Writers Ishbel Holmes Ishbel Holmes, also known as World Bike Girl, a Scottish-Iranian woman became a champion racing cyclist in spite of having been abandoned by her family. At just 16, Holmes was put into foster care, at 17 she was homeless. A key worker told her she would always be in the gutter and that was when she decided things had to change. She started cycling. Holmes was determined to cycle the world but her journey took a completely unexpected turn when, despite her initial instincts not to, she rescued a street dog in Turkey. Ishbel was lost and alone when she started on her epic trip, but in Lucy found a companionship never previously known. Between the two there formed a deep bond and their relationship was followed and supported by thousands of readers online, before becoming a media sensation overnight when Ishbel put out a plea for help to transport Lucy to an animal shelter three hundred miles away. External Website

Authors F Finding Finland ➝ From ‘devil’s child’ to star ballerina | Michaela DePrince ➝ The Foster Friendly Movement ➝ Frederick Douglas ➝ File on 4: The Experiments ➝ Foundling: Found Episode 7, Mo Jamil ➝ 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

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Examining Rita Mae Brown’s “Rubyfruit Jungle” Anna J Haynes 2017 A disucssion about Rita Mae Brown's groundbreaking novel almost 45 years later. External Website

Sport Walter Tull Walter Tull Walter Tull (1888-1918) was a Black British professional footballer and British Army officer. Walter Tull was born in Kent, England. His father was a carpenter and son of a slave in Barbados. His mother was from Kent. In 1895, Walter's mother died, followed by his father in 1897. Walter and his brother, Edward, were sent to the Methodist Children's Home and Orphanage in Bethnal Green, London. Walter Tull began playing professional football for Tottenham Hotspur in 1909. He then transferred to Northamptown in 1911. He was the first Northampton Town player enlist in the British Army when war broke out in 1914. Tull was killed in action on 25 March 1918. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People The House of Jaipur: The Inside Story of India's Most Glamorous Royal Family John Zubrzycki 2020 When the head of the House of Jaipur died in 1922, his adopted son, Jai, was only 10 years old. At the age of 12, Jai married a princess from the Jodhpur Royal family although the couple did not live together for some years. John Zubrzcki's book explores how Jai and his wife, Ayesha, were seen as a glamorous couple but behind the scenes were family feuds and the impact of alcoholism. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Grace and Mary Melvyn Bragg 2013 John visits his aging mother in her nursing home and tries to revive her ailing memory with the use of songs, photos and questions. Interwoven with John's visits to Mary is the story of Grace, a farm labourer’s daughter, who fell pregnant in 1917 and gave birth to an illegitimate daughter – Mary, who she was forced to give her away at birth. He finds out about the history of childhood displacement in his family, with both his mother and his grandmother. External Website

Television Shows Under the Bridge 2024 Under the Bridge (2024) is an American true crime tv series based on the eponymous book by Rebecca Godfrey. The series tells the story of the horrific murder of Canadian teenager Reena Virk in 1997. At the heart of the story is a group home for teenage girls. Reena Virk makes friends with some of the girls living there, and for a time lives there herself after she claims she was abused by her father. Girls from the home served time from their involvement in the brutal bashing of Reena prior to her death. 2 teenagers not living in the home were convicted of second-degree murder. One of police investigators is Cam Bentland (Lily Gladstone), a First Nations person who was adopted as a child. External Website

Artists Robi Walters Robi Walters is a London-based artist. He takes unwanted, discarded objects and turns them beautiful and ‘wanted’ works of art reflecting the spirit of transformation with which he has turned his own life around. At 5 years old, Robi found himself firstly in kinship care with his grandparents and then foster care after the tragic death of his brother in a house fire. He lost his mother, his brother and his life as he carried around a heavy burden for the next 35 years. Art transformed him and his life as well as EDMR therapy which finally set him free. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Rocks in the Belly Jon Bauer 2012 You're eight years old. An only child. You love your parents, but you're convinced you're not enough for your mother because she fosters other people's kids. You've learnt to cope, just about, with how this makes you feel -- but then a boy called Robert arrives, and he and your Mum seem to connect in a way you never have. You hate him for it. And her. And one day you do something really bad to teach them both a lesson. At twenty-eight, you return home to face your mother, who is now chronically ill. Despite the intervening years, you haven't forgiven her - or yourself - for what happened. Ultimately, though, it's her forgiveness you crave, even after all this time - because you need to know, finally, that you were enough for her. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles The life-changing power of a street dog named Lucy Ishbel Holmes 2018 Sick of a life facing cruelty and horror Ishbel Holmes - who was in foster care as a teenager - decided to take to her bike and cycle the world. On her trip she came across a lame, abandoned dog who changed everything. External Website

Children's Fiction What Mummies Are Made Of by Stephanie Hutton Storgy Kids 2018 STORGY Kids is an online magazine for children and young people. They publish the best short stories we can find for 8 to 12-year-old readers, whilst also providing a space for Young Adult fiction too, as well as book reviews and interviews with authors. Stephanie Hutton's short story explores 'What Mummies Are Made Of' by some children in care. External Website

Films/Videos Nowhere Special 2020 Nowhere Special (2020) is set in Northern Ireland while being written and produced by Italian director Uberto Pasolini. Inspired by a true story, the film follows single father John (James Norton) as he interviews several prospective adoptive families for his 4-year-old son Michael (Daniel Lamont). John has been given notice that he has terminal cancer and so finding a family for Michael has become urgent. At one point in the film, John is asked about his own growing up. He said his father raised him until he was 4 and then he was in foster homes. External Website

Plays & Musicals featuring Care Exp Standing at the Sky's Edge Chris Bush and Richard Hawley ➝ Mommie Dearest Christina Crawford ➝ The Woman in Black (play) Susan Hill ➝ Newsies (The Musical) Alan Menken et al. ➝ Melody loses her Mojo Keith Saha ➝ Refugee Boy (Play) Lemn Sissay ➝ TimeOut Ross Willis ➝ Jack Maggs Peter Carey ➝ A Fortunate Life (Theatre adaptation) A.B. Facey ➝ Les Misérables Victor Hugo ➝ Hamilton (Musical) Lin-Manuel Miranda ➝ Miss Saigon Clade-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil ➝ Glue (Perormance) Louise Wallwein ➝ Wolfie (play) Ross Willis ➝ The Mousetrap Agatha Christie ➝ Finding Neverland James Graham ➝ The Dictionary of Lost Words (Play) Verity Laughton ➝ Sancho: An Act of Rememberance Paterson Joseph ➝ Something Dark (Play) Lemn Sissay ➝ Home Girl (play) Alex Wheatle ➝ Goodnight Mister Tom (Play) by David Wood (Adapter), Michelle Magorian David Wood ➝ Back to Top

Writers Sumner Locke Elliott 1917-1991 Sumner Locke Elliott (17 October 1917 – 24 June 1991) was an Australian (later American) novelist and playwright. Soon after he was born, Sumner's mother died and he was taken to stay with his childless aunt, Lilian. Custody of the boy was then contested by another aunt, Jessie, granted by the Supreme Court of NSW in 1927. Custody reverted to Lillian on Jessie's death in 1929. Sumner Locke Elliot left Australia in 1948 to live in the United States. He became an American citizen in 1955 after he had established himself as a leading scriptwriter. He Elliot began writing novels during the 1960s. In Australia he won the 1963 Miles Franklin Award for Careful, He Might Hear You and in 1977 he received the Patrick White Award for his services to Australian Literature. External Website

Television Shows Tin Star 2017 British-Canadian crime show, focused around Jim Worth, an English detective who becomes chief of police in a small Canadian town in the Rocky Mountains. In the first series, a young man called Simon 'Whitey' Brown comes after Jim Worth and accidentally kills his son. Whitey was in the English care system. External Website

Films/Videos The Quilters 2024 The Quilters (2025) is a short documentary exploring the work of a group of incarnated American men. The men are incarcerated at the South Central Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison in Licking, Missouri. They are taking part in the prison’s Restorative Justice Organization, a program that means they spend 40 hours a week making patchwork quilts as birthday gifts for children in foster care and those with disabilities. “A lot of these foster kids were always told that they would never amount to anything” says one quilter in the documentary. “This is my chance to say we care.” The men talk about the sense of purpose the documentary gives them, that the designing and sewing serves as a useful distraction from unworthy thoughts, and that often they can take up themes that were important in their family lives. External Website

Television Shows Warrior Nun 2020 Warrior Nun (2020-2022) is an American fantasy drama series created by Simon Barry. Warrior Nun centres around a 19-year-old woman, Ava Silva (Alba Baptista) who wakes up in a morgue. Ava had been orphaned at the age of 7 & she was taken in by St Michael’s Orphanage where she was abused by Sister Frances. After she wakes up from a drug overdose (administered by Sister Frances) in the morgue, Ava discovers she has been liberated from the orphanage & is now part of the ancient Order of the Cruciform Sword. As the new “Halo Bearer” for the Order, Ava joins with the other nuns to fight earthly demons. External Website

Performing Arts Singer, entertainer, Australian Smoky Dawson Smoky Dawson AM MBE (1913 – 2008), born as Herbert Henry Brown, was an Australian country music performer, radio star, entertainer, and icon. He was born in Victoria; his mother died when Herbie was six and Herbie was taken from his father's care - because of the violence - when he was nine. Placed in an orphanage provided some respite from being belted but the freedom he got in a summer foster care placement when he was 12 made Herbie decide to never return to the orphanage. In 1934 Dawson formed a group and began broadcasting on Australian radio. 7 years later he signed with Columbia Records and toured the country with I’m a Happy Go Lucky Cowhand. Smoky Dawson continued his singing career until his death in 2008. Amongst other awards, he was inducted into the Hands of Fame in Tamworth in 1977, awarded an order of the British Empire in 1983, and made a Member of the Order of Australian in 1999. He was also inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2005. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Forced Adoption: A Memoir Alison Willoughby 2023 Forced Adoption: A Memoir (2023) is written by Australian adoptee, Alison Willoughby. Alison Willoughby was born in 1965. She was taken into the care of her adoptive parents just 2 weeks later and formally adopted when she was 10 months ago. Alison was 19 when her birth mother contacted her, and it was only then she understood why she’d been relinquished as a baby. From the publisher: “As this heart-warming story of bravery and resilience explores the long-term impacts of adoption, the author offers insights, and hopes to assist others in navigating their own emotional struggles, while striving to increase awareness in a world where forced adoption has been suppressed, shining light into a dark period of history, creating space for a nation to continue the journey of healing.” External Website