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Fiction featuring Care Experience Wuthering Heights Emily Nestor Brontë et al. 2003 Wuthering Heights is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationships with Earnshaw's adopted son, Heathcliff. External Website

Films/Videos Batman ​ ​ Batman is a superhero character created by Bob Kane and first appearing in 1939 for DC Comics. Batman is the alias of Bruce Wayne, a wealthy businessman who's parents were murdered when he was a child. Wayne trains himself to fight against crime, working with Gotham's city's administration. Batman began appearing in film during the 1940s. This was followed by a series from 1989 until 1997, the Dark Knight trilogy from 2005 until 2012, and in a number of DC Extended Universe films from 2016. External Website

Films/Videos Patrik, Age 1.5 ​ 2008 Patrik, Age 1.5 is a Swedish film exploring prejudices toward gay men in the community (but not the ethics of adoption). Goran and Sven move into a new suburb (very Stepford like) and decide to adopt a child. Because of a typo, they take in a 15 year old who has been in an institution for years and who is homophobiac. External Website

Films/Videos Foster Boy ​ 2020 Foster Boy is a 2019 American drama film. Michael is a high-powered lawyer and Jamal is an angry young man who has been imprisoned after years of abuse in the foster care system. Together they have to overcome their differences to find justice and expose the foster care system. Directed by Youssef Delara and starring Shane Paul McGhie, Matthew Modine and Louis Gossett Jr. External Website

Films/Videos Mosquito Squadron ​ 1969 Mosquito Squadron is a 1969 British war film made by Oakmont Productions, directed by Boris Sagal and starring David McCallum. The raid echoes Operation Jericho, a combined RAF–Maquis raid which freed French prisoners from Amiens jail in which the Mosquitos took part. David "Scotty" Scott (David Buck) is shot down during a low-level bombing raid on a V-1 launching site. Scott and his navigator/bomb-aimer are believed killed. Following the raid, his wingman and friend, then-Flight Lieutenant (later insignia Royal Canadian Air Force squadron leader) Quint Munroe (David McCallum) comforts Scott's wife, Beth (Suzanne Neve), and a romance soon develops, rekindling one that they had had years earlier. Scotty and Quint were more than comrades; they were brothers in arms, brought together by a shared upbringing after Munroe was orphaned. External Website

Films/Videos A Cry from the Streets ​ 1958 A Cry from the Streets is a 1958 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Max Bygraves and Barbara Murray. When a man is hanged for murdering his wife, their three small children go into social care. Bill is an electrician with the local care home, and is introduced to the children and their social worker, Ann. Growing ever fonder of the kids, he and Ann take them out on trips and picnics, to try and bring some happiness back into their lives. However, events spiral out of control when a child gets hold of a loaded gun. The film was based on The Friend in Need by Elizabeth Coxhead. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Thief of Time John Boyne 2000 The Thief of Time (2000) by John Boyne has an unusual premise: narrator Matthieu Zela is 256 years old. In 1758, Matthieu Zela is 15 years old and an orphan after the murder of his mother. He flees Paris with his five-year-old half-brother and travels to Dover. From there, Matthieu has many adventures and meets incredible historical figures—such as Charlie Chaplin (who has a disturbing penchant for girls). He listens to a reading given by Charles Dickens, reads the first book published by Arthur Conan Doyle, contributes to the first Olympic Games in Athens 1896, and survives the Wall Street Crash of 1929. An enduring concern is that the descendants of his brother, Tomas, die young. In 1999, Matthieu is wondering if he can intervene in the case of his current nephew, Tommy, a famous television star and drug addict. External Website

Films/Videos Small Axe, Series 1, Alex Wheatle ​ 2020 The true story of writer Alex Wheatle who grew up in care and his spell in prison after the Brixton riots. Alex Wheatle follows the true story of award-winning writer, Alex Wheatle (Sheyi Cole), from a young boy through his early adult years. Having spent his childhood in a mostly white institutional care home with no love or family, he finally finds not only a sense of community for the first time in Brixton, but his identity and ability to grow his passion for music and DJing. When he is thrown in prison during the Brixton Uprising of 1981, he confronts his past and sees a path to healing. External Website

Films/Videos Motherless Children ​ 2019 Motherless Children performed by Eric Clapton. Producer: Tom Dowd Arranger, Work Arranger: Carl Radle Arranger, Work Arranger: Eric Clapton Composer Lyricist: Blind Willie Johnson. External Website

Films/Videos The Song of Names ​ 2019 Song of Names (2019) is a Canadian film and an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Norman Lebrect. The film stars Tim Roth and Clive Owen as childhood friends whose lives are changed by WWII. Clive Owen plays Dovidl Rapoport who, as a 9-year-old, is taken to England and adopted by the Simmonds family. Martin Simmonds (Tim Roth) bonds with Dovidl who is a violin prodigy. Dovidl mysteriously disappears when he is 21 and scheduled to appear at his first concert in London. Martin at 56 learns about a violinist who plays in a way like Dovidl. He sets off, first to Poland and then to New York to find his brother. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 The Butcher Boy is a 1992 novel by Irish writer, Patrick McCabe. It tells the story of Francis "Francie" Brady who ends up in an 'industrial school' where he is sexually abused by one of the priests. He is also befriended by a gardener. The title comes from Francie's work as a butcher and his dismembering of the body of a woman he murders. The Butcher Boy was adapted into an award winning film in 2007. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The White Girl Tony Birch 2019 Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves. In The White Girl, Miles-Franklin-shortlisted author Tony Birch shines a spotlight on the 1960s and the devastating government policy of taking Indigenous children from their families. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Shadow in the Empire of Light Jane Routley 2021 Shine's life is usually dull: an orphan without magic in a family of powerful mages, she's left to run the family estate with only an eccentric aunt and telepathic cat for company. But when the family descend on the house for the annual Fertility Festival, Shine is plunged into dark intrigue; stolen letters, a fugitive spy, and family drama mix with murder, sex and secrets, and Shine is forced to decide both her loyalties and future... External Website

Films/Videos Slim and I ​ 2020 Joy McKean (b. 1930) is recognised as one Australia's leading songwriters, and she wrote most of her husband's - the iconic Slim Dusty - most popular songs. Her story is told in the 2020 documentary, Slim and I, in which she talks of the impact of being separated from her family for 3 years from the age of 4 when she was hospitalised with polio. "It made me very different" she says. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Sunken Road Garry Disher 1996 The Sunken Road is set in the mid-north of South Australia. It's the story of Anna and her family and friends - one of whom is Chester Flood. Chester's family is a large impoverished Catholic one, reason enough for the community to disparage them. The siblings are dispersed when their parents die; Chester ends up in the local convent which was previously a reformatory. As an adult, he does a stint in prison for the white-collar crime of fraud. External Website

Films/Videos Four Brothers ​ 2005 Four Brothers is a 2005 American action film directed by John Singleton. Four adopted who set out to avenge the murder of their adoptive mother. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund. The film was shot in Detroit, Michigan and the Greater Toronto Area. It has been described as blaxploitation-influenced. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead 2020 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2020. The story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in 1960s Florida. Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide 'physical, intellectual and moral training' which will equip its inmates to become 'honorable and honest men'. In reality, the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse is rife, where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school, and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear 'out back'. Stunned to find himself in this vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr King's ringing assertion, 'Throw us in jail, and we will still love you.' The tension between Elwood's idealism and friend Turner's skepticism leads to a decision which will have decades-long repercussions. Based on the history of a real reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped and destroyed the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative by a great American novelist whose work is essential to understanding the current reality of the United States. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Winter Sonata Dorothy Edwards 1928 Winter Sonata is the 2nd book and only novel published by Welsh writer Dorothy Edwards (1902-1934). A quiet, restrained novel, it tells the story of a young shy man, Arnold Nettle, who moves to a small English village to work in the post office. Arnold soon becomes enamoured of Olivia Neran who lives with her younger sister Eleanor. Both young women are living in kinship care—we’re not sure for how long—with an aunt and cousin, George Curle. Slowly and with difficulty because of his acute shyness, Arnold Nettle becomes friends with the upper class Nerans and Curles. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Late Train to Gipsy Hill Alan Johnson 2021 As a teenager, Alan Johnson (b. 1950) wanted to become a writer, but he ended up as a member of the British parliament. He finally took up writing after he retired from politics, publishing his first memoir to critical acclaim in 2014. In this he talks about being raised by his single mum, and after she dies when he is 13, by his older sister. Alan Johnson's first work of fiction, is a thriller The Late Train to Gipsy Hill, published in 2021. Appropriately, the hero is a young man raised by a single mother. There is, too, a character who was raised in care - in Russia. Unfortunately, (because its a stereotype) Miranchuk is a thug, a clever man who loves violence and who has recently made a commitment to join the 3rd of the 3 key Russian organisations, the Krovnyye Bratya or an organised crime group (the other options are the military and the secret service) which, writes, Johnson, all interconnected anyway. The Late Train to Gipsy Hill is a timely - because of the invasion of Ukraine - thriller, fast paced and well written. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Exit Helen Fitzgerald 2015 When Rose Price was 10, she was in foster care as an evacuee, along with her 7-year-old sister. Now struggling with dementia, Rose Price returns frequently to a traumatic event during that stay, but when she is lucid she tries to warn workers of criminal events happening in the nursing home—but she isn’t believed. External Website