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Autobiography/Memoir Choice or Constraint in Everyday Life Judith Anne Brooker 2015 Judith describes the opportunity she had as a mature woman to attend Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. She uses the skills she was learning in sociology to think about her life as a rebellious 14 year old who was made a ward of the state. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir My Autobiography Charles Chaplin 1964 Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship, as his father was absent and his mother struggled financially, and he was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine and spent time in the Hanwell Schools for Orphans and Destitute Children.. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, "The Tramp", and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977. His autobiography is Charlie Chaplin's reflection on his impoverished childhood and his journey to becoming an icon of the movie industry. External Website

Authors R What Effect does Life Story Work have on Life Writing? ➝ Back to Top

Actors Sarah Bernhardt ​ ​ French actor, Sarah Bernhardt (circa 1844-1923), was in foster care for 4 years from the age of 3. Sarah Bernhardt was born in Paris ‘illegitimately’ to 16 year old Dutch-Jewish Youle Van Hard, a courtesan. The details of the father are unknown. By the time she was 3, Sarah was in foster care. She was sent to live in a small peasant home in a small village in Brittany, in the northwest of France, approximately 456km from Paris. In foster care, Sarah learned to speak Breton rather than French. As an adult, Sarah Bernhardt starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas, fils; Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo; Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou; and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. She also played male roles, including Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rostand called her "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture", while Hugo praised her "golden voice". She made several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures. External Website

Actors Jack Thompson ​ ​ Born 31 August 1940, John Hadley Pain in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, Thompson was five years old when his mother died, leaving his father, a merchant seaman, unable to care for him and his brother, David. He was sent to an orphanage by his aunt and subsequently adopted by the poet and ABC broadcaster John Thompson and his wife Pat, after which he changed his surname. ack attended Sydney Boys High for his secondary education but left at the age of 14. He became a jackaroo on a cattle station in the Northern Territory for a number of years, later taking up other working-class jobs such as working on the railways. It was while he was attending Queensland University from 1966 that Jack became involved in drama, and started auditioning for television shows. Jack Thompson has been a significant figure in the Australian film industry for more than 60 years. He has had leading roles in iconic Australian films and various awards. External Website

Artists John Callahan (artist) ​ ​ John Callahan (1951-2010) was an American cartoonist based in Portland, Oregon. He was adopted as a baby and grew up with 5 other siblings, all of whom were the biological children of his adoptive parents. According to some sources, he was sexually abused by a nun at this Catholic school when he was 8 and he began drinking alcohol at the age of 12. After the car accident which paralysed him from the waist down when he was only 21, Callahan in 1978 entered a 12 step program to stop drinking and, after extensive physical therapy, took up drawing cartoons. He went on to become an internationally syndicated cartoonist in magazines and newspapers, achieved an undergraduate degree in English from Portland State University and was enrolled in a Master's program in counselling at the time of his death. External Website

Academic theses Orphans and Class Anxiety in Nineteenth-century English Novels Junghan Choi 2008 The abandoned, the alienated, the ignored-orphans can be considered an emerging force for disruption within the domestic sphere, but this study underscores the potential social flexibility and mobility encouraged by the disturbing yet enlightening representation of orphans in nineteenth-century English novels. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Living the Happiest Years of Her Life Priscilla Taylor 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

Authors E Barry Evans ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir Fight The Fear James Summers 2019 Dumped in care as a child, young Jimmy was beaten, starved and left locked up for days; one of many victims to be abused by their caregivers. Documenting his time in care and how it shaped his life after he left, author James Summers describes the anger he holds for his abusers, the ones who took advantage of their position. Readers will be left in no doubt as to how dangerous and damaging the care system was - and still is. External Website

Actors Alain Delon ​ ​ When Alain Delon (b. 1935) was 4 years of age, his parents divorced and abandoned him into foster care. Later, his parents shared custody of the boy who was put into multiple boarding schools (as he was regularly expelled). Alain Delon enlisted in the French army at the age of 17 (some sources say he did so voluntarily, some say his parents forced him to). In 1956 and back in Paris, the good looking Alain was 'discovered' by actor Brigitte Auber and through Auber, Alain met filmmakers and photographers. After his first film role he quickly became a success, a French star of the 1960s and 1970s. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters After the orphanage: life beyond the children's home Murray et al 2017 Authors: Suellen Murray, John Murphy, Elizabeth Branigan, Jenny Malone. While there is much literature on the experience of growing up in an orphanage, very few books examine life after institutional care. After the Orphanage is the first book to address how care-leavers adjust to life in the outside world. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Lowborn Kerry Hudson 2020 Kerry Hudson (born 1980, Aberdeen) is a British writer. She spent a short amount of time in care when she was nearly 3 years old. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. Always on the move with her single mother, Kerry attended nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. She scores eight out of ten on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure of childhood trauma. In 'Lowborn', Hudson questions What does it really mean to be poor in Britain today? A prizewinning novelist she revisits her childhood (including foster care) and some of the country's most deprived towns. External Website

Actors John Thomson ​ ​ John Patrick Thomson (born Patrick Francis McAleer; 2 April 1969) is an English comedian and actor, best known for his roles in The Fast Show, Men Behaving Badly, Cold Feet and Coronation Street. John was put up for adoption when he was six weeks old and then adopted. He studied drama at Manchester Polytechnic where he met Steve Coogan, another English actor and comedian. External Website

Authors R Victoria Rowell ➝ Back to Top

Actors Carol Burnett ​ ​ Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and writer, whose career spans seven decades of television. Both of Carol's parents were in the movie industry, but she lived from a young age with her grandmother in Hollywood. Burnett is best known for her groundbreaking comedy variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, originally aired on CBS. It was one of the first of its kind to be hosted by a woman. She has achieved success on stage, television and film in varying genres including dramatic and comedic roles. External Website

Actors Rosie Perez ​ ​ Rosa María Perez (born September 6, 1964) is an American actress, choreographer and community activist. Her mother Lydia Perez spent time in and out of jail. Perez’s mother gave birth to her youngest child while incarcerated. Rosa was for a time raised by an aunt and then like her siblings went through group homes and foster care. Her and her siblings were often split up. She was then transferred to a group foster home and lived in foster care in New York and Peekskill until age eight, and was still legally considered a ward of the State of New York until age twelve. Her mother and aunt frequently visited, and her father made an unsuccessful custody bid at one point. When she was in third grade, Perez learned that she had a speech impediment. She had a strict Catholic upbringing, which she has credited to the influence of the nuns during her childhood. She eventually moved in with paternal aunt, Ana Dominga Otero Serrano-Roque, and attended Grover Cleveland High School, in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens. Her mother died of AIDS-related complications in 1999. When her mother died she was living in poverty in Queensbridge houses. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Going to the Shop Frank Golding 2015 With the support of his parents, and financial support from other sources, Frank Golding was able to get a scholarship to the Ballarat Teachers College. From here he went on to achieve a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Melbourne, and his career took him into teacher education (at the University of South Australia) and on to do a Masters at the University of London. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Voices from the Silent Cradles - Life Histories of Romania’s Looked-After Children Mariela Neagu 2021 Voices from the Silent Cradles - Life Histories of Romania’s Looked-After Children. This book explores the concept of care and the responsibility assumed by ‘states’ when taking children into care. It examines the limitations of the state in exercising its parental duty and it proposes a model for re-conceptualising children’s social care by drawing on the literature on autonomy, recognition theory and specific provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The model places the child’s dignity at the core of the care framework, and it argues that a children’s rights approach which is grounded in moral theories contributes to their self-esteem and au- tonomy, both of which are key for a person’s development and well-being. The model addresses the tension between children’s rights and child welfare and it can be applied to child protection services that aim to take a children’s rights approach. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Little One Peter Papathanasiou 2019 Peter Papathanasiou is the son of migrants and grandson of refugees. His parents emigrated from Greece to Australia in 1956 but were unable to have children, a huge sorrow - and shame - for them among Australia's Greek community and their own family. Finally, in 1973, Peter's uncle and aunt in Greece offered to have a baby and give it to his parents to raise as their own in Australia. Peter was that baby, born in 1974 and given up by his biological parents so that a childless sister could become a mother. External Website