Academic Articles "Let's Go to the Movies": Filmic Representations of Gay Foster and Adoptive Parents Damien Riggs 2011 As a growing body of research evidence demonstrates, increasing numbers of gay men across the world are choosing to become foster or adoptive parents. Most important, the families that these men form are continually found to be supportive and positive environments in which to raise children. Yet despite these positive findings, other empirical evidence from examinations of popular media representations of gay parents highlights the negative assumptions that continue to be perpetuated against gay men who are parents. More specifically, these findings suggest that print and popular media promote an account of gay parents that is often either normalising or pathologising. The findings presented in this article extend this latter body of research by exploring filmic portrayals of gay men variously engaged in fostering and adoptive arrangements. External Website

Films/Videos You Are My Home 2020 You Are My Home tackles the subjects of foster care and immigration in the United States. 11 year old Alexandra (Eva Ariel Binder) is left on her own when her mother is deported back to Mexico. The child is placed with Chloe (Angel Parker) who is grieving the loss of her husband and son in a car accident and initially finds it difficult to relate to Alexandra. There are a number of foster care characters in the film, including Carlos (Cristian de la Fuente) who helps Chloe with Alexandra. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Unbelievable review – grimly credible story of trauma, power and injustice Hannah Daviies 2019 A review about the Netflix drama, Unbelievable about a retracted rape allegation. The author argues this is a fiercely feminist look at the nature of truth and whose stories get heard. External Website

Artists Barbara Weir Barbara (originally Florrie) Weir (born c. 1945) is an Australian Aboriginal artist and politician. One of the Stolen Generations, she was removed from her Aboriginal family and raised in a series of foster homes. In the 1970s Weir returned to her family territory of Utopia, 300 kilometres (190 mi) northeast of Alice Springs. She became active in the local land rights movement of the 1970s and was elected the first woman president of the Indigenous Urapunta Council in 1985. After starting to paint in her mid-forties, she also gained recognition as a notable artist of Central Australia. She also managed the artistic career of her own mother, Minnie Pwerle, who was also a noted artist. External Website

Sport Dele Alli Dele Alli b.1996 Bamidele Jermaine "Dele" Alli (b. 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Everton and the England national team. Alli was born in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, to a Yoruba Nigerian father Kehinde and English mother Denise. Kehinde moved to the United States a week after Alli's birth. Alli was initially brought up by his mother, who suffered from alcohol problems. At the age of nine, he moved to Nigeria with his father, where he spent two years in an international school before returning to Milton Keynes to live with his mother. Alli went to Stantonbury Campus and The Radcliffe School in Wolverton. At the age of 13, he moved into the family home of Alan and Sally Hickford, parents of another young footballer with MK Dons and whom he refers to as his "adoptive parents" although he was never legally adopted by them. In the summer of 2016, Alli elected to stop wearing his surname on his match shirts because he felt no connection with the Alli family name, instead opting for "Dele". External Website

Children's Fiction The Coral Island RM Ballantyne 1857 "According to several sources, William Golding got the idea of Lord of the Flies from the children’s novel, The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1957) by Scottish writer RM Ballantye. The Coral Island was one of the first examples of fiction for children to feature children exclusively as heroes. Three boys are marooned on an island in the South Pacific, the survivors of a shipwreck. One of the boys, Ralph, is the narrator, reflecting on his childhood adventure. The Coral Island was enormously successful. Today, there are themes of imperialism and colonisation that are questioned and considered outdated but it was voted one of the top Scottish novels in 2006 at the 15th International World Wide Web Conference." External Website

Television Shows Bones 2005 Bones is an American crime procedural featuring forensic anthropologist, Dr Temperance "Bones" Brennan. Temperance was put into foster care when she was 15 years of age. The foster system was unstable and abusive. Despite going to 12 different schools while in foster, Temperance ended up with 3 doctorates and does occasional contract work with the FBI External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Being Lara: A Novel Lola Jaye 2012 A poignant and provocative story of adoption, self-discovery, and the meaning of family, Being Lara by author Lola Jaye (By the Time You Read This) is an unforgettable tale of three women—British mother, Nigerian birth mother, and 30-year-old daughter—the choices they made, and the fragile bond they try to create across time and continents. Intelligent and touching, Being Lara is exquisite contemporary fiction with heart and soul that will resonate with readers of Cecilia Ahearn, Thrity Umrigar, and Shilpi Gowda. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Ordeal by Innocence (Novel) Agatha Christie 1958 Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence was first published in 1958. There are 5 adoptees in the novel, all now adults and adopted into the one family by Rachel Argyle. Rachel was killed 2 years before the story opens. Rachel Argyle had set up a refuge for children whose homes were bombed during WWII. She was so enthusiastic about her work she adopted 5 children, “those from particularly unsatisfactory homes or who were orphans” (53, 2017, HarperCollins). A central theme in Ordeal by Innocence is nature vs nurture, whether a privileged environment can overcome hereditary ‘weaknesses’. Christie’s psychological approach was, apparently, much criticised as was an element of racism in the story. Ordeal by Innocence was adapted for film in 1985 and for television in 2007 (ITV), 2009 (France) France, and 2018 (BBC One). External Website

Children's Fiction Close Your Pretty Eyes (11-13 years) Sally Nicholls 2013 Eleven-year-old Olivia has been in care since she was five, and is just beginning her sixteenth placement. Her new home is a secluded farmhouse, centuries old, where she slowly bonds with her foster family. But the house holds dark secrets. Olivia discovers that it was once a notorious baby farm, where unwanted children were left to die. She becomes convinced that the place is haunted. She is desperate to save her new family from the ghosts. The danger is real - but does it come from the twisted mind of a very disturbed child? A powerful and thrilling story from one of today's most exciting young writers. External Website

Academic Articles Facing the cliff-edge: care-experienced graduates’ access to and progression through taught postgraduate study in the United Kingdom Zoe Baker 2024 Support for care-experienced students stops after undergraduate study, creating an “undergraduate cliff edge.” This lack of ongoing help makes postgraduate study risky and reinforces instability. The study calls for policies to ensure fair, continued support. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Border officers saw a couple behaving oddly with a baby - and uncovered a mystery BBC 2025 In this BBC article, Sanchia Berg and Tara Mewawalla tell the story of Lucy, a child whose identity as at 26 April this year, was not known. The child, according to the article, “seems to have been born in rural Nigeria in September 2022, and given to an orphanage when she was just three days old.” She has been in social care in Manchester since her “parents” were apprehended by Border Force. She is in her 3rd foster home since arriving in the UK. Raphael Ossai claimed to be the Lucy’s father, and Oluwakemi Olasanoye, the girl’s mother. “The court heard that on 20 June 2023, Ossai and Olasanoye unlawfully brought Lucy to the UK from Lagos, via Addis Ababa. Olasanoye had a visa to work in the UK and agreed to travel with Ossai and Lucy…In this BBC article, Sanchia Berg and Tara Mewawalla tell the story of Lucy, a child whose identity as at 26 April this year, was not known. The child, according to the article, “seems to have been born in rural Nigeria in September 2022, and given to an orphanage when she was just three days old.” She has been in social care in Manchester since her “parents” were apprehended by Border Force. She is in her 3rd foster home since arriving in the UK. Raphael Ossai claimed to be the Lucy’s father, and Oluwakemi Olasanoye, the girl’s mother. “The court heard that on 20 June 2023, Ossai and Olasanoye unlawfully brought Lucy to the UK from Lagos, via Addis Ababa. Olasanoye had a visa to work in the UK and agreed to travel with Ossai and Lucy… Ossai and Olasanoye, pleaded guilty to immigration offences and were sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by deportation.” External Website

Performing Arts Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actor. Prince Prince Rogers Nelson (1958 – 2016) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. Prince was born in Minneapolis to jazz musician, John Nelson, and jazz singer, Mattie Shaw. His parents separated when Prince was about 10. From then he alternated living with both of them, even after his mother remarried. Hayward Baker, Prince’s stepfather, took the boy to see James Brown, an important influence on Prince’s songwriting and performing. Prince became good friends with Andre Anderson (to become known as Andre Cymone), a newcomer to Prince’s school at around age twelve. After Prince became tired of moving between his mother’s and his father’s house, he ran away and moved in with Andre and his family. Prince was still in his teens when he signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. His second album, Prince (1979), sold more than 1 million copies. External Website

Writers Michael Maclear 1929-2018 Michael Maclear (1929 – December 25, 2018) was an award-winning Anglo-Canadian journalist, documentary filmmaker, and former correspondent for various CBC programs and for CTV's W5. He is the great-great-grand-nephew of South African astronomer Sir Thomas Maclear.Born in London, and according to his daughter, Kyo Maclear, Michael Maclear was abandoned by his parents to a foster home. He began work at age 14, as a copy boy on Fleet Street and from there he became a reporter for the Chicago Tribune in their London office. In 1954, Maclear migrated to Canada and began work with the Canadian Broadcasting Commission in 1955. Michael Maclear made his first documentary, a 26 part series, Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day Way which first aired in 1980, in response to his time in Vietnam. In 2013, Michael Maclear was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. External Website

Performing Arts French singer-songwriter, cabaret performer, actress Edith Piaf Édith Piaf (1915 – 1963) was a French singer-songwriter, cabaret performer and film actress noted as France's national chanteuse and one of the country's most widely known international stars. Edith Piaf was born Edith Giovanna Gassion in the twentieth arrondissement, then a poor area of Paris. She was immediately abandoned by her mother, street performer Annetta Maillard, who left the tiny baby with her mother. Edith’s father, Louis Gassion, wasn’t impressed with the grandmother’s quarters and took his daughter to live with his mother in Normandy, France. Edith's paternal grandmother ran a bordello and sex workers helped care for the child. At 14 (or perhaps younger), Edith became part of her father’s troupe of itinerant street performers and acrobats. Night club owner, Louis Leplee, presented her as a talented street kid when she was 19. Although she was with Leplee for only 12 months until his death, she became a “huge success” and followed her night club appearances with radio, records and song-writing. She probably never really recovered from her difficult childhood, but by the Second World War, Edith Piaf “had become one of the top entertainers in Paris.” When the War ended, Edith Piaf toured internationally, endearing herself to many and becoming a household name. External Website

Poets Stevie Smith Stevie Smith Stevie Smith, English Poet and novelist born Florence Margaret Smith(1902–1971), was born in Kingston Upon Hull. She was 3 years old when her father ran away to sea and her mother moved to Palmers Green where she stayed until her death. At 5 years old, she was sent to a sanatorium near Broadstairs, Kent, where she remained for three years due to developing tuberculous peritonitis. Being away from her mother was very painful and this was when she had her first throughts of suicide which would haunt her throughout her life. Her mother died when she was 16. An aunt looked after Stevie and elder sister Molly. External Website

Non Fiction The Market in Babies Marian Quartly 2013 The Market in Babies (2013) by Marian Quartly, Shurlee Swain & Denise Cuthbert tells the history of adoption in Australia and is the result of a 5 year-long research project. As the authors point out in the introduction, 50 years ago (from the time of writing) the generally accepted view in Australia was that adoption was a permissible way to form a family, and it was a means of providing for orphans. It was also a secret within many families. That view is now contested as support groups formed from the 1980s and exposed the pain of separation felt by mothers and children. The number of adoptions per year has declined significantly. The Market in Babies includes excerpts from the stories people contributed to the project website. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Swimming for beginners Nicola Gill 2023 Loretta has her life all planned out – challenging job, engaged to a nice but dull man – and it definitely doesn’t include children. Then, an unexpected tragedy at an airport throws six-year-old Phoebe, complete with glitter fairy wings, into her life and upends it completely. The perfect mix of funny, poignant and heartwarming. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Clan of the Cave Bear: The bestselling sweeping historical romance (Earth's Children) Jean M. 1986 This is the first novel in the clan set of 6 books. The reader follows Ayla, a young Cro-Magnon girl orphaned by an earthquake and taken in by a group of Neanderthals—the Clan. Though biologically and culturally different, Ayla is raised by the Clan’s medicine woman, Iza, and must navigate a world where she is perpetually “other.” External Website

Writers Jane Austen According to historian Lucy Worsley, English novelist, Jane Austen (1775-1817), and her 7 siblings were all in foster care as infants. 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. External Website