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Autobiography/Memoir The Girl in the Purple Dress: My Adoption Story Jo Horsley 2021 Jo Horsley's story begins as a small child being rocked by her mother, as she struggles to hand Jo to the adoption agency. Through school and work, heartbreak and marriage, love and loss, Jo discovers more about herself and builds a life that embraces all definitions of the word 'family'. Her story hasn't ended, and there's so much more to come... External Website

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter Vol. 1: Abomination (Mary Shelley Monster Hunter Tp) Vol 1-5 Adam Glass (Author), Olivia Cuartero-Briggs (Author), Mike Marts (Editor), Hayden Sherman (Artist) 2019 Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter reimagines the creation of Frankenstein by revealing that Mary Shelley didn’t just write the iconic horror story—she experienced it. Set in 1816, the story follows Mary, her fiancé Percy, her sisters, and Lord Byron as they visit the eerie Frankenstein Estate. The strange and terrifying events that unfold lead Mary to a shocking discovery about their mysterious host, which will change her life forever. Created by Adam Glass and Olivia Cuartero-Briggs, with art by Hayden Sherman, this is a thrilling blend of historical fiction and horror. There are 5 volumes in this series: External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Fugitive Pieces (Novel) Anne Michaels 1996 Fugitive Pieces (1996) is an award winning novel by Canadian writer, Anne Michaels (b. 1958). The novel is in 2 parts, the 1st centred on Jakob Beer, a 7 year old Jewish boy who survives the Holocaust by hiding in the forest and being taken in by an acheologist who gets the boy to safety in Greece. The 2nd part of the novel is the story of Ben, a Canadian professor born to survivors of the Holocaust. Ben becomes fascinated by Jakob's story. External Website

Performing Arts Musician, Songwriter James Hetfield James Alan Hetfield (b. 1963) is an American musician and songwriter best known for being the co-founder, lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for the heavy metal band Metallica. One his mother died, sixteen year old James went to live with an older brother. Hetfield is mainly known for his intricate rhythm playing, but occasionally performs lead guitar duties and solos, both live and in the studio. Hetfield co-founded Metallica in October 1981 after answering an advertisement by drummer Lars Ulrich in the Los Angeles newspaper The Recycler. Metallica has won nine Grammy Awards and released ten studio albums, three live albums, four extended plays and 24 singles. In 2009, Hetfield was ranked at no. 8 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists and no. 24 by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. In Guitar World's poll, Hetfield was placed as the 19th greatest guitarist of all time, as well as being placed second (along with Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett) in The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists poll of the same magazine. Rolling Stone placed Hetfield as the 87th greatest guitarist of all time. External Website

Poets Banjo Paterson Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson (1864 – 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Barty went to Sydney Grammar School in 1874. While at school he lived with his grandmother, Emily May Barton, in suburban Gladesville. Emily encouraged her grandson to read and write poetry. When he was sixteen, Paterson began work as an articled clerk for a solicitor; he practiced as a lawyer until 1900, then worked as a journalist, contributing articles for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Argus during the Boer War and Boxer Rebellion. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), widely considered Australia's unofficial national anthem. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles An open letter to Long Lost Family from an adoptee Anon What Long Lost Family doesn’t tell us about adoption search and reunion - and beyond. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Almost half of children in care fear stigma Louise Hunt 2009 Almost half of children in care fear being stigmatised because of their background, according to a report published today by the children’s rights director for England. External Website

Radio & Podcast Benjamin Zephaniah (Podcast) Desert Island Discs (Zephaniah) 2024 In 1997, British poet Benjamin Zephaniah spoke to Sue Lawley on Desert Island Discs about his childhood, which included being illiterate and spending time in a youth detention centre. He also talks about his work as a performance poet, which involved working in prisons and schools. The conversation was replayed for Classic Desert Island Discs on 28 April 2024. External Website

Writers Jackie Kay (writer) 1961- Jacqueline Margaret Kay, (born 9 November 1961), is a Scottish poet, playwright, and novelist, known for her works Other Lovers (1993), Trumpet (1998) and Red Dust Road (2011). Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1961, to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted as a baby by a white Scottish couple, Helen and John Kay, and grew up in Bishopbriggs, a suburb of Glasgow. They adopted Jackie in 1961, having already adopted her brother, Maxwell, about two years earlier. Jackie and Maxwell also have siblings who were brought up by their biological parents. Kay has won a number of awards, including the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1998 and the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award in 2011. Since 2016, she has been Scots Makar, the national poet laureate of Scotland. She was appointed as chancellor of the University of Salford in 2015. External Website

Artists Madge Gill Born 19 January 1882, an illegitimate child in East Ham, Essex, (now Greater London), Madge Gill spent much of her early years in seclusion because her family could not tolerate the embarrassment. At age nine, despite her mother still being alive, she was placed in a Barnardo’s Girls’ Village Home orphanage at Barkingside, Ilford, Essex. She was sent by Barnardo's to Canada in 1896 and then worked as a domestic servant, nursemaid and nurse before she married. Following her death in 1961, thousands of Madge's drawings were found in her home and later exhibited internationally. External Website

Radio & Podcast Anton Clifford-Motopi on finding his full name Conversations (Anton Clifford-Motopi) 2024 In this podcast, Anton Clifford-Motopi recounts what it was like growing up in his large, caring, adoptive family in the seaside town of Redcliff in Queensland, Australia. While at home Anton felt as if he belonged, at school he felt out of place, different. This was because he looked different, especially as he had “weird, fuzzy hair.” As a teenager, Anton was told his father was a Torres Strait Islander. Decades later he found out his father lived 12,000km away in a small African country. Anton Clifford-Motopi has recently published his debut children’s novel “To and Fro” about a 12 year old boy, Sam, who thinks he’s weird looking. External Website

Radio & Podcast Jeanette Winterson: the storyteller's tale Jeanette Winterson 2016 In this conversation, Jeanette Winterson talks about her difficult childhood and path to becoming one of Britain's most successful writers. External Website

Films/Videos The Illustrated Mum (TV movie) 2003 The Illustrated Mum is a TV movie starring Michelle Collins, Alice Connor, and Holliday Grainger. Two sisters cope with the unpredictable behaviour of their depressed, alcoholic mother who was in care as a child. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles A digital archive of care experienced people in fiction, on screen and in real life IMO 2021 Care experienced journalist Sophia Hall spoke to Rosie Canning and Dee Michell, Founders of Care Experience and Culture about their care experienced led project and why they do what they do. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Motherless Child: The Definitive Biography of Eric Clapton: Paul Scott 2016 When he was 9, Eric Clapton found out that his parents were actually his grandparents and his sister was his mother. This early trauma affected Clapton's later relationships with women. This biography explores Clapton's childhood along with his rise to fame in the 1960's and his struggles with and against alcohol and drug addiction. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Charles Dickens: A Life Claire Tomalin 2012 A biography of one of the world's most famous and beloved writers, Charles Dickens, by award-winning biographer Claire Tomalin. External Website

Writers Langston Hughes 1901-1967 James Mercer Langston Hughes (1901 – 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. Hughes was born in Missouri. His father abandoned the family soon after the birth. After his parents divorced, he was raised by his maternal grandmother in Kansas as his mother needed to travel for work. When his grandmother died, Hughes lived with family friends for 2 years. Eventually Hughes lived again with his mother after she remarried and settled in Cleveland. There he wrote for his high school newspaper and published his first poetry. One of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue." In addition to poetry, Hughes wrote plays, and short stories. He also published several non-fiction works. From 1942 to 1962, as the civil rights movement was gaining traction, he wrote an in-depth weekly column in a leading black newspaper, The Chicago Defender. 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

Writers Kenneth Grahame 1859-1932 Kenneth Grahame (1859 – 1932) was a British writer. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the 3rd of 4 children. In 1864, his mother died after giving birth to the youngest boy, and his father sent the 4 children to live in Berkshire, England, with their maternal grandmother who is described as ‘cold’ and ‘forbidding’. Apart from one brief attempt to live together, Kenneth never saw his father again. Kenneth Grahame is most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon. Both books were later adapted for stage and film, of which A. A. Milne's Toad of Toad Hall, based on part of The Wind in the Willows, was the first. Other adaptations include the Disney films The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Reluctant Dragon. External Website

Films/Videos Christmas Child 2004 Christmas Child (2004). After his adopted father dies, a mysterious photograph, which may be a clue as to his origins, leads a journalist Jack Davenport (William R. Moses) to a small Texas town at Christmastime. External Website