Radio & Podcast Mother of Lion, Sue Brierley, tells her story Sue Brierley 2020 Sue Brierley is the adoptive mother of Saroo, the Indian boy whose remarkable story of finding his Indian birth mother is told in the film “Lion”. Sue has now written her side of the story, and she talks to Paul Barclay about her book, "Lioness". External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles When Ishbel met Lucy Bradt Holmes Guides et al. 2018 In an extract from Me, My Bike and a Street Dog Called Lucy, Ishbel Holmes - who was in foster care as a teenager - talks about finding Lucy for the first time. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Peter Norris grew up on the run with his bank-robber dad. He refuses to be defined by his past ABC News (Australia) 2025 In this ABC News article, Peter Norris tells the story of his difficult childhood. Even as Clarence “Clarry” Norris (who had “spent a lot of his childhood in boys’ homes”) turned to armed robberies to fix his money problems, he was “a really loving, protective and supportive dad” who “tried to ensure that we didn’t end up like him.” Young Peter was first in foster care when he was 18 months old and his father in jail. Later, he lived with his father from the age of 6. When they found a “bundles of cash…and two pistols” in a bag Peter and his sisters “started to realise that Dad probably wasn’t just a cleaner.” When he ran out of money, Clarry put the children in a home run by the Australian Red Cross for 2 weeks at a time. At 10, Peter (& his siblings) were made wards of the State. Eventually he was taken in by a loving foster family and chose to say there even after his father had escaped prison. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Neil Morrissey's rags to riches tale of growing up in Stoke-on-Trent care home Hayley Parker 2021 The actor has opened up about prejudice in the TV industry against people like him, from a working class background and raised in a children's home. External Website

Television Shows Why Women Kill 2019 The series follows three women from three decades - 1963, 1984, 2019 - who are connected by having lived in the same house in Pasadena. In the 2019 story, Taylor Harding is in an open marriage with partner, Eli Cohen. The 2 enter into a relationship with Jade Tabatchnick, who says she has been in and out of the foster care system. Jade is drawn as a stereotypical care experienced character, a 'troubled' young woman with a murderous rage. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience One Christmas Night Hayley Webster 2019 One Christmas Night opens at 3.08 a.m., Christmas Eve in Newbury Street, Norwich with a thief about to break into one of the houses: The story is told from the point of view of nine characters in the present over Christmas Eve and leading up to midday Christmas Day: Sisters Joanie and Tash Blake, recently bereaved Wendy Finch, pub landlady Sue Winters, well-off Cynthia Ellis, pub employee Irma Wozniak, divorced Craig Mullany and Frank Blake who took up with Craig’s ex wife Jen. The investigating officer is DC Lucy Crane. Two of the characters are care experienced, one of whom is a main character. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Out of the Mist & Steam Alan Duff 1999 Out of the Mist and Steam: A Memoir (1999) is Alan Duff’s memoir. The memoir explores Duff’s difficult childhood including the separation from his family, being detained in a boy’s home and as a young man, being in prison while in England. He also writes of how he turned his life around, how he became one of the New Zealand’s best known novelists and an activist on behalf of underprivileged New Zealanders as well as an at time controversial public commentator. External Website

Authors L Hugh Leonard ➝ Dennis Leoutsakas ➝ Norman Lewis ➝ Joseph Livesey ➝ Charmian London ➝ Jack London ➝ Sumner Locke Elliott ➝ Deborah Levy ➝ Stieg Larsson ➝ Back to Top

Poetry Morning Breaks In The Elevator Lemn Sissay 2016 Published in 2003, Morning Breaks in the Elevator Lemn Sissay establishes his reputation as a foremost UK poet with a collection that moves from protest to reflection. External Website

Television Shows A Fortunate Life (TV Mini-Series 1986) 1986 With Bill Kerr, Dorothy Alison, Dale Randall, John Ley. Four part biopic about classic Australian author A.B. Facey (1894-1982). In kinship care from the age of 2, Albert was sent out to workplacements from the age of 8. External Website

Television Shows Prosper 2024 Prosper (2024) is an Australian television drama series telling the story of the wealthy Quinn family who founded and run the U Star evangelical church. As the charismatic founder (Richard Roxburgh) announces an expansion of the church into the US market, the family begins fearing previously well kept secrets will be exposed. *Spoiler* One of those secrets is that the Quinn’s adopted son is actually their grandson. External Website

Non Fiction The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Geogia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption Barbara Bisantz Raymond 2008 The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption (2008) tells the story of a woman now famous for child trafficking. Georgia Tann (1891-1951) ran an adoption agency in Memphis, Tennessee. From 1924, she is estimated to have stolen more than 5000 children from mostly poor single mothers and sold them to wealthy people, 80% of whom were in New York and California. In September 1950, then Texas Governor Gordon Browning commenced an investigation into Tann’s agency, which was closed that year. Tann died 3 days before the state brought charges against her agency. External Website

Authors C Pioneer and activist of trauma-informed care for Care-Experienced people. ➝ Peregrina Sails ➝ Back to Top

Authors O Ordeal by Innocence (Novel) ➝ I was born for this ➝ Girl ➝ Where the Crawdads Sing (novel) ➝ Evidence of V ➝ Back to Top

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels Nubia: Real One Written by L.L. McKinney; illustrated by Robyn Smith. 2021 Nubia: Real One (2021) Written by L.L. McKinney and illustrated by Robyn Smith. Young Adult Graphic Novel. Nubia has always been a little bit different. As a baby she showcased Amazonian-like strength by pushing over a tree to rescue her neighbour's cat. But despite her having similar abilities, the world has no problem telling her that she's no Wonder Woman but in fact she is, Wonder Woman's twin sister. And even if she were, they wouldn't want her. Every time she comes to the rescue, she's reminded of how people see her: as a threat. Her moms do their best to keep her safe, but Nubia can't deny the fire within her, even if she's a little awkward about it sometimes. Even if it means people assume the worst. When Nubia s best friend, Quisha, is threatened by a boy who thinks he owns the town, Nubia will risk it all her safety, her home, and her crush on that cute kid in English class to become the hero society tells her she isn't. From the witty and powerful voice behind A Blade So Black, and with endearing and expressive art by Robyn Smith, comes a vital story for today about equality, identity, and kicking it with your squad. External Website

Children's Fiction Paddington Michael. Bond 1958 Paddington Bear, created by British author Michael Bond, is a beloved character in children's literature, first appearing in A Bear Called Paddington on October 13, 1958. Paddington, a polite, marmalade-loving, anthropomorphic bear from "darkest Peru," is discovered by the Brown family at London’s Paddington station and adopted after they struggle to pronounce his original bear name. Known for his old hat, duffel coat, and battered suitcase, Paddington is well-meaning yet often gets into innocent mischief. Bond was inspired to create Paddington after spotting a lonely teddy bear in a shop, and he drew parallels to the experiences of wartime refugees carrying luggage labels, leading to Paddington’s iconic tag, "Please look after this bear." Bond wrote the first book within ten days and named Paddington after the station, close to his home. The character has since featured in 29 books illustrated by various artists, with the final book, Paddington at St. Paul's, published posthumously in 2018. External Website

Radio & Podcast Frank Auerbach (Podcast) This Cultural Life (Frank Auerbach) 2024 Frank Auerbach (b. 1931) was 7 when he was sent from Germany to safety in England in 1939 under the Kindertransport scheme. He tells something of this experience as well as life as an artist in This Cultural Life. External Website

Children's Fiction Oliver Twist (adapted) Charles Dickens 2009 The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, it shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens's tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and memorable characters - the arch-villain Fagin, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. Meet the Artful Dodger, as roistering and swaggering a young gentleman as ever stood four foot six. With him, you’ll run down the dirty backstreets of London to be entertained by the Respectable Old Gentleman and his brood of thieves and pickpockets. Fagin will bring you to ‘the trade’, and make something of you, something profitable. But there’s something about the young orphan Oliver that’s too good for this dark and dangerous world – can he ever escape its clutches? Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery. External Website

Authors F FamilyConnect ➝ ‘This book kept me alive’: Jenni Fagan on writing a memoir of her childhood in care ➝ Hutchinson Heinemann signs Fagan's 'extraordinary' memoir in two-book deal ➝ ‘The hardest thing is to forgive yourself’: actor Samantha Morton and writer Jenni Fagan on the trauma of growing up in care ➝ Barrister and Chair of Independent Enquiry into Child Sexual Abuse ➝ Back to Top

Activists Terry Galloway: Campaigner and Advocate Terry Galloway 1979- Terry Galloway is a UK activist who uses his lived experience of the care system to campaign for structural change, particularly the recognition of care experience as a protected characteristic in law. External Website