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Autobiography/Memoir Racial Folly Gordon Briscoe 2010 Briscoe’s grandmother remembered stories about the first white men coming to the Northern Territory. This memoir shows us the history of an Aboriginal family who lived under the race laws, practices and policies of Australia in the twentieth century. It tells the story of a people trapped in ideological folly spawned to solve ‘the half-caste problem’. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir University Lectures and Lesson in Life Stacey Page 2015 After her mother had a serious accident, her family decided to care for Stacey who was "rotated" between them until she was 15. From age 15, Stacey worked in hairdressing salons. Encouraged by a client, she attended university as a mature age student and has now completed a degree in psychology. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Red Tape Rape. The Story of Ki Meekins Ki Meekins 2008 When he was a baby, Ki Meekins was placed in the 'care' of the South Australian Government. Ki tells the story of this 'care' and his challenge to the South Australian Government, which contributed in part to the Government calling for a significant inquiry into the sexual abuse of child in its care. External Website

Authors I Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography ➝ Back to Top

Biography of Care Experienced People Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow 2005 Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who was orphaned as a boy and who went on to help shape the United States of America. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir A Chip Off What Block? Laurie Humphreys 2007 Tells of the life of Laurie Humphries, a child migrant who lived his early life without a family, an orphan who lost touch with his brothers and sisters when he came to Australia, and of his subsequent hard life of ' work, eat, and sleep'; then rise to become an long-time active council member. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Memoirs Mikhail Gorbachev 1996 The former Russian leader who dismantled his country's empire offers his long-awaited autobiography, recounting his childhood, rise within the Party, his disenchantment with communism, his relations with the U.S., and his attempt to create a peaceful revolution. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography Nina Bawden 1995 Nina Bawden's career spans 20 adult novels and 17 for children. Here, and in simple vignettes she takes the reader through her life, revealing the inspirations of many of her books. It describes her childhood evacuation to Suffolk and Wales, and her years at Oxford, where she met Richard Burton and Margaret Thatcher. And, she gives an account of her oldest son, Niki, who was diagnosed schizophrenic. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters The magic of Harry Potter for children in care Sarah Mokrzycki 2019 Peer reviewed book chapter in Transmedia Harry Potter: Essays on storytelling across platforms. As a foster carer, I have witnessed first-hand the therapeutic benefits of Harry Potter for children in out-of-home care. My husband and I read the series to our eight-year-old foster child, who revelled in the vitality and vividness of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world: the sights and sounds of Diagon Alley, the excitement of a quidditch match, and the awe-inspiring grandeur of Hogwarts castle. But for him, and the hundreds of thousands of children like him living in care around the world, Harry Potter is more than just an engaging literary experience: it is salvation. External Website

Academic theses The Orhan Among Us: An Examination of Orphans in Newbery Award Winning Literature April A Mattix 2012 Orphan stories in children’s literature are rich and complex, and they have historically permeated the pages of children’s books. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of orphans as protagonists in children’s award-winning literature through content analysis. This study utilizes all the Newbery Award winning books (1922–2011) as well as the Newbery Honor books of the last decade (2002–2011) to provide a wide and deep swath of novels in order to present both historical perspective and attention to current trends. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Survivor: The Shocking and Inspiring Story of a True Champion Fatima Whitbread 2012 Fatima Whitbread had the worst possible start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she spent much of her childhood in and out of children's homes. A brief, disastrous stay with her birth mother saw her raped by her mother's drunken boyfriend - while her mother held a knife to her throat to 'quieten her down'. Fatima was only twelve at the time. Athletics was her saviour: local athletics coach Margaret Whitbread took the young Fatima under her wing, eventually adopting her. Fatima competed in three Olympics, winning bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In 1986 she set a world record, and the following year in Rome became world champion and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. But then Fatima faded from the public eye, leaving many to wonder where she had gone. After the cheering stopped, Fatima faced prejudice, penury, scandal and heartbreak. Survivor describes how she defeated all her demons to rise triumphantly from the ashes once again, this time as queen of the jungle. Almost 13 million people watched her on I'm a Celebrity, and after surviving 20 days in the Australian heat, she has millions of new fans eager to know more about Fatima the woman: the forthright, focused, slightly bossy, charismatic single mum who knows how to transform even the most devastating experiences into lessons in life. This is the unforgettable story of a true champion, who triumphed against the worst hardships imaginable. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir My Name Is Why Lemn Sissay 2020 At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. This is Lemn's story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell 2000 Bertrand Russell was born in 1872 and grew up in kinship care. He died in 1970. One of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, he transformed philosophy, was a Nobel Prize winner for Literature and was imprisoned several times as a result of his pacifism. His views on religion, education, sex, politics and many other topics, made him one of the most read and revered writers of the age. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Paid for: My Journey Through Prostitution Rachel Moran 2013 When you are fifteen years old and destitute, too unskilled to work and too young to claim unemployment benefit, your body is all you have left to sell. Rachel Moran came from a troubled family background. Taken into State care at fourteen, she became homeless and got involved in prostitution aged fifteen. For the next seven years Rachel worked as a prostitute, isolated, drug-addicted, outside of society. Rachel s experience was one of violence, loneliness, and relentless exploitation and abuse. Her story reveals the emotional cost of selling your body night after night in order to survive loss of innocence, loss of self-worth and a loss of connection from mainstream society that makes it all the more difficult to escape the prostitution world. At the age of 22 she managed, with remarkable strength, to liberate herself from that life. She went to university, gained a degree and forged a new life, but she always promised that one day she would complete this book. This is Rachel Moran s story, written in her own words and in her own name. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard Liz Murray 2011 Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard. Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was put into a girls' home. At age fifteen, Liz found herself on the streets. She learned to scrape by, foraging for food and riding subways all night to have a warm place to sleep. When Liz's mother died of AIDS, she decided to go back to high school, often completing her assignments in the hallways and subway stations where she slept. Liz squeezed four years of high school into two, while homeless. She won a New York Times scholarship; and made it into Havard. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Part of My Story Kimberley Hobbs 2015 Kimberley recounts her story of attending university after having been in foster care. She completed a Bachelor of Science degree and then began a degree in Social Work. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Along the Way Maureen Flanagan 2002 Maureen O’Shea was removed from her mother as a baby on the grounds the child was neglected. Cliona O’Shea was struggling at the time with poverty and ill health. Although she got the older 4 children back, Cliona eventually relinquished Maureen for adoption External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Up from the Lowest Rung Deidre Michell 2015 Deidre Michell describes her transformation from oppression as a former foster kid and university dropout to being enculturated in the middle class, returning to university as a mature age student, and completing a PhD. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Lemon Sherbet and Dolly Blue: The Story of An Accidental Family Lynn Knight 2011 It is said that you can't choose your relatives but some of Lynn Knight's family did. Three generations were adopted, and in three distinct ways. 150 Station Road, Wheeldon Mill - a short stride across the Chesterfield Canal in the heart of Derbyshire - was home to the Nash family and their corner shop, which served a small mining community with everything from Brasso and Dolly Blue, to cheap dress rings and bright sugary sweets. But just as this was no ordinary home, theirs was no ordinary family. Lynn Knight tells the remarkable story of the three adoptions within it: of her great-grandfather, a fairground boy, given away when his parents left for America in 1865; of her great-aunt, rescued from an Industrial School in 1909, and of her mother, adopted as a baby in 1930, and brought to Chesterfield from London. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Foundling's Story Justine Cowan 2021 Growing up in a wealthy enclave outside San Francisco, Justine Cowan's life seems idyllic. But her mother's unpredictable temper drives Justine from home the moment she is old enough to escape. It is only after her mother dies that she finds herself pulling at the threads of a story half-told - her mother's upbringing in London's Foundling Hospital. Haunted by this secret history, Justine travels across the sea and deep into the past to discover the girl her mother once was. External Website