Fiction featuring Care Experience Truth Peter Temple 2010 Inspector Stephen Villani, who was with his brothers in kinship for a while as a child, is head of homicide in Melbourne, Australia. He has a full agenda: a murdered woman in a penthouse apartment, three men butchered in a sadistic rampage, a tattoofaced drug dealer corrupting his rebellious daughter, a crumbling marriage. With each twist and every turn of this taut crime novel, Villani is forced to question whom he can trust. External Website

Cartoons Dumbo 1941 A young circus elephant is born with comically large ears and given the cruel nickname Dumbo. One day at a show, he is taunted by a group of kids, inciting his mother into a rage that gets her locked up. After Dumbo's ears cause an accident that injures many of the other elephants, he is made to dress like a clown and perform dangerous stunts. Everything changes when Dumbo discovers that his enormous ears actually allow him to fly, and he astounds everyone at the circus with his new talent. External Website

Television Shows Alex Rider 2020 Based on the Alex Rider novels by Anthony Horowitz, Alex Rider is a British spy thriller. London teenager, Alex Rider, who has been living with his uncle since his parents died, is recruited by a subdivision of MI6 upon the death of his uncle. Alex's job in Series 1 is to infiltrate a 'reform' school for wayward rich kids. In the 2nd series, he doesn't have a formal role but does much of 'The Department's' work for them. There is an additional orphan character in Series 2, Kyra Vashenko-Chao, who is a skilled gamer, hacker and programmer (reminiscent of Lisbeth Salander of the Dragon Tatoo). At one point Kyra suggests that she and Alex form "an orphan club". He counters by saying they need a 'survivors club'. Kyra is not a character in the books by Anthony Horowitz, but appears to be an innovation of the screenwriter for the series. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience My Name Is Leon Kit de Waal 2017 It's 1981, a year of riots and royal weddings. The Dukes of Hazzard is on TV. Curly Wurlys are in the shops. And trying to find a place in it all is nine-year-old Leon. After his mother's breakdown, he and his little brother Jake are taken into care and live with foster carer Maureen. They've lost one home, but have they found another? Maureen feeds and looks after them. She has wild red hair and mutters swearwords under her breath when she thinks they can't hear. She claims everything will be okay. But will they ever see their mother again? Who are the couple who secretly visit Jake? Between the street violence and the street parties, Leon must find a way to reunite his family... External Website

Television Shows The Clocks 2010 Sheila Webb, a typist at Miss Martindale's agency, arrives at her afternoon appointment at Wilbraham Crescent in Crowdean, Sussex. She finds a well-dressed older man, stabbed to death, surrounded by six clocks, four of which are stopped at 4:13, while the cuckoo clock announces it is 3 o'clock. When a blind woman enters the house about to step on the corpse, Sheila runs screaming out of the house and into the arms of a young man passing down the street. Sheila was raised by an aunt after being abandoned by her mother at birth. The only memento from her mother is a blue clock with the word Remembrance on it. External Website

Writers Brandi Morin Brandi Morin is a French/Cree/Iroquois journalist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta, Canada. She was in foster care as a child. Morin has written for Al Jazeera and National Georgraphic and has appeared on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. She investigates stories of injustice, particularly against Indigenous peoples. Brandi Morin won an Edward R Murrow award in 2022 for her story about Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Devil's Staircase Helen Fitzgerald 2009 In The Devil’s Staircase (2009), there are 2 Care Experienced characters who are central to the story. One has been deported from Australia to the UK for stealing cars and one is a serial killer. External Website

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

Autobiography/Memoir The girl in the locker: the true story of twins abandoned by their mother to a life of abuse, and their survival and fight for freedom Sonia St Claire 2014 Sonia St Claire and her twin sister, Sarah, suffered horrific abuse in five different orphanages over the first fourteen years of their lives. They were subject to sexual and emotional abuse and physical violence that would leave both of them traumatized well into their adult lives. A tale of survival that will shock and inspire External Website

Writers Alan Duff Alan Duff (b. 1950) is a Maori writer with Ngati Rangitihi and Tuwharetoa ancestry. He is best known for his novel Once Were Warriors (1990) which was adapted for film by Lee Tamahori in 1994. Alan Duf grew up in a state housing area in Rotorua. After his parents separated when he was 10, Alan lived with a Maori aunt & uncle at Whakarewarewa. He was expelled from school and became a state ward at Hamilton Boys Home, subsequently living in kinship care again with an uncle. When he was 15, Alan Duff was sentenced to Waikeria borstal for assault & breaking & entering. After a while and with lots of convictions for petty offences, Duff went to London which signalled a turning point. Back in New Zealand, Duff began to write full time in 1985. Once Were Warriors made Duff famous and he began writing a column for the Evening Post. He currently writes for the New Zealand Herald. In 1995 Duff launched his Books in Homes Scheme, a program to foster literacy amongst children from low-SES backgrounds. That same year he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Burial Rites Hannah Kent 2014 Burial Rites is set in Iceland. In 1829 Agnes Magnusdottir is sentenced to death for her part in the murder of two men. As the story unfolds, we learn that Agnes was in foster care as child. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People How to Create the Perfect Wife: The True Story of One Gentleman, Two Orphans an Experiment to Create the Ideal Woman Wendy Moore 2014 This is the story of Thomas Day who, in 1769, decided to train a wife for himself. He chose 2 x 12 year olds from the Foundling Hospital in London and set about training them. Thomas Day's bizarre experiments didn't work; Lucretia was apprenticed to a milliner and 2 years later, Sabrina was sent to boarding school. External Website

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

Autobiography/Memoir The Convent Marie Hargreaves 2020 When a fancy car pulls up outside six-year-old Marie's home in 1959, her dad tells her she is going on holiday. But little does she know she will not see her home again for four long years. Her family cannot afford to keep her at home. Marie tells the story of how she was taken away from a poor, but happy and loving home life, to live in a convent - away from everyone and everything she holds dear. Her hair is bluntly chopped, her clothes are taken away, and her name is changed. Then a horrific ritual of physical, sexual and mental abuse begins. Even after the convent closes, Marie is unable to share details of her suffering with anyone. But when a police investigation is launched, and she realises that the time has finally come to tell the truth... External Website

Fiction Featuring Care Experience Mad Mabel Sally Hepworth 2025 Australian writer Sally Hepworth was at an event promoting one of her books when an elderly woman approached. The woman said: I’ve been thinking about murdering my next-door neighbour … I know that I’m going to get away with it … because there are 2 groups of people that are never suspected of murder, & those are old women & little girls (The Book Show, ABC Radio National). After learning about Mary Bell, she wrote Mad Mabel (2025). Mabel Waller becomes the young female killer in Australia, convicted of murder in 1959 at the age of 15 & subsequently institutionalised. The novel shifts between Mabel’s present life as the elderly Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, and young Mabel who has a difficult childhood despite the family money. External Website

Television Shows Under a Dark Sun 2025 Under a Dark Sun (2025) is a French family drama series. The plot follows 25-year-old Alba Mazier (Ava Baya), a single mother who takes a seasonal job at a luxurious rose growing estate in the village of Eze on the French Riveria. It’s not long before Alba becomes a suspect in the murder of the patriarch who runs the estate, Arnaud Lasserre (Thibault de Montalembert). The suspicions arise because Arnaud has left Alba a share of his estate in his will. This is the first time Alba becomes aware her parents aren’t her biological parents. *Spoiler Alert* There are more family secrets divulged during the 6-part series, one being that Alba isn’t Arnaud’s daughter but Mathieu’s. Mathieu (Guillaume Gouix) is Arnauld’s son. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Twelve Years a Slave Solomon Northup 1853 Twelve Years a Slave is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Solomon Northup was a free Black resident of New York State who was drugged on a trip to Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1841 and sold to a dealer of enslaved people. Beaten and chained, he was transported by ship to a New Orleans market and suffered more than a decade of servitude on Louisiana plantations. Northup had to hide his literacy or risk violence. And he was unable, for years, to get word to anyone in the North to let them know where he was. Fortunately, he was eventually able to send messages which prompted legal action that secured his freedom. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey (2) 2022 Another of the Josephine Tey books published by Penguin in 2022 is The Daughter in Time (1951). Inspector Alan Grant is in hospital and begins investigating the story of Richard III and the allegations he had ordered the murder of 2 nephews - 12 year old Edward, Prince of Wales (b. 1470) and briefly Edward V, King of England (although never crowned) and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York (b. 1473). Grant concludes that the allegations against Richard III are unwarranted. However, it does seem to be the case that the 2 boys were living in the Tower of London and were away from their parents. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience To Die For David Baldacci 2024 To Die For (2024) by American writer David Baldacci revolves around the guardianship of an orphaned girl. As the story opens, 12-year-old Betsy Odom is in the care of the FBI. Her parents have recently died and her uncle, Danny Glass, wants to adopt the child. However, Danny Glass is the defendant in a federal prosecution and is out on bail. He’s wearing an ankle monitor and has had his passport removed. Travis Devine (this is the 3rd in the series of Travis Devine books), an ex-Army officer who now works undercover for Homeland Security, is tasked with supervising meetings between Betsy Odom and her uncle. External Website

Actors Gianna Simone Gianna Simone (born December 22, 1989) is an American actress, model, and producer. Gianna Simone grew up in East Boston in what she describes as a “tough setting”; she was physically and emotionally abused. When she was 14, Gianna was put into foster care, going from home to home while a girls’ home was her base. She began her modeling career at the age of 16 and moved to Los Angeles when she was 21 to pursue a career in acting.Gianna Simone has appeared in roles in the feature films Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Mother's Day (2016), I Can Only Imagine (2018), Unbroken: Path to Redemption (2018), and several television series. Gianna has set up the Gianna Simone Foundation with the aim of mentoring young people in foster care and to rescue animals. External Website