ➝ One Another (Novel) ➝ The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignacius Sancho ➝ The Turn of the Screw ➝ The Orphan's Tale ➝ Mister Pip ➝ Hand Me Down World ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Taking Hold of Our Heritage (film) 2020 This project wants to give the power back to the care experienced young person so they can tell the stories they want heard about their lives. This heritage project will work with young people to investigate the complex nature of the identity of care leavers, producing an archive of artefacts including oral histories, photography and photovoice. The young people will investigate the memories and experiences of Leicestershire’s leaving care community, by looking at themselves, but also visiting and interviewing and documenting care experience young people. External Website

Fiction Featuring Care Experience Gravity Let Me Go Trent Dalton 2025 Gravity Let Me Go (2025) by Australian writer, Trent Dalton, tells the story of a Brisbane journalist whose life is unravelling as he begins to promote his non-fiction true crime book. Noah Cork one day finds the remains of a missing woman in an abandoned house. As he investigates the murder, & then spends 6 months writing a book, he neglects his family to the point that his wife, Rita, stops talking. Rita, we find out, was adopted at the age of 6 months. She knows she was a foundling & later plucked from the Mater Mothers home & subsequently adopted by Deb & Munro. Rita is a local hero having saved 3 children from being burned alive in a house fire. She also grows plants & gives them away, and helps out other neighbours quietly – delivering prepared meals for sick ones for example. Although younger daughter, Clem, is interested in Ritia’s biological parents, Rita isn’t. External Website

Writers Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie 1837-1919 Anne Isabella, Lady Ritchie ( 1837 – 1919), the eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray, was an English writer, whose several novels were highly regarded in their time and made her a central figure on the late Victorian literary scene. Anne's mother became unwell during the pregnancy of Anne's youngest sister, Harriet, and William's attempts to help his wife recover included a trip to Paris. Anne and Harriet lived with their grandparents for several years while their father returned to London. As an adult, Anne Thackeray recalled her time in Paris in two of her novels, The Story of Elizabeth, her first successful publication serialised in 1863, and The Village on the Cliff (1867). It was not until 1846, 4 years later, that the girls returned to live with their father in Kensington Square. William encouraged Anne’s ambitions to write and by the 1860s her literary career had taken off. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles All in the Family: Considering Television’s Orphan Plot Literary Hub (Martin) 2025 In this LitHub article, Kristen Martin argues that: “In pop culture, foster care is always—like life in an orphanage or with a poor family—something a character has to escape or overcome in order to have a fighting chance.” She goes on to a review a number of American television dramas, including Party of Five (1994-2000). For Martin, Party of Five doesn’t “break any new ground” because “it reinforces one of the oldest stories in the orphan book: the adventure plot.” However, Party of Five “does get one thing right” says Martin. Because the Salinger family are middle class, the siblings are “able to avoid foster care and stay together”. This was also the case for Kristen Martin and her brother: her father had named a legal guardian so she never went into the formal foster care system. External Website

Children's Fiction Heidi Johanna Spyri 2015 Heidi is a work of fiction written in 1880 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as Heidi's years of learning and travel (German: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and Heidi makes use of what she has learned. It is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in kinship care with her grandfather, in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book "for children and those who love children."Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People You Should Be Grateful (book) Angela Tucker 2023 You Should Be Grateful (2023) by American adoptee Angela Tucker centres the experiences of adoptees and shares their stories. The book challenges lingering ideas that adoption is a “fairy tale” experience. Angela Tucker was adopted from the foster care system and in 2022 founded the Adoptee Mentoring Society, a non-profit focused on mentoring “for adoptees, by adoptees”. Tucker says “You Should Be Grateful is a common phrase that adoptees hear. For Tucker, “You Should Be Grateful” is a shaming statement, a microaggression, making it difficult for adoptees to critique their situation or the adoption system External Website

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter Vol. 1: Abomination (Mary Shelley Monster Hunter Tp) Vol 1-5 Adam Glass (Author), Olivia Cuartero-Briggs (Author), Mike Marts (Editor), Hayden Sherman (Artist) 2019 Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter reimagines the creation of Frankenstein by revealing that Mary Shelley didn’t just write the iconic horror story—she experienced it. Set in 1816, the story follows Mary, her fiancé Percy, her sisters, and Lord Byron as they visit the eerie Frankenstein Estate. The strange and terrifying events that unfold lead Mary to a shocking discovery about their mysterious host, which will change her life forever. Created by Adam Glass and Olivia Cuartero-Briggs, with art by Hayden Sherman, this is a thrilling blend of historical fiction and horror. There are 5 volumes in this series: External Website