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

Behind the Scenes Carl Hancock Rux Carl Hancock Rux is an American poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, actor, director, singer-songwriter. He was born in New York and guardianship was assigned to his maternal grandmother. When she died, four year old Carl entered the foster care system until guardianship was again transferred to relatives. Carl Hancock Rux is the author of several books including the Village Voice Literary Prize-winning "Pagan Operetta," the novel, Asphalt, and the Obie Award-winning play, Talk. Rux is also a singer/songwriter with four CDs to his credit, as well as a frequent collaborator in the fields of dance, theater, film, and contemporary art. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Doris Duke Award for New Works. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience A Girl Returned Donatella Di Pietrantonio 2020 Without warning or a word of explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother, and deprivation. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self. Told with an immediacy and a rare expressive intensity that has earned it countless adoring readers and one of Italy’s most prestigious literary prizes, Translated by Ann Goldstein, translator of the works of Elena Ferrante. Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving, pitch-perfect in Ann Goldstein’s English translation. External Website

Films/Videos Northern NSW Football Indigenous Round 28-30 May 2021 2021 Karen Menzies, the first Aboriginal Australian woman to play for the Matildas, talks about growing up in foster care, her enduring interest in soccer despite being caned at school for playing, being sent to a children's home in Newcastle where her love of playing soccer was encouraging, and on finding out about her Aboriginal heritage. External Website

Television Shows Dalgliesh 2021 Dalgliesh (2021) is a British police procedural based on the Adam Dalgliesh novels by PD James. Bertie Carvel stars as Dalgliesh, an inscrutable detective who is also a successful poet. The series ran for 2 years with a total of 12 episodes. Every 2 episodes is the adaptation of one James’ book. There are 4 Care Experienced Characters across the 12 episodes. In “Shroud for a Nightingale” (Ep 1 & 2), a victim of murder was in kinship care. The woman who runs the nursing school in which the story takes place describes herself as being in ‘loco parentis’ to the girls training there. In “Death of an Expert Witness” (Ep 7 & 8), a relative of a murdered person and the partner of another victim was in care as a child. In “A Certain Justice (Ep 9 & 10), a ne’er do well young man was in care as a child. In “The Murder Room” (Ep 11 & 12), a victim of murder has grown up thinking he was adopted, whereas his ‘adoptive’ father is his biological father. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People The Case of Mary Bell Gitta Sereny 1972 Mary Bell (1957) was 11 years old when she was convicted of the manslaughter of 2 young boys in December 1968. She was diagnosed with a psychological illness prior to the conviction. After being on remand she was transferred to a young offenders’ institution in Merseyside in early 1969. In November 1973, she was transferred to HM Prison Styal in Chesire, & 3 years later to Moor Court open prison. Mary Bell was released from prison in May 1980 & was granted anonymity, which included a new name. In 1972, Gitta Sereny published her “portrait” of Mary Bell. Long interested in why people behave badly, she was interested in Mary Bell’s childhood circumstances. She concludes that Mary Bell was an abused child, a child her mother didn’t want & often left alone. The Case of Mary Bell was republished in 1994. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience A Discovery of Witches Deborah Harkness 2011 Deborah Harkness’ debut novel, A Discovery of Witches, is the story of Diana Bishop who was born to Rebecca Bishop and Stephen Proctor, both extremely powerful witches. From a very early age, she displayed signs of extraordinary power and ability, notably time-walking at the age of three. At the young age of seven, she was orphaned when both of her parents were killed while in Africa. Subsequently, she was raised by her aunt Sarah Bishop and Emily Mather, Sarah's partner. This terrible loss of her parents caused Diana to reject her magic altogether. Diana went on to obtain a bachelor's degree from a college in Maine and a graduate degree from Oxford. After she obtained her PhD, she became a professor of history at Yale. External Website

Films/Videos Lion 2016 Lion is a movie starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, and Rooney Mara. A five-year-old Indian boy is adopted by an Australian couple after getting lost hundreds of kilometers from home. 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family in India. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Cloudy Wishes Amanda Gargula 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 Hysteria 2011 According to the 2011 film, Hysteria, a former foster child invented the vibrator. Dr Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) was taken in by the St. John-Smythe family after his parents died. He becomes a physician, works with Dr Dalrymple who specialises in treating 'hysterical' women by masturbating them, gets RSI (as we'd call it today), and with his foster brother (Rupert Everett) develops the vibrator. In fact, it is Mortimer Granville (1833-1900) who is credited with inventing the vibrator, but we're not certain about the foster care story. External Website

Artists Lexi Jones Alexandria "Lexi" Jones, daughter of David Bowie and Iman, revealed that at 14 she was taken from her home and placed in "troubled teen" treatment centres. Struggling with depression, an eating disorder, and substance abuse after her father's cancer diagnosis, Lexi was sent first to a wilderness therapy programme for 91 days, then to a residential treatment centre in Utah for 13 months. Her account details strip searches, strict regimes, and loss of basic comforts. Lexi missed her father’s final days while in treatment, but later clarified she doesn’t blame her parents, recognising their intent to help. After returning home, she struggled to adjust and was sent away again, feeling repeatedly misunderstood and reshaped by the system. Lexi describes the long-term psychological effects of these experiences, including hypervigilance and confusion about relationships and identity. Despite the trauma, she acknowledges that these ordeals made her introspective and emotionally intelligent. Lexi now seeks to raise awareness about the "troubled teen industry" and its impact, emphasising her journey is not just about trauma but also about resilience, self-discovery, and finding strength through adversity. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions Alfred Russel Wallace 1905 The autobiography of British evolutionary scientist and writer, Wallace Alfred Russel, who was in foster and kinship care as a child. External Website

Performing Arts Musician, actor, activist Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American musician, actor, and activist. His mother left soon after he was born, and his father remarried and also moved away, leaving Nelson and his sister Bobbie to be raised by their grandparents, who taught singing back in Arkansas and started their grandchildren in music. Nelson's grandfather bought him a guitar when he was six, and taught him a few chords, and Nelson sang gospel songs in the local church alongside Bobbie. He wrote his first song at age seven, and when he was nine, he played guitar for local band Bohemian Polka. During the summer, the family picked cotton alongside other Abbott residents. Nelson disliked picking cotton, so he earned money by singing in dance halls, taverns, and honky tonks from age 13, which he continued through high school. His musical influences were Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Django Reinhardt, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong. External Website

Actors Carol Grace ➝ Marilyn Monroe (actor) ➝ Harry H. Corbett ➝ Gary Coleman ➝ Aaron Pedersen ➝ Angela Shelton (Actor) ➝ Alain Delon ➝ Felicia Pearson ➝ James Dean ➝ Charlie Chaplin (Actor) ➝ Ice-T ➝ Jack Charles ➝ Neil Morrissey ➝ Sigrid Thornton ➝ Pierce Brosnan (actor) ➝ Jamie Foxx ➝ Lennie James (actor) ➝ Benjamin Zephaniah (Actor) ➝ Rosie Perez ➝ Jim Hoffmaster ➝ Noel Tovey ➝ Rajesh Khanna ➝ Chad Coleman ➝ Nina Mae McKinney ➝ Orson Welles ➝ Candi Marie ➝ Tommy Davidson ➝ Cassidy Mack ➝ Pom Klementieff ➝ Lena Horne (actor) ➝ Simu Liu ➝ Eartha Kitt ➝ Stanley J Browne ➝ Tiffany Haddish ➝ Brian Cox ➝ Lee Majors ➝ Sylvester Stallone ➝ Kristin Chenoweth ➝ James McAvoy ➝ Billy Connolly ➝ Charlotte Ayanna ➝ Jimmie Fails ➝ Adam Beach ➝ Paul Barber ➝ Cary Grant ➝ Gregory Peck ➝ Kathy Burke ➝ Gianna Simone ➝ Ronald Magill ➝ Jack Nicholson ➝ George Lopez ➝ Sarah Bernhardt ➝ Lesley Sharp ➝ Jack Thompson ➝ Carol Burnett ➝ Sophie Willan ➝ Brian Syron ➝ Sidney Poitier ➝ Ray Liotta ➝ John Thomson ➝ Gary Coleman ➝ Barry Keoghan ➝ Samantha Morton ➝ Joy Bryant ➝ Keegan-Michael Key ➝ Monroe Martin III ➝ Frances McDormand ➝ Victoria Rowell ➝ Freddie Bartholomew ➝ Charlie Murphy ➝ Michael Caine ➝ Margaret Rutherford ➝ Liz Smith ➝ Barry Evans ➝ Eddie Murphy ➝ Jane Wyman ➝ Ingrid Bergman ➝ Richard Burton ➝ Barbara Stanwyck ➝ Back to Top

Sport Lloyd Kelly Lloyd Kelly b.1998 Lloyd Kelly (b. 1998) Lloyd Casius Kelly is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for and is captain of EFL Championship club AFC Bournemouth. Kelly went into Foster Care when he was 7 years old with his brother and sister. He has said they were lucky as they managed to stay together. External Website

Authors C The Wanderer ➝ Coram Boy ➝ Walk Two Moons ➝ Tell me again about the night i was born ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Long Song Andrea Levy 2011 This tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed. The Long Song is narrated by July, a former slave, and starts about 1831 the time of what was known as the Baptist revolt and goes to the end of slavery in the late 1830s. July is telling her story in old age whilst she is living with her son Thomas. The novel is the story of her early life on a plantation called Amity. July describes herself as a mulatto; her father was white, an overseer and raped her mother. She was taken from her mother whilst still young to become the pet and then lady’s maid to Caroline Mortimer, the vapid and foolish sister of the plantation owner. External Website

Films/Videos Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story 2009 Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009) is a biopic of African American neurosurgeon, Ben Carson (b. 1951). The movie was adapted from an autobiography written by Ben Carson with Cecil Murphey and published in 1990. Gifted Hands begins in 1987 when Dr Ben Carson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) travels to German to meet a couple whose twins are conjoined at the back of their heads. The film then goes back to 1961 and we find out that 11-year-old Ben (Gus Hoffman) and his older brother Curtis (Tajh Bellow) are living with their single mother, Sonya (Kimberly Elise), in a mostly white neighbourhood and the boys are not doing well at school. We also find out that Sonya was in the foster care system until she was 13, which is when she married the boys’ father. Sonya, who is illiterate but doesn’t want that for her sons or for them to even know she is illiterate, devises ways to encourage the boys to read. It’s not long before Ben, who was failing, is top of his class. For a period, Ben and Curtis are looked after by a member of Sonya’s church community as she is institutionalised because she is suffering from depression. External Website

Television Shows Ballard 2025 Ballard (2025) is an American police procedural and a spinoff from Bosch (2014-2021) & Bosch: Legacy (2022-2025). Bosch, a one-time LAPD detective, was in the foster care system as a child. Detective Renee Ballard, now heading up the LAPD’s cold case unit, was in kinship care as a child. She was raised on the island of Maui by her surfer father. After her father died while surfing when Renee was in high school, she was homeless for about 12 months before being taken in by her grandmother who lived in Ventura, California. Both Ballard & Bosch are fictional characters created by American writer Michael Connelly. External Website