Radio & Podcast Barry Keoghan Louis Theroux Podcast 2024 Irish actor Barry Keoghan (b. 1992) was in foster & kinship care as a child. In this episode (S3 Ep7) of the Louis Theroux Podcast, Keoghan talks about his childhood – the reasons for being in foster care, visits with his mother, living with his grandmother after his mother died. Keoghan stresses that he speaks about his background not for sympathy or pity, but as encouragement for children from similarly difficult backgrounds. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Gaining a Sense of Self Karen Laura-Lee Wilson 2011 Recipes for Survival: Stories of Hope and Healing by Survivors of the State ‘Care’ System in Australia is a collection of stories by those who have grown up in care in Australia during the 20th century and is therefore contribution to a growing body of literature on the experiences of the Forgotten Australians. External Website

Films/Videos Foreign Correspondent: Saving the Children 2024 In this Foreign Correspondent program, senior reporter with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Mazoe Ford, investigates the adoption of children from South Korea since the end of the Korean war in 1953. Something like 200,000 children were adopted internationally. Now adults, the adoptees are returning to South Korea for information about their birth parents and how they came to be adopted. There are concerns amongst the adoptees about corruption, malpractice & human rights violations. These concerns have resulted in an official investigation into Korea’s international adoption scandal. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Life story books and later life letters ➝ National Aged and Community Care Roundtable for Forgotten Australians National Aged and Community Care Roundtable for Forgotten Australians ➝ Logan Steiner on Learning Life Lessons from Anne of Green Gables Literary Hub (4) ➝ Find & Connect Find & Connect ➝ Transfiguring Adoption ➝ Child Migrant Trust Child Migrant Trust ➝ GOM Central Elm Place ➝ Stolen Generations Testimonies Stolen Generations' Testimonies ➝ Children in care need long-term support, not punishment | David Akinsanya David Akinsanya (Children in Care) ➝ Searching for my slave roots Malik Al Nasir ➝ Ploughshares at Emerson College Kelly Amber ➝ The Best Movies About Orphans Anon ➝ Lockdown Poetry Amberleigh Care ➝ Ronnie Archer-Morgan shares his fostering story Ronnie Archer-Morgan ➝ Orphans in Literature Dave Astor ➝ Care leavers deserve to be seen for their talents Lucy Barnes ➝ Floella Benjamin (blog) Floella Benjamin ➝ “America’s Literary Giant.” On the Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe in Vietnam Literary Hub (Nguyễn Bình ) ➝ Eleanor and George’s story – love at the Foundling Hospital Janette Bright ➝ 7 Novels about Orphans Elizabeth Brooks ➝ Care Leavers National Movement Care Leavers National Movement ➝ Crazy Diamonds Rosie Canning ➝ The PhD question… Rosie Canning ➝ Movies Christian Alliance for Orphans ➝ Billy Connolly: ‘I’ve been scared my whole life’ Billy Connolly ➝ Vivaldi taught Venetian orphan girls – did they help write his music in return? Harriet Constable ➝ Who was Thomas Coram? Thomas Coram ➝ Orphan's role in movie upsets adoption groups David Crary ➝ A ladder to the stars: Ian Dickson’s reflections on 70 years of the care system Ian Dickson ➝ Mercy's story (Coram) Mercy ➝ Care Collective Zine - Issue 1.pdf Lys Eden ➝ Challenging the Over-Representation of Care Experienced Women in Prison Fitzpatrick.C., Hunter. K ➝ The True Story Behind the Netflix Series 'Unbelievable' Mahita Gajanan ➝ Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen to join Luke Wilson in upcoming Fort Worth film ’12 Mighty Orphans' Michael Granberry ➝ There's a lot of stigma': why do so few care leavers go to university? | Universities | The Guardian Rachel Hall ➝ The Curious Fate of Care Leavers in Crime Fiction Sarah Hilary ➝ The life-changing power of a street dog named Lucy Ishbel Holmes ➝ The Queen's Gambit is a striking study of female genius, and the drama of the year Sarah Hughes ➝ Almost half of children in care fear stigma Louise Hunt ➝ A Conversation with Daniel Ingram-Brown Daniel Ingram-Brown ➝ 50+ Orphans in Literature The Write Practice ➝ Jackie Kay on putting her adoption on stage – and getting a pay rise for her successor Jackie Kay ➝ The Uses of Orphans Alison Kinney ➝ Joan Didion's Blue Nights [Birth Mother] First Mother Forum ➝ All in the Family: Considering Television’s Orphan Plot Literary Hub (Martin) ➝ Hariet Martineau Literary Hub (Martineau) ➝ Hidden women of history: 'how 'lady swindler' Alexandrina Askew triumphed over the convict stain Janet McCalman ➝ Sugarcane London: ‘This is all comfort food’ – restaurant review Tarell Mcintosh ➝ Real Life Super Heroes Dee Michell ➝ Setting the Record Straight for the Rights of the Child Setting the Record Straight for the Rights of the Child ➝ I was one of Britain's last foundlings Joanna Moorhead ➝ The 430 Books in Marilyn Monroe’s Library: How Many Have You Read? Open Culture ➝ My name is Kenny and I love animals Kenny Murray ➝ Cascades Female Factory Australian Government ➝ How the Mainstream Media Sees Us Shalita O’Neale ➝ Children in care are not just numbers: we must challenge the stigma Jimmy Paul ➝ Neil Morrissey revisits his children's home roots Raekha Prasad ➝ Lowitja O’Donoghue statue unveiling in Elder Park InDaily ➝ Adoptee memorial park Omma Poom/엄마품동산, Paju. Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom ➝ Author of ‘Hackney Child’ on absent parents, care homes, and Mother’s Day Cachella Smith ➝ ‘12 Mighty Orphans’ film to premiere in Fort Worth, TX in 2020 | Fort Worth Star-Telegram Stefan Stevenson ➝ The Meaning of Maggie in Toni Morrison's 'Recitatif' Catherine Sustana et al. ➝ Point Puer University of Tasmania ➝ Alan Turing (1912-1954) - noted Computer Scientist and Mathematician Alan Turing ➝ The Untold Story of Queer Foster Families | The New Yorker Michael Waters ➝ Who Cares? Scotland project wins national campaign award Who Cares Scotland ➝ The Wizardry of Boz Literary Hub (3) ➝ Create Foundation ➝ The Indian Act, Residential Schools and Tuberculosis Cover Up Indigenous Corporate Training Inc ➝ On the Missed Crimean Connection between Leo Tolstoy and Florence Nightingale Literary Hub (Tolstoy) ➝ Libraries Tasmania ➝ Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings. ➝ Care Experience Conference Care Experience Conference ➝ AOM (Australian Orphanage Museum) CLAN ➝ I left care at 15 and soon went to borstal. Young people can’t just be abandoned | David Akinsanya David Akinsanya (Left care at 15) ➝ ‘It could happen here’: Lord of the Flies took its lessons from Hitler’s Germany. They speak to now The Conversation ➝ FosterWiki Sarah Anderson ➝ Category:Fictional orphans Anon ➝ Films about orphans Anon ➝ What is it really like being a Care Experienced Person? Charlotte Armitage ➝ Queen's Orphan Asylum Find & Connect ➝ Theodore's story - Coram Story #realstoriesofcare Theodore Barrow ➝ Culture misunderstood, families separated Leidenlawblog ➝ The Artist’s Book: Mothers’ Experiences of Adoption Stella Bolaki, Samantha Davey ➝ Mary's story Janette Bright ➝ John Brownlow's story John Brownlow ➝ Nobody's Child by GJ Urquhart – Book Review. Leeds care home memoir. Sandra Callard ➝ A Portrait Of Care (@aportraitofcare) • Instagram photos and videos Rosie Canning ➝ Taking control of the narrative with my debut novel Careless Kirsty Capes ➝ Constance Couronne: From Enslaved Child in Mauritius to Emancipated Convict Grandmother in New South Wales Convicts, Creolization & Cosmopolitanism in the British & French Empires ➝ Peregrina Sails Elana Connor ➝ Charlie Chaplin and the story of care Coram (Charlie Chaplin) ➝ Henry Fielding, Tom Jones and care Amy Cotterill ➝ Teenage Tales: Sneaking Looks In Sexy Books Emily Danforth ➝ That Reminds Me by Derek Owusu review – a fresh and powerful debut Michael Donkor ➝ To Haunt & Be Haunted: On the Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Literary Hub ➝ Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through his Sherlock Holmes stories The Conversation ➝ Whatever happened to the little girl who played Annie? Lisa Flowers ➝ The Children’s rights Movement and the Charity sector. Sean Geoghegan ➝ Book Review: That Reminds Me Barbara Grant ➝ Are care leavers really more likely to go to prison than university? – ExChange Neil Harrison ➝ How one stray dog changed my life forever Ishbel Holmes ➝ From the first admissions: How care has changed in 280 years Carol Homden ➝ Delma Hughes: I grew up in a world without parents Delma Hughes ➝ Most Popular Orphan Girl Movies and TV Shows IMDb ➝ The way David Bowie overcame family abuse has much to teach us, says psychologist Oliver James ➝ The Transformed You The Transformed You ➝ Growing up in care Áine Kelly ➝ Lemn Sissay: ‘All care stories should be successful ones’ Anastasia Koutsounia ➝ MIRRA Project MIRRA Project ➝ A Reflection on a long career in Social Work Ruth Martin ➝ Your Sexuality Is the Least Interesting Thing About You: Rita Mae Brown on RubyFruit Jungle's Rerelease Llana Masad ➝ Tokyo Olympics: 'I just wanted a normal life' - Ireland's McFerran recalls childhood in foster care with BBC Sport NI's Nigel Ringland Ayeisha McFerran ➝ Jenni Fagan's Ootlin - book review Dee Michell ➝ Adoption Research: Owatonna State Public School Gale Family Library ➝ "Intentional Neglect." On the Creation of Nationalized Child Protection in Victorian England Lit Hub (Montgomery) ➝ In Search of the Rarest Book in American Literature: Literary Hub (Bradford Morrow) ➝ How damaging are stories of damage? Kenny Murray ➝ Character Type: Orphan Scott Myers ➝ A Moment in Care Emma Norry ➝ Neil Morrissey's rags to riches tale of growing up in Stoke-on-Trent care home Hayley Parker ➝ Benjamin Perks: Blogsite Benjamin Perks ➝ What Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood Reveals About Its Author's Intentions Literary Hub ➝ Let’s Not Forget Charles Dickens’s Other Christmas Ghost Stories! Literary Hub (Olivia Rutigliano) ) ➝ Drawing on Childhood: New exhibition examines why so many of our most cherished fictional heroes are orphans | The Independent Etan Smallman ➝ Wolf children in Lithuania: The forgotten orphans of WW2 Bettina Stehkämper ➝ Patricia Cornwell survived her parents’ breakdown, psychosis and neglect by creating her own worlds The Conversation ➝ Bridgeman Blog Bridgeman Team ➝ Northern Territory Stolen Generations survivor William Tilmouth wins top honour at 2025 Human Rights Awards ABC News ➝ New portrait of Queen Victoria's African goddaughter unveiled Hannah Uzor ➝ Doctor Who: The Timeless Children or Dr Who was a foundling Doctor Who ➝ ‘Dream come true’: Orphans evacuated to Australia in perilous journey through Afghanistan Rashida Yosufzai ➝ John Fashanu ➝ James Covey, African Sailor, Helps the Amistad Captives to Freedom New England Historical Society ➝ Orphans in fiction British Library ➝ How Truman Capote Was Destroyed by His Own Masterpiece Literary Hub (5) ➝ Care Experienced History Month Care Experienced History Month ➝ The Strange Myth of Romulus and Remus, The Founders of Rome History Defined ➝ More than our childhoods More than our childhoods ➝ I was a child in care. We needed love, not chemicals | David Akinsanya David Akinsanya ➝ Gil Scott-Heron saved my life Malik Al Nasir ➝ On Tracker Tilmouth's Trip to the UN in Geneva Literary Hub ➝ An open letter to Long Lost Family from an adoptee Anon ➝ Orphan Stories | Encyclopedia.com Anon ➝ 10 Screwed Up Movie Orphans Spout ➝ CELCIS blog on superheroes from the care system Charlotte Armitage ➝ Lilian Bader: The First Black Woman to join the RAF Lillian Bader ➝ Orphans | film by Pakula [1987] Michael Barson ➝ Success Stories and Sad Statistics? Wayne Biffa ➝ John’s story – one of the first foundlings Janette Bright ➝ Trauma, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Determinism and Stigma... Jack Brookes ➝ CELCIS Reach - article on the creative workshops run by Inspired Youth CELCIS ➝ Orphans & Care Experience in Literature Rosie Canning ➝ A Conversation about Tracy Beaker... Rosie Canning ➝ I’ve Been In A Bad Mood Chris Chmielewski ➝ How 10 Orphans From eSwatini Helped Write A Prize-Winning Movie Rachel Cohen ➝ "Invasion is a Structure Not an Event" Lit Hub (Joseph Conrad) ➝ Coram in literature Coram (Literature) ➝ Her name was Jean: International Women's Day 2021 Jamie Crabb ➝ Unbelievable review – grimly credible story of trauma, power and injustice Hannah Daviies ➝ What Would Gabriel García Márquez Have Thought of the Netflix Version of His Novel? Literary Hub (Garcia Marquez) ➝ A Hidden Intersectionality: Care Experience, Disability Lys Eden; Jamie Crabb ➝ Kirsty Capes | 'It’s important to have stories about the care experience that are positive' | The Bookseller Charlotte Eyre ➝ Interview with Jilly Cooper Phil ➝ ‘Trailblazer’ in the rights movement for children in care. Television Director, Screen writer. Sean Geoghegan ➝ Packing Like a Fury Tessa Hadley ➝ Examining Rita Mae Brown’s “Rubyfruit Jungle” Anna J Haynes ➝ When Ishbel met Lucy Bradt Holmes Guides et al. ➝ Home Children Home Children ➝ It was lonely growing up in care – but I felt even more isolated after I left | Fostering | The Guardian Louise Hughes ➝ A digital archive of care experienced people in fiction, on screen and in real life IMO ➝ Marguerita Moorcroft obituary Ruth Jampel ➝ I felt a strange grief when I found my birth mother': Jackie Kay on The Adoption Papers Jackie Kay ➝ Blog: Stigma and the care experience Denisha Killoh ➝ Care leavers met with Jacqueline Wilson to debate the true reality of care Eve Livingston ➝ The Train of Happiness Phyllis Macchioni ➝ "Just Annie" Kristen Martin ➝ 12 Best Movies About Orphans Biplab Mazumder ➝ A Lesson in Motherhood Paula McLain ➝ DrDee-ThinkingOutLoud Dee Michell ➝ The Orphanage' ('Parwareshgah'): Film Review | Cannes 2019 Jordan Mintzer ➝ Literary Hub Liz Moore ➝ Orphans in Fiction - The British Library John Mullan ➝ Comment: Is ‘lived experience’ a change-maker or ball and chain? Kenny Murray ➝ As Stolen Generations survivors ‘pass away at a rapid rate’, some still await official redress The Conversation ➝ How Being Privately Fostered In White Families Impacted These People's Lives And Identities Ade Onibada ➝ Lorraine Pascale's Story: From Foster Child To Food Network Favorite Read More: https://www.mashed.com/1910240/food-network-host-lorraine-pascale-transformation/ Lorraine Pascale ➝ I wasn't told why I was taken into care. For years I thought it was my fault Kerrie Portman ➝ Safer Compared to What? The Imprint ➝ Nicky Campbell: "There was a life long whisper: 'my mother didn't want me'" Georgia Shepheard ➝ On Killing Charles Dickens Zadie Smith ➝ How Black and White America Reacted to Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Literary Hub (Maya Angelou) ➝ Why are Orphan Heroes such Compelling Protagonists in Children’s Literature? Writers & Artists ➝ Filming The One Percent The One Percent ➝ Heart of Darkness: Fear and Loathing in the Congo The Rest is History ➝ I wanted to write about a care system that didn’t care very much': Kit de Waal on My Name Is Leon Kit de Waal ➝ Who We Are Who Cares Scotland ➝ Back to Top

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles I was a child in care. We needed love, not chemicals | David Akinsanya David Akinsanya 2016 In this article, David writes about the disturbing news about drug trials on disruptive children "t my home kids were on another planet due to medication – and I could have been one of them" he says. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Acceptance: A Memoir Emi Nietfeld 2022 Acceptance is a memoir of the author's journey through foster care and homelessness, interrogating the true meanings of resilience, ambition, and success. As a homeless teenager writing college essays in her rusty Toyota Corolla, Emi Nietfeld was convinced that the Ivy League was the only escape from her dysfunctional childhood. But upward mobility required crafting the perfect resilience narrative. She had to prove that she was an “overcomer,” made stronger by all that she had endured. The truth was more complicated. Emi’s mom was a charming hoarder who had her put on antipsychotics but believed in her daughter’s brilliance—unlike the Minnesotan foster family who banned her “pornographic” art history flash cards (of Michelangelo’s David). Emi’s other parent vanished shortly after coming out as trans, a situation few understood in the mid-2000s. Her own past was filled with secrets: mental health struggles, Adderall addiction, and the unbecoming desperation of a teenager fending for herself. And though Emi would go on to graduate from Harvard and become a software engineer at Google, she found that success didn’t necessarily mean safety. External Website

Radio & Podcast Life of the Week: Frederick Douglass History Extra (Frederick Douglass) 2024 Clare Elliott and Paul Bloomfield discuss Frederick Douglass’ life as a former slave, abolitionist, activist and writer. According to Clare Elliott, Frederick Douglass changed his surname to Douglass after reading Walter Scott’s 1810 narrative poem, The Lady of the Lake. Ellen Douglas is a central character in one of the poem’s plots. External Website

Non Fiction The Big Issue Big Issue 2021 The Big Issue is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. John Anthony Bird, Baron Bird, (born 30 January 1946) is a British social entrepreneur and life peer. Bird was born in a Notting Hill slum to a poor London Irish family. He became homeless at the age of five, resided in an orphanage between the ages of seven and ten, and was often excluded from school. He became a butcher's boy after leaving the orphanage, and supplemented his income by stealing. Between work, he spent several spells in prison during his teens and twenties where he learnt to read, write and the basics of printing. Bird attended Chelsea School of Art, but was homeless again by 1967, sleeping rough in Edinburgh while being sought by the police for petty offences. In the early 1970s, he started to build upon his prison education and set up a small-scale printing and publishing business in London. For two weeks in 1970, he worked as a dishwasher in the Houses of Parliament canteen, an institution he would later return to as a life peer. He is best known as the co-founder of The Big Issue, a magazine that is edited by professional journalists and sold by street vendors who are homeless or vulnerably-housed. Bird sits as an independent Crossbencher member of the House of Lords. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Weaving a Web of Belonging: Developing a Trauma-Informed Culture for All Children Lisa Cherry 2025 Weaving a Web of Belonging explores how to foster a sense of belonging in children and young people, especially those facing trauma, inequity, and marginalization. Drawing from research, professional practice, and lived experiences, the book offers practical strategies to build trauma-informed cultures and relational webs of care across services, schools, and communities. Centered around a model highlighting FACES, SPACES, and PLACES, it advocates for the power of language, leadership, and collective care. Essential for educators, social workers, CAMHS professionals, and families, it presents belonging as a vital antidote to trauma. External Website

Radio & Podcast Patricia Cornwell (podcast) World Book Club 2008 American crime writer, Patricia Cornwell, was in foster care for a while when her mother was hospitalised because of serious depression. In this podcast, Patricia Cornwell talks about her experience in foster care briefly and how she wishes she had someone like the character she has created, Kay Scarpetta, to turn to. External Website

Films/Videos The Secret Life of Bees (film) 2008 The Secret Life of Bees (2002) by Sue Monk Kidd was adapted for film in 2008. The film tells the story of a 14-year-old white girl who runs away from her home and searches out information about her mother. She ends up in the informal care of a Black woman, August Boatwright. With a stellar cast including Queen Latifah as August Boatwright and Dakota Fanning as Lily Owens, the film won the Favorite Movie Drama & Favorite Independent awards at the 35th People’s Choice Awards. The film also received 7 NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Awards, including Outstanding Motion Picture. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill: The story of Mary Bell Gitta Sereny 1998 Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill: The story of Mary Bell (1998) by Gitta Sereny is the result of a collaboration between Mary Bell & writer Gitta Sereny. Mary Bell was convicted of 2 counts of manslaughter in December 1968 when she was 11 years of age. Gitta Sereny spent something like 5 months interviewing Mary Bell after she was released from prison in May 1980 at the age of 23. She explored the abuse & neglect Mary Bell had experienced as a child and thought her crimes could be explained by this. Apparently Sereny paid Mary Bell for those 5 months of interviews, which led to a public outcry as there was concern that a killer was profiting from her crimes. External Website

Writers Martyn Percy British writer and theologian, Martyn Percy (b. 1962) was born in a mothers and babies home in England and then adopted. After a university education and brief career in publishing he was ordained as a Church of England priest in 1991. Percy was elected as Dean of Christ College, University of Oxford in 2014. Many of his years at Christ College were marred by disputes. He resigned in April 2022 and received a payout of over 1 million points to cover legal fees and as compensation. In May 2022, Martyn Percy anounced his intention to leave the Church of England, citing concerns about bullying within the church. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Alternatives Caoilinn Hughes 2024 The Alternatives (2024) is the most recent novel by Irish writer, Caoilinn Hughes. Five sisters were orphaned 30 years ago, after which they effectively raised themselves. The oldest, Olwen Flattery, is a geology professor. Her 4 younger sisters all have PhD degrees. When Olwen disappears from her home, her sisters find her living in a remote house in rural Ireland. The unexpected reunion gives the 5 women an opportunity to review their lives, including examining old wounds. External Website

Academic Articles The Mem Sahib, the Worthy, the Rajah and His Minions: Some Reflections on the Class Politics of The Secret Garden Jerry Phillips 1993 The preeminent influence on twentieth-century British society has arguably been the decline of the British Empire. For over three hundred years, the construction and maintenance of the imperial system provoked themes which reverberated at every level of the British polity—that is to say, it set limits, effective cultural parameters, on what it was and what it meant in terms of lived experienced to be British in relation to foreigners from the four corners of the globe...Clearly, the British Empire was not the sole cause of any one of these historical trajectories, but its pervasive influence is detectable in all of them. Thus, the end of empire has had significant consequences on a number of fronts, ranging from the macroeconomic to the micropolitical. External Website

Films/Videos Sharper 2023 Sharper (2023) is an American thriller about a couple of fraudsters conning the super-rich. The story is told through a series of character vignettes. The movie begins with Tom (Justice Smith), a bookshop owner who is drawn to a customer Sandra (Briana Middleton) when they begin talking about her PhD project on black feminists. Sandra tells Tom that she was in foster care as a child. We find out later that Sandra or Sandy is on parole and has a long criminal history. And we know she had a difficult childhood. However, the foster care story is never confirmed. External Website

Television Shows Happy Valley 2014 Happy Valley is a British crime series created by Sally Wainwright. Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire), a police sergeant in West Yorkshire, is raising her grandson, Ryan (Rhys Connah), after the suicide of her daughter, Becky. In Series 1 (2014) Cawood is intent on locating Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) who is Ryan's father. Royce has served 8 years for drug charges and is now out of prison. In Series 2 (2016) Royce is serving a life sentence. Ryan develops a friendship with a teaching assistant who is infatuated with Royce and happy to encourage Ryan to meet his father. In Series 3 (2023) Ryan has been meeting his father in prison—to his grandmother’s horror—and is in court the day Royce escapes custody. External Website

Radio & Podcast The Lady Imposter The History Listen 2024 In this episode of History Listen, Australian actor Richard Roxburgh recounts the story of Alexandrina Grant (if that’s her real name) who was transported to Australia in 1845 for ““falsehoods, fraud and wilful imposition” in obtaining clothes.” Before being sent to Australia, Alexandrina had been convicted in Aberdeen for theft at the age of 17. Little is known of her childhood but that it was an ignominious start –Alexandrina was the “bastard child” of criminals who was born in gaol in Scotland and who was probably apprenticed as a servant when she was child, because this is often what happened to children with no parents. Alexandrina ended up living into her eighties, was married to a ‘free’ man, William Askew, give birth to 10 children, and – towards the end of her life – ran boarding houses in Redfern, Sydney. In the interim she attracted attention as a “notorious fraudster”, “A Lady Swindler”. External Website

Films/Videos Fathers and Daughters 2015 The 2015 film, Fathers & Daughters, tells the story of a family struggling for the custody of a child. After his wife dies in a car accident while he is driving, writer Jake Davis (Russel Crowe) goes into a psychiatric facility for 7 months to recover. His 5 year old daughter stays with her maternal aunt and family. When Jake returns to collect his daughter, the aunt wants to adopt Kate. Jake refuses and the aunt and her husband begin court proceedings. External Website

Sport British Javelin Thrower Fatima Whitbread Fatima Whitbread (b. 1961) is a British athlete, a world champion javelin-thrower. Fatima Vedad was born in London to Turkish Cypriot parents. She was left on her on own as a baby in a flat until a neighbour heard her crying and called the police. She spent the next 14 years living in the ‘care’ system. After a difficult early childhood, at age 14 Fatima Vedad was fostered by the family of Margaret Whitbread, a javelin coach. 2 years later, Fatima was the European junior javelin champion. She went on to won bronze & silver at the 1984 & 1988 Olympics. She broke the world record in the qualifying round of the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart. She also became the 1st British athlete to set a world record in throwing. Fatima Whitbread published her autobiography in 2012, https://www.careexperienceandculture.com/master/survivor%3A-the-shocking-and-inspiring-story-of-a-true-champion and a children’s book in 2024, https://www.careexperienceandculture.com/master/my-bright-shining-star External Website