Autobiography/Memoir The Sons with Two Moms Tony Hynes 2015 Tony Hynes was adopted by Mary and Janet during the mid-1990s. Until then he was in kinship care with his grandmothers, and in an orphanage for a year. The initial adoption order was overturned and his parents returned to court, eventually appealing to the Supreme Court. The outcome was a joint custody agreement between Mary and Janet and Tony's birth family. External Website

Television Shows Alma's Not Normal 2020 The comedian Sophie Willan has turned her award-winning stage hit into a new TV show, via childhood trauma, sex work and ornamental pixies. Episode 1: After a recent break-up, Alma tries to get her life back on track. But with no job, no qualifications and a rebellious streak a mile wide, it is not going to be easy. Meanwhile, her heroin-addicted mum has been sectioned for arson, and her vampish grandma Joan wants nothing to do with it. Episode 2: Alma’s dream of becoming an actress isn’t going to be easy, so she needs to find a day job. After unsuccessfully dipping her toe into the world of escorting, Alma reluctantly takes up the position of ‘sandwich artiste’ at SubNGo. Episode 3: Alma is finally making some money by embracing her role as Ruby when she meets Phil. He’s a client who is handsome and sophisticated, but is he too good to be true? Episode 4: As Alma is finally getting her life back on track, and the hostel isn’t exactly the right place for her mum, a recovering addict, Alma has to convince her grandma to let Lin move in with her. But will this be a step too far for Lin and Joan? Episode 5: When Alma discovers that her care-leaving background can help secure her an audition to join a theatre company for a national tour, she jumps at the chance. However, when social services send through her records, Alma comes face to face with the stark reality of her childhood growing up in and out of the care system. 'It's pretty weird having your whole life handed to you in a box'. Could this bombshell lead to Alma missing out on an opportunity she’s been waiting her whole life for? Episode 6: Things between Lin and Joan aren’t going well, and the news that Alma will be leaving for a six-month tour looks like it might push Lin over the edge. External Website

Fiction Featuring Care Experience The Elements John Boyne 2025 The Elements (2025) is the publication in one volume of Irish writer John Boyne’s quartet of novellas which explore child sexual abuse. Each of the novellas focuses on a different perspective within the larger crime. Fire is the 3rd of novellas & focuses on the perpetrator who is Dr Freya Petrus, a respected burn surgeon. Freya grew up in the kinship care of her grandmother. Each summer she would spend a month with her mother and it was during one of these holidays that, as a 12-year-old, she was repeatedly raped by 14-year-old twin brothers. Freya as an adult has been raping 14 year old boys. When she finally decides to stop she wonders how many boy’s lives she has ruined. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Foundling Boy Michel Deon 1975 The Foundling Boy was written by French author, Michel Deon, back in 1975 and not published in English until 2013 (translated by Julian Evans). The story, often likened to Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones (1749), follows Jean Arnaud from the time he's left as an infant on the doorstep of a gardener and his wife living on a country estate in Normandy, to when Jean's enlists at the outbreak of WWII. By then, Jean - who has cycled his way around Europe and lived in London - has also found out who his birth mother is. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Girls Lori Lansens 2005 The Girls is the story of conjoined twins told predominantly by Rosie but with occasional contributions by Ruby. The twins were abandoned at the hospital by their mother and were brought up by the nurse who delivered them and her husband. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Safe With Me Grace Lowrie 2017 An emotional and evocative story about the deepest bonds of friendship. Abandoned as children, Kat and Jamie were inseparable growing up in foster care. But their bond couldn't protect them forever. From a troubled upbringing to working in a London greasy spoon, Kat's life has never been easy. On the surface Jamie s living the high-life, but appearances can be deceiving. When they unexpectedly reunite, their feelings become too intense to ignore. But as secrets come back to haunt them, are they destined to be separated once more? External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles "Malcolm Still Speaks." Ibram X. Kendi on George Breitman and the Enduring Legacy of Malcolm X. Literary Hub (Malcolm X) 2024 In this article, Ibram X Kendi tells of the ways in which he was influenced by African American great, Malcolm X (1925-1965). He writes of Malcolm’s incarceration for burglary: “… after holding down low-wage jobs and illegal hustles up and down the east coast; after moving east from Michigan at fifteen years old in 1941; after being alienated from school; after a white teacher said his aspiration to be a lawyer was “no realistic goal for a nigger”; after shuffling between foster families and detention homes in Michigan; after losing his mother to an insane asylum; after welfare officials connived to break up his impoverished family rather than support them…” He concludes that even though the 5 assassins who murdered Malcolm X tried to silence him, we can still hear him speak through (the recently republished) Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements. External Website

Television Shows The Alienist 2018 The Alienist (2018-2020) is an adaptation of Caleb Carr’s historical thriller novels which include the character of Laszlo Kreizler who runs a home for orphaned/abandoned children in 19th century New York City and Stevie Taggart, a boy Kreizler has taken into his care. In the 1st season, the 10 episodes tell the story of 1994 novel The Alienist, which is set in 1896 and investigates the deaths of teenage boys. In the 2nd season, the 8 episodes tell the story of an investigation into the deaths of babies & children by serial killer Elspeth Hunter. Daniel Bruhl stars as Laszlo Kreizler, Luke Evans as John Morr and Dakota Fanna as Sara Howard. Matt Lintz plays Stevie Taggert in Season 1, and Dominic Herman-Day in Season 2. External Website

Writers Joseph Conrad 1857-1924 Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924) was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born in the Ukraine to Polish parents. Josef was seven when his mother died. For three years, his father, a poet, translator, publisher and political exile, looked after the small boy, reading him Polish poetry and teaching him Maths and French. But in 1869 he died too. Eleven year old Josef was taken in by his maternal grandmother. He went to a local school for a couple of years, but boarded at the school. When Joseph was 15, his maternal uncle Tadeus Bobrowski became his guardian - by correspondence though, they rarely saw each other. At age 16, Joseph was off, exploring the world as a sailor. Joseph Conrad took up writing in his 30s. He says he suddenly sat down one day at breakfast and began drafting his first book, which he worked on for a number of years. He sent the manuscript to publisher T.F.Unwin in 1894 when he was in London and looking for another job aboard a ship. That same year, 1894, his uncle Tadeus died, leaving Conrad enough money to commence his send book and to write for a year without the pressure of having to work full time. By the time of his death at 66 Joseph Conrad was recognised as one of the greatest writers in the English language. External Website

Writers Jenni Fagan Dr. Jenni Fagan was born in 1977 in Scotland and spent time in the Scottish Local Authority care system. She was adopted twice and was moved 26 times. After leaving the care system Fagan was homeless for several years. She graduated from Greenwich University and won a scholarship to the Royal Holloway MFA programme. She completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh. A published poet and novelist, she has won awards from Creative Scotland, Dewar Arts, Scottish Screen and Scottish Book Trust among others, and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Jenni was selected as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists after the publication of her debut novel, The Panopticon, which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize. Her adaptation of The Panopticon was staged by the National Theatre of Scotland to great acclaim. The Sunlight Pilgrims, her second novel, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award and the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award, and saw her win Scottish Author of the Year at the Herald Culture Awards. She lives in Edinburgh with her son. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Auē Becky Manawatu 2019 Auē (2019) by New Zealand writer Becky Manawatu begins with 8-year-old Arama being delivered to his new home with Aunt Kat and awful Uncle Stu. It’s his 17-year-old brother, Taukiri, who is dropping Ari off. Taukiri, we find out, is disappointed in himself because he's abandoned his brother. He, too, is grieving the loss of his parents, and is homeless. Auē—which is a Maori word meaning “to cry, howl, groan, wail, bawl”—is Becky Manawatu’s first novel. It has won several awards, including the 2020 Jann Medicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, and was New Zealand’s best selling novel in 2020 and 2021. External Website

Authors J Lennie James (actor) ➝ Back to Top

Children's Fiction Lucky Button Michael Morpurgo 2017 Historical story inspired by the Foundling Museum, written by acclaimed children's author Michael Morpurgo and illustrated by Michael Foreman. A lonely boy struggles to cope with school bullies and caring for his mother, until a mysterious encounter reveals life in the Foundling Hospital in the eighteenth century and unravels a touching tale about the power of music. External Website

Radio & Podcast How Walter Scott’s stories shaped Scotland History Extra 2021 Walter Scott (1771-1832), who was in kinship care for about 5 years because of ill health, was one of the most popular early 19th century writers? Where the average print run for a novel was 750 copies (Jane Austen had print runs up to 2000), Scott had print runs up to 4000 copies, with Rob Roy (1817) selling 10,000 copies within a fortnight of it being first published. In this podcast, we hear about how Scott influenced the development of historical fiction, how readers thought of Scotland, and other writers like Charles Dickens & George Elliott. External Website

Behind the Scenes Robert Harris Robert Harris (1829-1904) arrived in Tasmania with his convict mother, Elizaeth in 1831. 2 year old Robert was admitted to the new Orphan School in 1832 and not released to his mother until he was 12. At the age of 34, Robert Harris set up his own printing and publishing business and started a newspaper. With his sons, Robert Harris and using a family business, The Harris Compnay, launched the North Western Advocate in 1899, which became the Advocate in 1918, with 3 of Robert's grandsons running it, and great-grandsons after that. Harris & Company bought the Launceston Examiner in 1990 but was taken over by Rural Press at the end of 2003. Rural Press was incorporated into Fairfax Media during 2007. External Website

Television Shows The Resident 2018 The Resident (2018-2023) is an American medical drama series. From the 2nd season, Malcolm-Jamal Warner plays August Jeremiah “AJ/The Raptor” Austin, a prominent cardiothoracic surgeon who joins Chastain Park Memorial Hospital. “The Raptor” Austin reveals during the series that his birth parents are both prominent doctors who gave him up for adoption to pursue their careers. He was raised by Carol and Yee Austin but searches out his birth parents during the show. Other storylines with an adoption theme include Sammie (Chedi Chang) who was abandoned by her former guardian after surgery for a tumor & is later adopted by plastic surgeon Jake Wong (Conrad Ricamora) & his husband Gregg. There is also (Season 5) Trevor Daniels (Miles Fowler) who is the biological son of Billie Sutton (Jessica Lucas). When she was 13, Billie Sutton was raped by her neighbour & she put the resultant baby up for adoption. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Akin Emma Donoghue 2020 Akin explores kinship care. Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but born in the South of France. He is days away from his first visit back to Nice since he was a child, bringing with him a handful of puzzling photos he's discovered from his mother's wartime years. But he receives a call from social services: Noah is the closest available relative of an eleven-year-old great-nephew he's never met, who urgently needs someone to look after him. Out of a feeling of obligation, Noah agrees to take Michael along on his trip. The unlikely duo, suffering from jet lag and culture shock, bicker about everything from steak frites to screen time. But Noah gradually comes to appreciate the boy's truculent wit, and Michael's ease with tech and sharp eye help Noah unearth troubling details about their family's past. External Website

Films/Videos Motherless Brooklyn 2019 Jonatham Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn (1999) was adapted for film in 2019 by Edward Norton. Norton also starred as Lionel Essrog, the PI with Tourette’s who is determined to find out who killed his mentor and boss, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Edward Norton has changed the setting of the film to 1957 NYC and changed the reason for Frank Minna being killed. In the film there is a conspiracy around the gentrification of New York and the shifting out of the city of the Black and working-class communities. The other 3 “Minna Men” are included in the film – Tony (Bobby Cannavale), Danny (Dallas Roberts), Gilbert (Ethan Suplee) – but little is said about the boys’ home from which they – and Lionel Essrog – were plucked by Frank Minna. External Website

Radio & Podcast Innocence and "child rescue" in the colonial imagination The Philosopher's Zone 2025 In this The Philosopher’s Zone (14 March 2025), host David Rutledge talks with Sydney based academic, Joanne Faulkner, about the parallel between Australia’s Stolen Generation and the 19th century British “child rescue” movement. The British “child rescue” movement contended that “neglected” and impoverished children needed to be removed from their family and trained up to become productive workers. Joanne Faulkner references Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905) who was involved in the “child rescue” movement and who was accused of “kidnapping” children. He appeared in court many times on kidnapping charges where he argued that he was justified in removing the children. External Website

Films/Videos Goodnight, Mister Tom 1998 Goodnight, Mister Tom is a TV movie starring John Thaw, Nick Robinson, and Annabelle Apsion. A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond. External Website