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Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Literary Hub Liz Moore 2016 Liz Moore writes about her attraction to having orphan characters in her fiction. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir While the Locust Slept Peter Razor 2002 Native American writer and electronic technician, Peter Razor (b. circa 1938) was in an orphanage during his childhood. Peter Razor was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. His mother, Mary, who suffered from depression, was sent to an asylum along with her hydrocephalic son, Leonard. Relatives collected Peter’s other brother, Arnold, but Peter was with his father who abandoned him. Peter was only 10 months old when he was made a ward of the state. He was “committed to the State Public School at Owatonna” 7 months later. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Autobiography of Malcolm X Alex Haley et al. 2001 From hustling, drug addiction and armed violence in America's black ghettos Malcolm X turned, in a dramatic prison conversion, to the puritanical fervour of the Black Muslims. As their spokesman he became identified in the white press as a terrifying teacher of race hatred; but to his direct audience, the oppressed American blacks, he brought hope and self-respect. This autobiography (written with Alex Haley) reveals his journey through the US foster care system, Malcolm's quick-witted integrity, usually obscured by batteries of frenzied headlines, and the fierce idealism which led him to reject both liberal hypocrisies and black racialism. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Last Foundling: A little boy left behind, The mother who wanted him back Tom H. Mackenzie 2014 When she fell pregnant in London in 1938, Jean knew that she couldn't keep her baby. The unmarried daughter of an elder in the Church of Scotland, she would shame her family if she returned to the north in such a condition. Scared and alone in a city on the brink of war, she begged the Foundling Hospital to give her baby the start in life that she could not. The institution, which had been providing care for deserted infants since the eighteenth century, allowed Jean to nurse her son for nine weeks, leaving her heartbroken when the time came to let him go. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen to join Luke Wilson in upcoming Fort Worth film ’12 Mighty Orphans' Michael Granberry 2019 A review 12 Mighty Orphans, the movie version of the bestseller by Jim Dent that’s set in Fort Worth. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Someone to Love Us Terence O’Neill 2010 The harrowing true story of the young boy who captured the heart of the nation when he testified in court, to find justice against those responsible for his brother’s death. Terry O’Neill was just ten years old when he stood up in court to testify against his brutal foster parents, accused of the manslaughter of his twelve-year-old brother, Dennis. Terry and his brother had been taken into care and moved through many foster homes until they came to live on the Shropshire farm owned by Reginald and Esther Gough in 1945. There they were to suffer brutal beatings and little care or love – they survived as best they could, looking out for each other, until the terrible morning when Terry couldn’t wake Dennis. In a time when the country was united by war and struggle, the case shocked the nation and made headlines around the world. Terry, a small figure in the courtroom, captured the hearts of mothers and families everywhere, and the public outcry against the foster services led to the instigation of the first provisions to protect other vulnerable children from neglect and cruelty. (see also The Mousetrap and Three Blind Mice by Agatha Christie) External Website

Behind the Scenes Mark Opitz ​ ​ Mark Opitz is an Australian record producer and audio engineer who has produced AC/DC, Australian Crawl plus other distinguished bands. He has won numerous awards for his work. Mark Opitz was born in Melbourne. After his parents separated, Mark was cared for by his mother. The family relocated to Brisbane and his parents reconciled. However, after his parents again separated, Mark was put into in foster care before being left at the Margaret Marr Memorial Home for Boys, a Methodist home that ran from 1924 until 1973. Mark Optiz moved to Sydney after he left the Home for Boys and began his career with the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) IN 1971. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Delma Hughes: I grew up in a world without parents Delma Hughes 2010 Delma Hughes spent most of her childhood in care. She didn't realise she had a mother and father – she didn't even know her date of birth – but her big sister meant the world to her External Website

Authors G Sean Geoghegan ➝ Back to Top

Biography of Care Experienced People Charlie Chaplin (biography) Peter Ackroyd 2014 A biography of one of film's most legendary figures, Charlie Chapman. Charlie Chapman (1889-1997) had a difficult childhood. Because his father was absent and his mother struggled financially, he was in the infamous English workhouse, and Hanwell Schools for Orphans and Destitute Children. There were some advantages about being in Hanwell - education, warm clothes and food - compared to being at home where mum was struggling with poverty and ill health. But Charlie hated it. He survived by dreaming about becoming a great actor and developing enormous confidence in himself. Chaplin began performing early and began appearing for Keystone Studios in 1914. In 1919, he co-founded United Artists and wrote, produced and directed most of his films, in addition to starring in them. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Through the Eyes of a Foster Child: My Childhood in Over 30 New Zealand Homes Daryl Brougham 2016 In 1990, at the age of ten, Daryl Brougham was told by a social worker he was useless and would end up in jail. By 1997, he had attended 27 schools, been through over 30 social workers and lived in more than 30 different foster homes. During his 18 years as a state ward he suffered repeated sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse. Rising above all the abuse, Daryl proved that social worker wrong. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles The Untold Story of Queer Foster Families | The New Yorker Michael Waters 2021 Michael Waters tells the story of how, in the 1970s, social workers in several USA states began quietly placing queer teenagers with queer foster parents. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles The Queen's Gambit is a striking study of female genius, and the drama of the year Sarah Hughes 2020 The Queen’s Gambit is the story of a troubled chess prodigy who after her mother was killed, grew up in an orphanage where the children were sedated with drugs. Sarah Hughes explores how it became a word-of-mouth hit External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Gil Scott-Heron saved my life Malik Al Nasir 2011 After a traumatic childhood Abdul Malik Al Nasir seemed to be heading for jail or an early death. Then, at the age of 18, he met the famous poet and musician – with remarkable consequences. Article as told to Simon Hattenstone External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Marguerita Moorcroft obituary Ruth Jampel 2021 Other lives: High-ranking civil servant who started life in a Liverpool orphanage - an article about the life of Marguerita Moorcroft who was in an orphanage at age 3, left school at age 13 and went on to be become the first female assistant working in the Insolvency section of the civil service. External Website

Academic Articles Oliver Twisted: the origins of Lord Voldemort in the Dickensian orphan. James Washick 2009 Given the theatrical extremities of Harry Potter's birth, early childhood and treatment, we could expect some similarities between Charles Dickens' Victorian waif, Oliver Twist, and the boy wizard, to the point that we might reasonably trace Harry’s origins to his literary predecessor. However, while such an attempt might uncover places where Rowling’s creation in some ways faces similar circumstances as Dickens’, for the most part, Rowling gives a backstory and characterization to Harry which diverge so greatly from Oliver and his workhouse experiences that other similarities seem largely superficial. Instead, if we seek to find the influence of Oliver Twist, we find the most convincing comparison not with the protagonist of Rowling’s series but with the villain, for in Tom Riddle, the boy who will become Lord Voldemort, we find the true inheritor of the Dickensian model. External Website

Authors D Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist ➝ Back to Top

Children's Fiction Lucky Button Sir Michael Foreman Morpurgo et al. 2017 A moving historical story inspired by the Foundling Museum, written by acclaimed children's author Michael Morpurgo and illustrated by Michael Foreman. From award-winning master storyteller Michael Morpurgo, author of the acclaimed War Horse, comes a moving historical story inspired by the Foundling Museum. 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. Beautifully illustrated by Kate Greenaway Medal-winning illustrator. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles I felt a strange grief when I found my birth mother': Jackie Kay on The Adoption Papers Jackie Kay 2021 The poet explains how researching her history led her to tell the story from three perspectives: the birth mother, the adoptive mother and the daughter External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles A Moment in Care Emma Norry 2023 Emma Norry, a Care Experienced author, explores the history of her own childhood and how it sparked her love of books. Her new novel, Fablehouse, is based on Holnicote House, a Somerset orphanage for the ‘brown babies’ of white women and Black American GIs in the 1950s. It follows a group of Care Experienced children on a magical adventure. External Website