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Authors F Find & Connect ➝ Challenging the Over-Representation of Care Experienced Women in Prison ➝ Whatever happened to the little girl who played Annie? ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience Insidious Intent Val McDermid 2017 Number one bestseller Val McDermid returns with a pulse-pounding, suspenseful novel featuring two of the most distinctive and iconic characters in crime fiction: Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. The story features a 14 year old boy who is living in foster care after the murder of his mother. External Website

Performing Arts TV Presenter Larry Grayson Larry Grayson (1923-1995) was born William Sully White to 29-year-old Ethel White in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Unmarried and under pressure from her parents to give her baby up for adoption, Ethel chose instead to organise foster care for him. Ethel advertised, and Alice and Jim Hammond from Nuneaton, northern Warwickshire, responded. Jim was a miner and Alice a homemaker. They already had 2 teenage girls, Mary (known as May) and Florence (known as Fan), but they’d always wanted a boy. When Billy was 6, his foster mother, Alice Hammond, died. Fan, who had left school at 14 and been working for 6 years, gave up her job to look after Billy and her father (May had already left home when she got married at 22). Ethel arranged work in Earl Shilton, around 14km north- east of Nuneaton. Each Wednesday afternoon, her afternoon off, Ethel took the bus to visit her boy Billy. When he was older, it was Billy who would go visit Ethel and spend a whole day with her fortnightly. Billy Hammond, as Ethel’s son was known in Nuneaton, was interested in performing on stage from the age of 5. He organised temporary stages at home and co-opted his friends to perform with him. His first professional gig was at the age of 14 at The Fife Street Working Men’s Club, where he sang 2 songs at a wedding reception. From then he had regular performances in working men’s clubs in the area. Billy’s first stage name was Billy Breen, but with the encouragement of an agent, he changed that to Larry Grayson in 1956. He earned a decent living but stayed on at his childhood home in Nuneaton. Larry Grayson didn’t make it to the “big time” until he was in his 50’s when he was signed up by television executive Michael Grade. Larry Grayson went on to present his own shows, Shut That Door and the Larry Grayson Show. Later he hosted The Generation Game from 1978 to 1982. From the late 1980s Larry Grayson rarely had television work. His final performance was in the 1994 Royal Variety Performance. According to biographer, Tony Nicolson, Larry was a forerunner of gay comedians such as Alan Carr and Graham Norton. But for a time, from the late 1980s until shortly after his death, Larry Grayson was seen as too “politically incorrect” for gay rights activists and too mainstream for media executives. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Forgotten Les Cummings 2008 Les Cummings was three when he was sent to the Children's Cottage Homes in Portsmouth, England. A traumatised little boy, he dreamed his mother would come back for him. She never did. Instead he fell victim to the worst abusers and a system that didn't care. Conditions at the home were harsh, the children poorly fed and hungry, dressed in stained second-hand clothes. But worse than that was the violence from some of the staff - Les was frequently punched, kicked and locked in the cellar as punishment. Children were dragged out of bed at night to be abused. Some simply disappeared. At the age of seven Les was sent to live with foster parents where for over two years he was beaten, starved and sexually abused. External Website

Performing Arts Australian singer-songwriter Archie Roach A member of the Stolen Generations, Archie Roach is an iconic Australian singer-songwriter. Archibald William Roach: b. 8 January 1956-d. 30 July 2022. In 1956, Roach's family, along with the rest of the area's Indigenous population, were re-housed on Rumbalara mission. At the age of 4, Roach and his sisters, along with the other Indigenous Australian children of the stolen generations, were forcibly removed from their family and placed in an orphanage. After two unpleasant placements in foster care, Roach was eventually fostered by Alex and Dulcie Cox, a family of Scottish immigrants in Melbourne. Alex Cox would sing traditional ballads and introduced Roach to guitar and keyboards. Roach said "He was a big influence on me — a good influence. I'll love him to the day I die." At the age of fifteen, Roach was contacted by his natural sister, who told him their mother had just died. He spent the next fourteen years on the streets, battling alcoholism. External Website

Authors A I was a child in care. We needed love, not chemicals | David Akinsanya ➝ Searching for my slave roots ➝ FosterWiki ➝ Orphan Stories | Encyclopedia.com ➝ An open letter to Long Lost Family from an adoptee ➝ CELCIS blog on superheroes from the care system ➝ Children in care need long-term support, not punishment | David Akinsanya ➝ Gil Scott-Heron saved my life ➝ The Best Movies About Orphans ➝ Lockdown Poetry ➝ Ronnie Archer-Morgan shares his fostering story ➝ Orphans in Literature ➝ I left care at 15 and soon went to borstal. Young people can’t just be abandoned | David Akinsanya ➝ Ploughshares at Emerson College ➝ Films about orphans ➝ Category:Fictional orphans ➝ What is it really like being a Care Experienced Person? ➝ A Conversation about Tracy Beaker... ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows Ripley (TV series) 2024 Ripley (2024) is an American psychological thriller based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel, The Talented Mr Ripley (1955). Available on Netflix, Ripley begins in 1950s New York. Tom Ripley, an aging conman, is hired by wealth Herbert Greenleaf to persuade his son, Dickie Greenleaf, to return home from Italy. Soon, Tom lies his way into Dickie’s life, gaining his trust and moulding himself around Dickie’s personality. We learn early in the series that Tom Ripley was orphaned as a small boy and raised by an aunt. External Website

Authors V Vienna Blood ➝ Virgin River ➝ Vigil ➝ Van der Valk ➝ Vera ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Shooting Fish 1997 Two orphans - one from England and from the US - meet in their 20s and work together to scam wealthy people of their money in order to buy the 'stately home' they've long dreamed about owning. External Website

Radio & Podcast The orphan hero: George King Helen Berry Professor Helen Berry of the University of Exeter gives a lecture on the extraordinary story of an 18th-century foundling, George King who fought, at Trafalgar. External Website

Films/Videos Atomised 2006 Adaptation of controversial French author Michel Houellebecq's novel Les Particules élémentaires. Bruno (Moritz Bleibtreu) and Michael (Christian Ulmen) half-brothers who are very different from each other. They both had an unusual childhood because their mother was a hippie, instead growing up with their grandmothers and in boarding schools. The film implys their upbringing has led them to develop complex and unsatisfactory sex lives. While Bruno can only find satisfaction in meaningless sex with prostitutes, Michael seems to reject sex altogether, focusing his attention instead on his work in genetics. When Michael meets Annabelle (Franka Potente), a woman who turns into the love of his life, he seems to have the chance at a normal relationship, but one that might threaten the world-changing impact of his scientific studies. In the credits the viewer is led to believe that Michael was awarded the nobel prize and Bruno spent the rest of his life in psychiatric institutes. External Website

Films/Videos America 2020 America is a 2009 American made-for-television drama film. A biracial 17-year-old boy named America (Philip Johnson), who has experienced a difficult life of foster care and sexual abuse, undergoes counseling with psychiatrist Maureen Brennan (Rosie O'Donnell) to help him come to terms with his painful past of childhood trauma, including growing up with (and abandoned by) a crack-addicted mother (Toya Turner) and being shuffled through a series of foster homes. The film is based on the young adult novel America by E. R. Frank. External Website

Television Shows The English 2022 The English (2022) is a revisionist Western, a television series set in 1890 and starring Emily Blunt as Lady Cornelia Locke and Chaske Spencer as Eli Whipp. Cornelia Locke has come to America seeking revenge on the man she believes is responsible for the death of her 14-year-old son. Along the way, she meets Eli Whipp, an ex-US cavalry man and member of the Pawnee Nation. Locke and Whipp rescue the 2 orphaned children of a Mennonite couple who have been slaughtered, and Locke delivers the children to the larger Mennonite group. Locke and Whipp also take care of another orphaned boy, White Moon. After a while they entrust White Moon to a travelling surgeon who aspires to establishing a Wild West Show. 13 years later and back in England, Cornelia Locke gets to see White Moon again as he now stars in the touring Wild West Show. External Website

Children's Fiction When Marnie was There Joan G Robinson 1967 When Marnie Was There is a novel by British author Joan G. Robinson, first published in 1967 by Collins. The story follows Anna, in foster care, a young girl who temporarily moves to Norfolk to heal after becoming ill. There she meets a mysterious and headstrong girl named Marnie who lives in a house overlooking the marshes External Website

Authors B Imagine This: Growing Up with My Brother, John Lennon ➝ Abraham Lincoln: A Life ➝ Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox ➝ Belle: The Slave Daughter and The Lord Chief Justice ➝ Scenes From the Life of Harriet Tubman ➝ Back to Top

Authors M Modesty Blaise ➝ Back to Top

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Challenging the Over-Representation of Care Experienced Women in Prison Fitzpatrick.C., Hunter. K 2021 Despite popular perceptions continuing to link care experience with troublesome behaviour, just 1% of children enter care because of ‘socially unacceptable behaviour’. However, women who have been in care as children (for example, in foster care or children’s homes) have long been over-represented in the criminal justice system. Whilst only 1% of the general population have been in care, estimates suggest that this is the case for 31% of adult females in custody. This figure is very likely to be an underestimate because of the difficulties in identifying past care experience amongst those in prison. External Website

Authors C Child Migrant Trust ➝ Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings. ➝ Nobody's Child by GJ Urquhart – Book Review. Leeds care home memoir. ➝ The PhD question… ➝ I’ve Been In A Bad Mood ➝ Billy Connolly: ‘I’ve been scared my whole life’ ➝ Who was Thomas Coram? ➝ Henry Fielding, Tom Jones and care ➝ Mercy's story (Coram) ➝ Care Experience Conference ➝ Care Experienced History Month ➝ A Portrait Of Care (@aportraitofcare) • Instagram photos and videos ➝ Orphans & Care Experience in Literature ➝ Movies ➝ "Invasion is a Structure Not an Event" ➝ Charlie Chaplin and the story of care ➝ Her name was Jean: International Women's Day 2021 ➝ Create Foundation ➝ CELCIS Reach - article on the creative workshops run by Inspired Youth ➝ Crazy Diamonds ➝ Taking control of the narrative with my debut novel Careless ➝ How 10 Orphans From eSwatini Helped Write A Prize-Winning Movie ➝ Vivaldi taught Venetian orphan girls – did they help write his music in return? ➝ Coram in literature ➝ Orphan's role in movie upsets adoption groups ➝ Back to Top

Authors O Mark Opitz ➝ Back to Top

Performing Arts Poet, musician, and author Gil Scott-Heron Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) born Gilbert in Chicago to singer Bobbie Scott-Heron and soccer player Giles Heron, was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. Not long after Gilbert’s birth, his parents separated and Gil was sent to live in Tennessee with his grandmother, Lillie Scott. Lillie Scott bought a piano and young Gil learnt how to play by ear. His grandmother also introduced him to the work of Langston Hughes. After his grandmother’s death, Gil moved to New York to live with his mother. At DeWitt Clinton high school in the Bronx, an English teacher was impressed by Gil’s writing ability and recommended him to receive a scholarship so he could attend Fieldston School, a private university preparatory school. Wanting to reach a wider audience, Scott-Heron recorded his first alum in 1970. External Website