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Films/Videos The Thirteenth Tale 2014 Biographer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman) arrives at the country house of famous novelist Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave). She has been invited to stay there and help Vida write her biography before she dies of cancer. Margaret is hesitant, as Vida is known for telling a different story each time she is asked about her background in interviews, so she requests some verifiable information from public record. Vida reveals her birth name was Adeline March and the local newspapers wrote about a fire that burned down her family home when she was seventeen, of which she bears proof in the form of a key-shaped burn on her palm. Vida tells her the events leading up to the fire. She grew up at Angelfield, the decaying family estate, with her identical twin sister Emmeline. Their mother Isabelle was suffered abuse at the hands of her unhinged brother, Charlie, and eventually taken away to a mental asylum, so the girls were mostly left to their own devices, becoming unruly, anti-social and running wild. The only adult supervision they had came from the two servants, nicknamed "Missus" and "John-the-dig." Ambrose, a young man who is the hired help gets Emmaline pregnant. This leads to Adeline trying to kill the baby. Margaret works out there were three girls at Angelfield. Vida confirms this, revealing she wasn't Adeline, but presumably the daughter of Charlie, abandoned at the estate by her unknown mother. The real Adeline was dangerously violent and jealous of anyone who got Emmeline's attention. This means there three orphans at the house. Margaret reveals her story and admits that she herself had a twin who was fatally struck by a car as a child, a tragic accident for which Margaret has always blamed herself. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Forgotten Children: Fairbridge Farm School and its Betrayal of Britain's Child Migrants to Australia David Hill 2010 In 1959 David Hill’s mother – a poor single parent living in England – reluctantly decided to send her sons to Fairbridge Farm School in New South Wales where, she was led to believe, they would have a good education and a better life. David was lucky – his mother was able to follow him out to Australia – but for most children, the reality was shockingly different. Here is the story of the lives of the Fairbridge children, from the bizarre luxury of the voyage out to Australia to the harsh reality of the first days there; from the crushing daily routine to stolen moments of freedom and the struggle that defined life after leaving the school. External Website

Authors U AUTHORS U ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Late Show Michael Connelly 2017 The Late Show (2017) is the first in Michael Connelly’s series of Renee Ballard books. Ballard is a detective working the night shift in Hollywood, having to relinquish her investigations each morning to the detectives on day shift. Working the night shift is punishment meted out to her for making a formal complaint about being sexual harassed by a supervisor. External Website

Authors H Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women ➝ Dickens The Orphan Condition ➝ Collective Revenge: Challenging the Individualist Victim-Avenger in Death Proof, Sleepers, and Mystic River ➝ Children's Homes. A History of Institutional Care for Britain's Young ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Mothering Sunday (film) 2021 Mothering Sunday, adaptation of Graham Swift's novel set in 1924 over one day. Mr & Mrs Evan give housekeeper, orphan Jane Fairchild, day off. They're set to go to neighbour's house to celebrate an engagement. Jane & the neighbour, Paul, have been having an affair for many years. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Death in Holy Orders (Novel) P.D.James 2001 Death in Holy Orders (2001) is a crime novel by noted British novelist PD James (1920-2014). The setting is a Church of England theological college, Saint Anselm’s, which trains Anglican priests. Saint Anselm’s is located on a cliff along the Suffolk coast. There are 3 Care Experienced characters in the story – Ronald Treves, an adoptee; Raphael Arbuthnot, who was abandoned at Saint Anselm’s as a baby; and Kate Miskin, who was raised by her grandmother. Ronald Treves and Raphael Arbuthnot are ordinands or trainee priests; Kate Miskin is a police office with the Metropolitan police. The police, let by Adam Dalgliesh (who features in 14 of James’ novels), is investigating the brutal murder of a visiting archdeacon. *Spoiler Alert* None of the Care Experienced characters are murderers. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles I was a child in care. We needed love, not chemicals | David Akinsanya David Akinsanya 2016 In this article, David writes about the disturbing news about drug trials on disruptive children "t my home kids were on another planet due to medication – and I could have been one of them" he says. External Website

Radio & Podcast Stripped of my spirituality Heart and Soul 2023 Thousands of Native Americans were forcibly removed from their families and sent to Catholic boarding schools from the 1800s through to the 1970s. While in the boarding schools, the children were expected to assimilate into mainstream white culture, including not being allowed to speak their language and having to become Christian. In this podcast, 4 women tell their stories of removal, abuse within boarding schools, and their healing journey, including reclaiming their traditional spiritual beliefs and practices. External Website

Authors P Otherways' into the Garden: Re-Visioning the Feminine in The Secret Garden ➝ The Mem Sahib, the Worthy, the Rajah and His Minions: Some Reflections on the Class Politics of The Secret Garden ➝ A Fragment of the Maltese Exodus: Child Migration to Australia 1953-1965 ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Belle 2013 Belle (2013) is a British film inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804) who was born to an enslaved woman and a captain of the British Royal Navy. In the film, Dido’s father (Matthew Goode) finds his daughter (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) living in poverty in Florida and takes her to England to be raised by her great-uncle, the Lord Chief Justice of England. William Murray (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson) were also raising another niece Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon) at their house in Hampstead. Much of the film explores the racism Dido Elizabeth Belle would have experienced despite her being an heiress on the death of her father. The film also explores the beginning of the abolition movement as it tells the story of the Zong massacre, the mass killing of more than 130 enslaved Africans aboard the British slave ship Zong. In Belle, it is William Murray who hears an appeal and decides for the insurers and against the syndicate of slave-owners. External Website

Authors G Accessing Social Services Child Care Files: The Life and Importance of Graham Gaskin (1959 – 2002) ➝ Back to Top

Authors E Ellis ➝ Eden's Lost (TV show) ➝ Every Family Has a Secret ➝ Endeavour ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows Untamed 2025 Untamed (2025) is an American murder mystery series set in Yosemite National Park. Eric Bana stars as Kyle Turner, a special agent at Yosemite National Park who leads an investigation into the death of a young woman whose body falls off El Capitan in the Park. *Spoiler Alert* “Jane Doe” is Lucy Cook who disappeared in 2007. We find out that Lucy Cook was actually taken by her unacknowledged father in 2007 & put into foster care in another state & with a supposedly “good” but anything but foster family. Eventually, Lucy/Grace ran away and back to Yosemite. External Website

Writers Nancy Reagan Nancy Reagan (1921-2016) was born Anne Frances Robbins in Queens, NYC. She was sent to live with relatives in Maryland after her parents separated. Nancy returned to live with her mother 7 years later after her mother remarried. Nancy was legally adopted by her stepfather in 1935. She began her working life as an actor, not retiring until 1962. Nancy then joined her husband, Ronald Reagan on the campaign trail when he announced his candidacy for Governor of California in 1966, and later for Presidency. She was First Lady during Ronald Reagan's presidency from 1981 to 1989. Nancy Reagan published her first book in 1982. To Love a Child was her book about the Foster Grandparents program which she began sponsoring when Ronald Reagan was Governor of California. She also wrote her memoirs and an autobiography, and I Love You, Ronnie (2002), a reflection of her long marriage to Ronald. External Website

Authors L Life of the Week: Frederick Douglass ➝ Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley ➝ A free lunch ➝ Lemn Sissay Is the One and Only ➝ Back to Top

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

Authors E Every one of us has a different story': a historic portrait of care system success ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows Judge John Deed 2001 Judge John Deed (2001-2007) is a British legal drama. Martin Shaw plays Judge John Deed, a High Court judge who is determined to seek justice in the cases set before him. He is often hampered by political players who want to protect the interests of the nation and/or big business. In Series 1, Episode 5, John Deed discovers to his amazement that he was adopted as a baby. In the same episode there is another child protection story in which a woman has a baby removed because she won’t permit the child – not biologically hers – to have a test for HIV. Adoption is not mentioned again until Season 2, Episode 6 when Deed goes into therapy. There is an attempt to blame his womanising on him being adopted. From Series 2, Episode 8 a discussion begins about barrister Jo Mills (Jenny Seagrove), Deed’s long term love interest, adopting the son of a client who has died. The dominant story in Series 3, Episode 3 is that of a 13-year-old adoptee being accused of raping his teacher. The Council is alleged to have not provided a full report on the boy’s background to the adoptive parents. Another story in the same episode is that of a man who was sexually abused as a child – at home and in ‘care’ – killing a paedophile in prison to prevent him abusing others on his release. Series 4, Episode 1 has an accused who has spent 24 of his 29 years in some sort of institution. Series 4, Episode 3 also has a convicted youth who was in the care of the state. External Website

Radio & Podcast Maya Angelou (radio) World Book Club 2014 Maya Angelou reflects on some of her earliest and most difficult memories and talks about her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in this special commemorative edition of World Book Club from the archive. External Website