Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Searching for my slave roots Malik Al Nasir 2020 By Malik Al Nasir, as told to Ed Thomas. The poet Malik Al Nasir has been on a journey to find his roots as a black Liverpudlian. It's a journey that has taken him back in time and halfway around the world, before returning him right back to the city where he began. External Website

Writers AUTHORS V External Website

Poets Omar Sakr (poet) Omar Sakr Omar Sakr is an Australian poet, born to Lebanese and Turkish Muslim migrants. He is the first Arab-Australian Muslim to win the prestigious 2020 Prime Minister's Literary Award for his 2nd collection of poetry, The Lost Arabs. Sakr's poetry has been published internationally and received numerous awards. As a six year old, Omar Sakr found out that the woman raising him, the woman he thought of as his mother, was an actually an aunt and his 'siblings' were, in fact, cousins. External Website

Performing Arts British author, broadcaster, stand-up comedian, and columnist Mark Steel Mark Steel (born 4 July 1960) is an English author, broadcaster, stand-up comedian, and columnist known for his work in The Guardian, The Independent, and Daily Mirror, as well as his radio and podcast series like The Mark Steel Lectures and What the Fuck is Going On?. Early Life: Adopted 10 days after birth, Steel was raised in Swanley, Kent, by loving adoptive parents—his father worked in insurance and his mother supplemented the family income with various jobs. Steel always knew he was adopted and felt no distress about it. His biological mother, Frances, gave him up for adoption through his aunt. Later in life, Steel discovered his mother was a politically active Scottish woman married to an Italian, while his father, Joe Dwek, was an Egyptian Sephardic Jew and a wealthy Wall Street trader and backgammon champion. Steel met Dwek once in 2006 but had no relationship with his biological mother, who declined contact before her death. External Website

Radio & Podcast Jennifer Down and Jonathan Franzen relive the 1970s The Book Show 2022 A fascinating conversation with Jennifer Down author of Bodies of Light, which was shortlisted for Australia's Stella Prize in 2022. Bodies of Light is the story of Maggie Sullivan who grows up in the Victoria's state care system in the 1970s and 1980s. As an adult she 'reinvents' herself and becomes Josephine, and ThHolly by the end of the story. Jennifer talks about how she knew more about the state care system than many people as both her parents were social workers, with her mother working in the child protection system. The second part of the conversation with Jonathan Franzen is worth listening to as well, particularly since it was his endorsement which gave life to US writer and Care Experience Person, Paula Fox's career https://drdee-drdeethinkingoutloud.blogspot.com/2021/08/paula-foxs-nomadic-childhood.html External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience We Are All Guilty Here Karin Slaughter 2025 We Are All Guilty Here (2025) by American writer, Karin Slaughter, has a couple of Care Experienced Characters. One is lurking in the background throughout the story. Wesley Woodrow, at the beginning of the novel, is a 16-year-old living with his grandmother and already in trouble with the local police for dealing drugs. However, it’s not Woody who is raping and killing teenage girls. That turns out to be 3 respected members of the community, men no-one would suspect of such horrors. The other Care Experienced Character is *spoiler alert* central to the story. Emmy is a local cop investigating missing teenager girls. What we find out at the end of the novel is that Emmy has been raised in the kinship care of her grandparents, people she thinks are her parents. External Website

Children's Fiction The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) Lemony Snicket 2018 The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become orphans following a fire and are sent to live with Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Fifty-One Moves. Ben Ashcroft 2013 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. External Website

Television Shows Towards Zero 2025 In the 2025 BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie's Towards Zero, the character of Audrey Strange, portrayed by Ella Lily Hyland, has a significant backstory as an orphan. Audrey moved to Gull's Point during her childhood after losing her parents, seeking refuge with her aunt, Lady Tressilian. She and Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), her cousin, developed a complex relationship that evolved from a sibling-like bond into a romantic involvement. Their marriage, however, was fraught with difficulties, leading to a scandalous divorce. The series begins with Audrey's decision to spend a summer at Gull's Point alongside Nevile and his new wife, Kay, setting the stage for unfolding drama and mystery. Another orphan character Sylvia (Grace Doherty) has been expelled from school for thievery and is portrayed as inquisitive. As an outsider, she observes the tensions and conflicts among the guests with a sharp and inquisitive mind. She is the ward of Mr. Treves, also a guest at Gull's Point - a venerable family lawyer. External Website

Authors C Christmas Story ➝ Changing The Narrative ➝ Child 44 ➝ Christmas Comes But Once A Year ➝ Collateral ➝ Continuous Voices ➝ Care Experience & Culture You Tube Channel ➝ Care Experienced Video on Vimeo ➝ Carefree ➝ Chaplin ➝ Conviction ➝ Christmas Oranges ➝ Christmas Child ➝ Careful, He Might Hear You ➝ Clan Library ➝ Case 39 ➝ Closure ➝ Cabrini ➝ Cruella ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience The December Boys Michael Noonan 2007 When a group of close friends leaves the dusty outback orphanage where thy've grown up for a summer holiday together at the coast, their furture is full of possibilities. But the chance that one of them, just one, might gain a real family to live with calls everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other into question. Because the future is as unknown as the ocean's depths. And family comes in many forms... External Website

Autobiography/Memoir All at Sea: Memories of a Coram Boy Gorden Aspey 2010 Gordon Aspey b' March 1934, recalls his journey from the workhouse to the Foundling Hospital a charitable institution that cared for abandoned and destitute children. At the age of three months old he is handed over to The Foundling Hospital a charitable institution that catered for abandoned children. They place him with a foster mother until the age of five He develops a deep filial attachment to Mrs.Tapp the foster mother a good hearted and wise woman who provides him with a secure and loving home. He shrugs off his connections with the charitable past which he feels are not always helpful. He develops a love of boats and the sea but after running into a force 10 storm in 1987 when survival looked to be in doubt, the experience had a devastating effect upon him. External Website

Authors T The Last Anniversary (novel) ➝ Truth ➝ The joyful condemned ➝ Tattycoram ➝ The Magician ➝ The Joy Luck Club ➝ The Broken Shore ➝ The Franchise Affair (novel) ➝ Clarke ➝ A Gentleman in Moscow ➝ The Goldfinch ➝ Tell Morning This ➝ The Daughter of Time ➝ The Flying Troutmans ➝ That girl ➝ Back to Top

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels The Adoption Zidou (Author), Arno Monin (Artist) 2020 When aging Gabriel's son and daughter adopts an orphaned girl from Peru, Gabriel doesn't know what to think of this child who isn't of his own blood. Besides, he was barely much of a father to his own son... how is he going to take to being a grandfather? The story is made up of moments of sharing between the grandfather and the granddaughter, as well as various interactions around this dilemma with his wife, his lifelong friends, and his own son himself. But when surprise twists complicate matters, true feelings blossom and Life takes on a whole new palette. A comic book filled with love in which we discover this old man gradually becoming a grandfather and allowing himself to be tamed by an absolutely adorable little girl. External Website

Authors M Ayeisha McFerran - Hockey Player ➝ Karen Menzies - Soccer Player ➝ Sonny Morey ➝ Back to Top

Authors W Louise Wallwein (poet) ➝ Joy Williams (poet) ➝ Poems From a Runaway ➝ William Wordsworth ➝ Phillis Wheatley ➝ Dorothy Wordsworth (poet) ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience I'll Be Right Here Amy Bloom 2025 I’ll Be Right Here (2025) by American writer Amy Bloom tells the story of a chosen family over decades and across continents. The novel centres on Gazala & Samir Benamar who are French Algerian siblings orphaned in pre-WWII Paris. Samir was adopted as a baby by Gazala’s parents. After WWII, Gazala emigrates to New York. There she meets the Cohen family and becomes part of their family. It’s the Greats or members of the chosen family who gather when Gazala is dying. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard Liz Murray 2011 Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard. Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was put into a girls' home. At age fifteen, Liz found herself on the streets. She learned to scrape by, foraging for food and riding subways all night to have a warm place to sleep. When Liz's mother died of AIDS, she decided to go back to high school, often completing her assignments in the hallways and subway stations where she slept. Liz squeezed four years of high school into two, while homeless. She won a New York Times scholarship; and made it into Havard. External Website

Television Shows The Virtues 2019 After his nine-year-old son leaves for Australia with his ex, Joseph walks away from his present life and boards a boat for Ireland to confront painful memories from his childhood in a children's home External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Life story books and later life letters 2023 The life story book represents a realistic and honest account of the circumstances surrounding the child’s adoption. The Department for Education’s National Minimum Standards for adoption state that its format is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding and accessible for use by the child, and that prospective adopters are encouraged to update it with the child as their understanding develops. A later life letter should explain the child’s history from birth and be sufficiently detailed so that in the future the adolescent child, or young adult, will have factual details about their birth family and their life before adoption, and so be able to understand why they could not live with their birth family, and why they were adopted. External Website