Films/Videos Dorian Gray 2009 Dorian Gray is a movie starring Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, and Rebecca Hall. A corrupt young man - who grew up in the kinship care of his grandfather - somehow keeps his youthful beauty eternally, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Cultural, autobiographical and absent memories of orphanhood Delyth Edwards 2017 This book offers an empirically informed understanding of how cultural, autobiographical and absent memories of orphanhood interact and interconnect or come into being in the re-telling of a life story and construction of an identity. The volume investigates how care experienced identities are embedded within personal, social and cultural practices of remembering. The book stems from research carried out into the life (hi)stories of twelve undervalued ‘historical witnesses’ (Roberts, 2002) of orphanhood: women who grew up in Nazareth House children’s home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Several themes are covered, including histories of care in Northern Ireland, narratives and memories, sociologies of home, and self and identity. The result is an impressive text that works to introduce readers to the complexity of memory for care experienced people and what this means for their life story and identity. External Website

Authors X AUTHORS X ➝ Back to Top

Academic Articles Care leavers in the ivory tower Kirsty Capes 2019 Interrogating the care experience in creative-academic research. What is it like to be a care experienced person in higher education – particularly in doctoral study? As a writer and researcher, Kirsty Capes' work deals with the care experience through intersecting dimensions of reflective creative work and practice-based research. Being care experienced in higher education comes with its own unique set of problems and opportunities. Higher education continues to be a privilege afforded to those who are well-supported – with money, a supportive family and other strong support networks, and access to the educational resources they need. External Website

Children's Fiction Anna Casey's Place in the World Adrian Fogelin 2003 After losing her family, Anna Casey struggles to adjust to life in foster care with Miss Dupree, feeling abandoned and alone. She finds comfort in an explorer journal where she maps the places she has called home. Determined to belong to a real family, Anna forms unexpected friendships—including a new friend, Eb, and a group of unconventional adults and neighborhood kids—who help her discover connection and belonging. Told with warmth and humor, Adrian Fogelin’s novel traces Anna’s journey toward finding her place in the world. External Website

Poetry Gold from the Stone: New and Selected Poems Lemn Sissay Gold from the Stone is a collection of both new poems and selected ones previously published by Lemn Sissay. External Website

Television Shows The Inheritance (TV series) 2023 The Inheritance (2023) is a four-part British drama television series, first broadcast in the UK on Channel 5. Three siblings are left reeling after an unexpected death in the family. When father-of-three Dennis (Larry Lamb) dies unexpectedly, his adult children are left bereft. But their grief is quickly overshadowed by anger, confusion and suspicion when they learn that he recently changed his will and they won’t be receiving any part of his estate. (Spoiler alert: the storyline features a homicidal character who was in foster care.) They embark on a journey to figure out whether this death was truly a tragic accident, or whether it was murder. Also features a foster care stereotype. See Dr. Rosie Canning's review: https://careleaversinfiction.wordpress.com/2024/10/22/not-another-one/ External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Labeled: Ward of the State Kenisha E Anthony 2021 An abandoned child of drug-addicted parents and Florida’s broken child-welfare system, Kenisha E. Anthony was left to wonder if anyone would ever want her. As a young girl, desperate for love and belonging, she bounced from one unstable home to the next, packing only resentment, abandonment, and heartbreak to take with her. Still, Kenisha found her way, ultimately breaking barriers and shattering statistics. Against advice to “just get a GED,” she earned both an undergraduate and graduate degree with the aid of tuition exemption per Florida Statute 1009.25(1)(d), a resource for children aging out of foster care. As an advocate for change in the child welfare system, she found her voice in the presence of state legislators and earned a name as a dynamic professional and change-maker in the field of social work. External Website

Authors G Jade Green ➝ Melissa Gilbert ➝ Madge Gill ➝ Arshile Gorky ➝ Goldie (artist) ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience Half A World Away Mike Gayle 2020 Kerry Hayes is a single mum, living in a tough London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past. Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a young child, Noah never looks back. When Kerry contacts Noah, the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will change both of their lives forever. 'Kerry is not depicted as less able than Noah, despite growing up in care. So often cared for characters are a shorthand for an emotional mess and actually in this novel that was reversed.' External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Shadow child: a memoir of the stolen generation Rosalie Fraser 1998 Shadow child describes Rosalie Fraser's childhood experiences of separation from her parents while a State Ward in Western Australia and child abuse within a foster family. The story also documents Rosalie's search for her natural family following her marriage, including information obtained from official records. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Bea's Witch Daniel Ingram-Brown 2021 Beatrice Crosse is nearly 12 years ago. She was adopted from the care system but is not happy and she runs away from home, only to encounter a witch who offers her treasure. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles I was a ward of the state. The horrors of the Parramatta Girls' Home were legendary The Conversation (Parramatta) 2023 According to this article, the Australian government has recently announced it will nominate the Parramatta Female Factory for World Heritage listing. However, a call is also being made for the entire site on which the convict-era Parramatta Female Factory (built in 1821) stands to be nominated for World Heritage listing. The argument is that other notorious institutions have existed on the site: “This precinct is by no means merely a relic of the convict era. Only 15 years ago, part of the site was a women’s prison. And from 1887 to 1974, it housed the notorious Parramatta Girls’ Home” writes Jacqueline Z. Wilson. External Website

Authors F Jazz singer ➝ Choir director, gospel musician ➝ Rap Artist, motion graphic designer ➝ Comedian, author, screenwriter ➝ Back to Top

Non Fiction What Happened to You? Ophrah Winfrey 2021 With trauma expert, Dr Bruce Perry, Oprah Winfrey discusses the impact of trauma and insists that conversations must begin with asking: "what happened to you" instead of "what's wrong with you". Throughout the book, Oprah shares some of her traumatic experiences, including her time in kinship care as a small girl. External Website

Authors M The Foundling Boy ➝ Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett ➝ Rembering Babylon ➝ North Woods ➝ 1989 ➝ The Sun Walks Down ➝ As Swallows Fly ➝ Fugitive Pieces (Novel) ➝ The Ninth Orphan (The Orphan Trilogy Book 1) ➝ The Bee Sting ➝ Mad Mabel ➝ Goodnight Mister Tom (novel) ➝ Auē ➝ Amy's Children ➝ Insidious Intent ➝ That They May Face the Rising Sun ➝ The Ruin ➝ Long Bright River ➝ The Chaperone ➝ The Homes ➝ Lamb ➝ Harland's Half Acre ➝ Song of the Sea Maid ➝ Jamaica Inn ➝ Glasgow Boys ➝ The Orphans (2022) ➝ How the Dead Speak ➝ Long Bright River (novel) ➝ War Horse ➝ Lying Beside You ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir A Tertiary Moment Ryszard Szablicki 2015 Ryszard Szablicki explains in this chapter why he accepted a Victoria Government scholarship to attend university but had difficulty attending class because he felt so alienated from other people's experience of family. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Cuckoo in the Nest Fran Hill 2023 Cuckoo in the Nest follows 14-year-old Jackie Chadwick, a sharp-witted, poetry-loving teenager forced into foster care after her abusive, alcoholic father’s violence lands her in A&E, as she navigates life with a new family full of secrets during the sweltering summer of 1976. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles CELCIS blog on superheroes from the care system Charlotte Armitage 2018 Charlotte Armitage writes about how society often portrays Care Experienced People as the 'baddies'. Stan Lee's representation of Spider-Man, however, is very different. External Website

Radio & Podcast Mary lawson: Crow Lake BBC Book Club (Crow Lake) 2023 In this podcast, James Naughtie talks with a group of readers as they all discuss Crow Lake (2002) with Canadian writer Mary Lawson.Crow Lake centres on the Morrison family whose parents died when the eldest sibling was 18 and the youngest only a toddler. The narrator is Kate who was 7 when her parents died; she is now a zoologist. External Website