Fiction featuring Care Experience Foster (novella) Claire Keegan 2010 A small girl is sent to live with her mother's people on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed, and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is. Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent. External Website

Actors Jane Wyman American actor Jane Wyman (1917-2007) was in foster care as a child. Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield in Jackson County Missouri but was left with Emma and Richard Fulks after her parents divorced. Sarah Jane was about 3 at the time. She called herself Sarah Jane Fulks when she started school. In 1936, Sarah Jane Fulks became Jane Wyman and was signed up with Warner Brothers. After performing in many 'B' movies, Wyman was noticed for her work in The Lost Week (1945) although she continued playing supporting roles until she played a rape victim who was also a deaf-mute in Johnny Belinda (1948), for which she won an Oscar. Wyman also starred in a number of television shows and made for television films. She retired in 1962, making only an occasional appearance on television until she was cast as Angela Channing in Falcon Crest, a series which ran from 1981 to 1990 Jane Wyman married future president Ronald Reaga in 1940. He was her 3rd husband. The couple had one daughter, Maureen, in 1941 and they adopted a boy, Michael, in 1945. Jane and Ronald divorced in 1949. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Underground Railroad (novel) Colson Whitehead 2017 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017. Cora is an orphan character, abandoned by her mother and a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood, where it is clear even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they take the perilous decision to escape to the North.In Whitehead's razor-sharp imagining of the antebellum South, the Underground Railroad has assumed a physical form: a dilapidated box car pulled along subterranean tracks by a steam locomotive, picking up fugitives wherever it can. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But its placid surface masks an infernal scheme designed for its unknowing black inhabitants. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher sent to find Cora, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom. At each stop on her journey, Cora encounters a different world. As Whitehead brilliantly recreates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America, from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles ‘It could happen here’: Lord of the Flies took its lessons from Hitler’s Germany. They speak to now The Conversation 2026 In the article “‘It could happen here’: Lord of the Flies took its lessons from Hitler’s Germany. They speak to now”, University of Sydney academic Alexander Howard reviews the writing by William Golding of The Lord of the Flies & the way in which the lessons of that novel also speak to our current time. William Golding was a teacher after serving in WWII & he wrote his debut novel “at his desk during lessons” according to former students. Apparently, he went on to “detest the book that bought him fame & fortune” but stood by the “moral lesson” in the novel. That is, that “Western civilisation had neither eliminated cruelty, nor prevented brutality…The problem was humanity.” For Jack Thorne, writing about his new TV adaptation of Lord of the Flies, there are resonances between William Golding’s time & our current “climate of populism and hate”. Says Alexander Howard: “The adolescent cruelty and rage he drew on to write his portrait of young toxic masculinity [in Adolescence] are infused into his Lord of the Flies.” External Website

Activists Chris Wild: Activist and Campaigner Chris Wild 1979- Chris Wild is a UK-based activist and author who campaigns for reform of the care system, drawing on his own lived experience of growing up in care after the death of his father. He is a prominent advocate for care-experienced children and young people, speaking openly about issues such as abuse, instability, mental health, and the lack of long-term support for care leavers. Through his books, public speaking, media work, and advisory roles with charities and government bodies, Wild works to raise awareness of systemic failures while pushing for practical policy changes that improve outcomes and dignity for those who grow up in care. External Website

Sport Kriss Akabusi Kriss Akabusi British-Nigerian athlete, Kriss Akabusi* (b. 1958), was in foster care and a children’s home during his childhood. Kriss Akabusi was born Kezi Uchechukwu Duru Akabusi in London to Nigerian parents. When he was 4, his parents returned to Nigeria but left Kriss and his younger brother in the UK. Foster care unsettling and impermanent but 4 years later, Kriss went into a children’s home which was a secure environment and a positive experience for him. On leaving the children’s home at 16, Kriss went into the army, where he had a mentor and role model in his sergeant. Having a positive role model to get you through the hard times is invaluable, as is being able to afford the first month's rent on your own. Long term support, knowing someone is there for you and feeling positive about the future is what will make the difference. Every child in and leaving care deserves this. In my case Sergeant Ian MacKenzie introduced me to athletics and, as they say, the rest is history. From the army, Akabusi became a professional athlete, won silver in the 1984 Olympics and 2 bronze medals in the 1992 Olympics. After retiring from athletics, Akabusi became a television personality and motivational speaker. He was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1992. External Website

Writers Sharon Saltzberg American writer and meditation teacher, Sharon Salzbert (b. 1952) was born in New York City. When Sharon was 4, her father left the family. When she was 9, her mother died. Sharon then went to live with her paternal grandparents. Her grandfather died 2 years later. Although her father briefly returned, he then spent the rest of his short life in a mental hospital. Sharon Salberg spent 4 years in India studying with Dipa Ma (911-1989), a teacher of Theravada Buddhism. With Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein, Salzberg founding the Insight Meditation Society in 1974 and in 1989, with Goldstein, the Barre Centre for Buddhist Studies. She is the author of 11 books and has a podcast, the Metta Hour Podcast. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Torn between her African and English mums: Lola (Jaye) had an idyllic childhood - until the day social workers knocked at the door Amanda Cable 2009 Lola Jaye was fostered as a baby by Sheila, a white English woman who gave her a loving and secure childhood, until social workers intervened at age nine and sent her to live with her Nigerian birth mother. After a traumatic year in Nigeria, Lola returned to Sheila, and despite navigating two cultures and two mothers, she built a successful life as a psychotherapist while affirming that love, not race or circumstance, defined her true family bond. External Website

Performing Arts Presenter, writer, singer and politician Floella Benjamin Trinidadian-British television presenter, writer, singer and politician, Baroness Floella Benjamin (b. 1949), was in foster care as a child. Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin was born in Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad. She was the second child of Veronica and Roy and remembers a happy secure childhood until her father decided to migrate to England. A year after Roy left, Veronica also left for England and Floella and siblings with left in foster care. When she was 10, and accompanied only by her siblings, Floella made the 15 day trip by sea from Trinidad to England. In 1976, Floella Benjamin became the presenter of Play School. This was the beginning of a long 30 year career in presenting and producing programs for children’s television. She was the first woman of African-Caribbean heritage to be appointed Chancellor of a British university, Exeter University, and served in the role for 10 years from 2006. External Website

Writers Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) Frederick Douglass (c 1818-1895) was born to an enslaved woman in Maryland. He was separated from his mother as a baby and lived with his maternal grandmother, who was enslaved, and his maternal grandfather, who was free. At the age of 6, Douglass was removed from the care of his grandparents and given to a Lucretia Auld who gave him to another woman, Sophia. Sophia treated the boy well, even teaching him to read. In 1838, Douglass escaped and made it to New York. He got married that year and the couple moved to Massachusetts where he attended abolitionist meetings and became a preacher. Douglass’ best known work is Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845). Within 3 years, it was reprinted 9 times, translated into French and Dutch, and published in Europe. He later published 2 more autobiographies - My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Dangerous Freedom Lawrence Scott 2021 Dangerous Freedom (2021) is a historical novel by Trinidad born writer Lawrence Scott about Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804). Dido Elizabeth Belle was born into slavery. Her father, Captain John Lindsay of the British Royal Navy, took Dido with him when he returned to England in 1765 and left her to be raised by his uncle Willam and aunt Elizabeth. The Earl and Countess of Mansfield lived at Kenwood House in Hampstead. They were already raising another great-niece, Lady Eliabeth Murray. Dido Elizabeth Belle lived at Kenwood House for 31 years. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Katherine Rundell's top 10 orphans Katherine Rundell 2014 From Harry Potter to Alex Rider, just where would children's literature be without orphans? Katherine Rundell – winner of the Blue Peter book award 2014 for best story – shares 10 of the best orphans External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses, a Memoir Paula Mclain 2013 This memoir details the years Paula McLain and her two sisters spent as foster children after being abandoned by both parents in California in the early 1970s. As wards of the State, the sisters spent the next 14 years moving from foster home to foster home. The dislocations, confusions, and odd pleasures of an unrooted life form the basis of one of a compelling memoir. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir In Gratitude Jenny Diski 2017 In August 2014, Jenny Diski was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and given 'two or three years' to live. Being a writer, she decided to write about her experience - and to tell a story she had not yet told: that of being taken in, aged fifteen, by the author Doris Lessing, and the subsequent fifty years of their complex relationship. Splicing childhood memories with present-day realities, Diski paints an unflinching portrait of two extraordinary writers - Lessing and herself. Jenny Diski died a week after the publication of In Gratitude. A cerebral, witty, dazzlingly candid memoir, it is her final masterpiece. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Notice Me!: A Barnardo Child's Scrapbook of Memories : 1946 to 1961 Suzi Hamilton 2012 The sickly offspring of a black American Serviceman and an uncaring English woman. Dumped into Dr Barnardos and conveniently forgotten. Potentially lovable, but never loved. Bright, mischievous and temperamental; but above all, resilient. Emotionally and spiritually confused, but protected throughout by a Father she only came to know after many years. A miracle of spiritual and physical healing made her realise that she also had a Mother who really cared - I was that child; This is my story. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography Eric Idle 2018 Eric Idle reflects on the meaning of his own life in this memoir that takes us on a remarkable journey from his childhood in an austere boarding school through his successful career in comedy, television, theatre and film. Coming of age as a writer and comedian during the Sixties and Seventies, Eric stumbled into the crossroads of the cultural revolution and found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of George Harrison, David Bowie and Robin Williams, all of whom became lifelong friends. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece: Kid pro quo? Gonda Van Steen 2019 More than 3000 Greek children were adopted by Americans after the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) during a 13-year period from 1950. In Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece: Kid pro quo? (2019), classical scholar and linguist, Gonda Van Steen, examines the circumstances precipitating these adoptions (the first large scale transnational adoption movement). She draws on a range of fields (including cultural anthropology and Greek history) to argue that anticommunism after the Greek Civil War was a significant factor in these adoptions. Gonda Van Steen uses as a case study the story of Elias Argyriadis who was executed in Athens in 1952. In 1955 authorities arranged for the adoption of his 2 daughters to an American family (the mother had died). In 2013, a son of one of the adopted girls approached Gonda Van Steen for help in finding out about his mother’s past, and thus began Van Steen’s research journey. The book also includes the testimonies of other adopted people from Greece to America and doesn’t shy away from exploring the trauma they experienced and the way they have later come together as a support network. External Website

Authors A Kate Adie ➝ Louise Allen ➝ The Right Honorable Lord Andrew Adonis PC ➝ Maya Angelou (Writer) ➝ Elizabeth Anionwu ➝ Jane Austen ➝ Back to Top

Authors H How Two Jewish Kids in 1930s Cleveland Altered the Course of American Pop Culture ➝ Care Leavers Facing ‘Vile’ Assessments in Postcode Lottery when Becoming Mothers ➝ Alone in the world | The Spectator ➝ How Horseback Riding Helped Barbara Stanwyck Rise Above Hollywood Misogyny ➝ George Orwell and me: Richard Blair on life with his extraordinary father ➝ I was taken into care at two years old – what really happened? ➝ How Superman Became a Christ-Like Figure in American Culture ➝ The Zombies Singer Colin Blunstone Learned His Aunt Was His Mom. She Bared Her Soul to Him Right Before Dying ➝ Back to Top

Children's Fiction The Outside Child Nina Bawden 2011 Jane has always been happy living in kinship care with her two eccentric aunts and seeing her sailor father when his ship is in. But one day she notices a new picture in her father's cabin--a photograph of a small boy and girl. That is when she finds out for the first time that she has a half-brother and sister. Jane is determined to find out more about them, so she and her best friend Plato Jones set out on a mission to track them down. `They track down her brother and sister to their home in the East End of London. There she finds still more surprises lie in store for her. Can Jane at last be part of a 'proper' family, or must she always remain the outside child? This is the story of a girl and her family and the secrets they keep from one another. Both funny and poignant, The Outside Child is a beautifully drawn study of adolescence from one of Britain's most skilled writers for children. External Website