Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Care leavers deserve to be seen for their talents Lucy Barnes 2022 University of Surrey launched a new scholarship to support students who've been in care. Law student Lucy Barnes, who graduated from Surrey in 2018 and has built up a successful career as a barrister, tells us how such an initiative would have made a huge difference to her... External Website

Writers Patricia Cornwell (writer) Patricia Carroll Daniels was born 1956 in Miami, Florida. Her father, lawyer Sam Daniels, left the family when Patricia was 5 years old. Several years later, Patricia stayed with friends of the evangelist, Billy Graham, while her mother, Marilyn Daniels, recovered from mental illness. Patricia Daniels had her own struggles with mental illness as a young woman studying at college in North Carolina. She married Charles Cornwell in 1979. Patricia Cornwell became interested in criminal behaviour while working first as a journalist for the Charlotte Observer and later for a medical examiner in Richmond, Virginia. She also undertook studies in forensic science, volunteered in the police force, and read endlessly in medical libraries. Cornwell’s writing career took off when she developed the Dr. Kay Scarpetta character for Postmortem (1990), a self-portrait some say. Prior to that she had written a biography of Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth Bell Graham, and had made a first attempt at writing crime. The Scarpetta series became immensely popular with sales at more than 100 million copies. External Website

Actors James McAvoy Scottish actor, James McAvoy (b. 1979), who was born in Glasgow, was in kinship care as a child. James was about 7 years of age when he went to live with grandparents. His parents had recently separated and his mother thought her son would be better off with her parents, Mary and James. His grandparents were important role models for James with him crediting his grandmother for his courage and self-confidence. External Website

Academic theses The Orhan Among Us: An Examination of Orphans in Newbery Award Winning Literature April A Mattix 2012 Orphan stories in children’s literature are rich and complex, and they have historically permeated the pages of children’s books. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of orphans as protagonists in children’s award-winning literature through content analysis. This study utilizes all the Newbery Award winning books (1922–2011) as well as the Newbery Honor books of the last decade (2002–2011) to provide a wide and deep swath of novels in order to present both historical perspective and attention to current trends. External Website

Films/Videos Jane Eyre (film) 2011 An adaptation of the classic novel by Charlotte Bronte (1847), the film is told in flashbacks to orphan Jane's childhood in kinship care and boarding school and as a governess at Thornfield Hall. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Careful, He Might Hear You (novel) Sumner Locke Elliott 1963 A small boy is living in kinship care with one aunt after his mother dies in childbirth birth. This story is the tussle between two aunts for the custody of the child. Autobiographical External Website

Television Shows Thou Shalt Not Steal 2024 Thou Shalt Not Steal (2024) is an Australian black comedy featuring the escape from youth detention of 17-year-old Aboriginal protagonist Robyn (Sherry-Lee Watson) who declares as she leaves: “Them missionaries reckon thou shalt not steal. Bit rich from the Bible-bashing bastards that stole our country!” Robyn teams up with Gidge (Will McDonald), the son of unscrupulous bible-bashing Robert (Noah Taylor) and the pair go in search for the father Robyn has never met. Robyn and Gidge are chased from Alice Springs to Adelaide by Robert and Maxine (Miranda Otto), a former sex worker turned cabbie & drug dealer. “Thou Shalt Not Steal has future classic written all over it” writes Luke Buckmaster in The Guardian (17 October 2024). External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Survivor: The Shocking and Inspiring Story of a True Champion Fatima Whitbread 2012 Fatima Whitbread had the worst possible start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she spent much of her childhood in and out of children's homes. A brief, disastrous stay with her birth mother saw her raped by her mother's drunken boyfriend - while her mother held a knife to her throat to 'quieten her down'. Fatima was only twelve at the time. Athletics was her saviour: local athletics coach Margaret Whitbread took the young Fatima under her wing, eventually adopting her. Fatima competed in three Olympics, winning bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In 1986 she set a world record, and the following year in Rome became world champion and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. But then Fatima faded from the public eye, leaving many to wonder where she had gone. After the cheering stopped, Fatima faced prejudice, penury, scandal and heartbreak. Survivor describes how she defeated all her demons to rise triumphantly from the ashes once again, this time as queen of the jungle. Almost 13 million people watched her on I'm a Celebrity, and after surviving 20 days in the Australian heat, she has millions of new fans eager to know more about Fatima the woman: the forthright, focused, slightly bossy, charismatic single mum who knows how to transform even the most devastating experiences into lessons in life. This is the unforgettable story of a true champion, who triumphed against the worst hardships imaginable. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Intelligent women are dangerous, no?’ Samantha Morton on sexism, success and survival The Guardian 2022 Taken into care, abused, objectified: the actor had a traumatic start to life – and her career. Why does she feel such a strong connection to her new TV role: privileged, notorious Catherine de Medici? External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Strange Adventures of H Sarah Burton 2020 Orphaned at a young age, H is sent to London to live with her caring aunt. Her life is idyllic until tragedy strikes—her predatory cousin shatters her innocence, and the plague devastates the city, claiming the lives of those she loves. Cast out into the quarantined streets of London, H finds herself alone, destitute, and pregnant. Determined to reclaim her life, H must navigate a world fraught with danger. She faces a vengeful adversary, discovers love in the most unlikely of places, and endures a betrayal she never anticipated. Through cunning and resilience, H fights to carve out a life of freedom and independence. But will her charm and wit be enough to overcome the odds and secure the future she longs for? External Website

Television Shows Based on a True Story 2023 Based on a True Story (2023) is an American comedy drama series which includes a kinship care character. Ava Bartlett (Kaley Cuoco) and her husband Nathan Bartlett (Chris Messina) have been caring for Ava’s sister, Tory Thompson (Liana Liberator) since her mother died. Tory is a college student, preparing for her final exams. She watches on bemusedly as Ava and Nathan become involved in making a podcast with a serial killer. External Website

Authors S Barbara Sumner-Burstyn ➝ Angela Shelton ➝ Jeffrey Seller ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015 This is the 7th episode of the "Skywalker sage" and the first film which introduces Rey, a scavenger and orphan character. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience A Thousand Moons Sebastian Barry 2021 Even when you come out of bloodshed and disaster in the end you have got to learn to live… Winona is a young Lakota orphan adopted by former soldiers Thomas McNulty and John Cole. Living with Thomas and John on the farm they work in 1870s Tennessee, she is educated and loved, forging a life for herself beyond the violence and dispossession of her past. But the fragile harmony of her unlikely family unit, in the aftermath of the Civil War, is soon threatened by a further traumatic event, one which Winona struggles to confront, let alone understand. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Doctor Who: The Timeless Children or Dr Who was a foundling Doctor Who 2020 "The Timeless Children" is the tenth and final episode of the twelfth series of the British television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 1 March 2020. It was written by Chris Chibnall, and directed by Jamie Magnus Stone. It is the second of a two-part story; the previous episode, "Ascension of the Cybermen", aired on 23 February. Doctor Who season 12 revealed the Doctor is not a Time Lord at all; rather, she is the Timeless Child, a billion-year-old being who became the base genetic code for the entire Time Lord race. A Shabogan (that’s an indigenous inhabitant of Gallifrey), specifically a female explorer called Tecteun, discovered a mysterious foundling on an alien planet. She soon realised the little girl had the ability to regenerate her body after suffering life-threatening injuries, so dedicated her life to experimenting on this immortal child to reproduce this regenerative effect in herself… which she eventually achieved.Then, over the aeons, Tecteun bestowed this regenerative ability on selected others, who become the ruling elite of Gallifrey and dubbed themselves ‘Time Lords’ after also conquering travel through Space and Time. But who was the curious foundling who begat all of Gallifreyan society? The Doctor. External Website

Authors Z Zoey to the Max ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Foundling's Story Justine Cowan 2021 Growing up in a wealthy enclave outside San Francisco, Justine Cowan's life seems idyllic. But her mother's unpredictable temper drives Justine from home the moment she is old enough to escape. It is only after her mother dies that she finds herself pulling at the threads of a story half-told - her mother's upbringing in London's Foundling Hospital. Haunted by this secret history, Justine travels across the sea and deep into the past to discover the girl her mother once was. 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

Writers John Masefield 1878-1967 John Edward Masefield (1878 – 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Masefield was born into a comfortable middle class family, lived in the country, went to boarding school, and was encouraged to read. But first his mother died and then his father became unwell and Jack (along with siblings) became the ward of paternal uncle, William Masefield. Jack was taken out of boarding school and sent off to sea which he did not enjoy. Among Masefield's best known works are the children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and the poems The Everlasting Mercy and "Sea-Fever". External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Damaged: Heartbreaking Stories of the Kids Trapped in Britain's Broken Care System Chris Wild 2018 Chris Wild lost his dad aged 11, leaving him to grow up in the care system. There, he witnessed the incessant physical and sexual abuse of children, with the only escape leading to the streets. So many others like him, failed by the systems put in place to protect them, ended up with nothing but drink, drugs, prostitution, and crime as their normality. Later, working in a care home himself became the only way Chris could help, but he was shocked to discover little had changed and vulnerable children were still being failed. In Damaged, he shares heartbreaking memories of the care system along with the stories of all the boys, girls, men, and women he met along the way—exposing why we must take action now to protect all of Britain's forgotten children. External Website