Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Nobody's Child by GJ Urquhart – Book Review. Leeds care home memoir. Sandra Callard 2020 This is a story of a difficult, violent, upbringing away from siblings in a Leeds care home. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Child She Bare Hannah Brown 1919 Hannah Brown was brought to the Foundling Hospital in 1866. She wrote an account of her childhood experiences which was published anonymously The Child She Bare, A Foundling (London, Headley, 1919). She is quite negative about her time in the Foundling. And for when it was written many of her observations are spot on. She writes about the stigma and how ‘children’s happiness and future welfare is sacrificed, even to the extent of their mother’s name, nationality – thrown in the world without a relative or friend to confide in…and have no right to the stigma attached to them.’ External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Delinquent Angel Diana Georgeff 2007 The story of well known Melbourne poet, Shelton Lea. Shelton was adopted from a foundling home when he was 13 months old. He was rejected by his adoptive family and made a ward of the Victorian state when he was a teenager. External Website

Authors M Mesmerized ➝ Matilda The Musical ➝ Mosquito Squadron ➝ Misha and the Wolves ➝ Mr Church ➝ Mighty Aphrodite ➝ Marilyn, Her Final Secret ➝ Mao's Last Dancer ➝ Morvern Callar (Film) ➝ Magnolia (film) ➝ My Father's Violin ➝ Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom ➝ Mothering Sunday (film) ➝ Mommie Deariest (film) ➝ Mixed Blessings ➝ Mr Pip (film) ➝ Memoirs of a Survivor ➝ Memoir of a Snail ➝ Motherless Brooklyn ➝ Madame Web ➝ Motherless Children ➝ Midnight at the Pera Palace ➝ Back to Top

Academic theses The Fictional Onscreen Depiction of Looked-after Young People: "Finding someone just like me." John Hickman 2016 While there is significant interest in the lives of looked-after young people, little attention has been given to the way these young people are depicted onscreen. The aim of this study is to explore looked-after young people's perceptions of these fictional depictions and the impact these depictions have on them. My research highlights that these young people perceive onscreen fictional depictions to be “unrealistic” and negative. These depictions have significant impact, particularly in terms of “presumed media influence”, on how these young people perceive negative depictions to influence others. External Website

Films/Videos Housesitter 1992 Newton Davis builds his dream house and presents it to Becky with a proposal of marriage. She turns him down. He leaves the house, still with a ribbon around it and returns to the city, smitten with Becky. He meets Gwen, an orphan who was in foster care as a child and who has an interesting relationship with the truth. He spends the night with her, but leaves while she is sleeping. She takes his description of the house, searches it out, and moves in. The residents of Newton's hometown become curious and Gwen invents a marriage, a courtship, and and an entire history. Newton's parents meet Gwen and are immediately taken with her. By the time Newton finds out, the whole town thinks he's married, and Becky tells him that Gwen has made her see him in a whole new light. Gwen and Newton agree that she can pretend to be his wife and get free rent while Newton works on Becky until they can announce a divorce. The trouble is that nobody in the town wants them to separate and they keep trying to help them reconcile. External Website

Writers Maya Angelou (Writer) Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was sent to live with her paternal grandmother after her parents separated. The two children - 3 year old Maya and her brother, 4 year old Bailey - travelled alone by train from St Louis, Missouri to Stamps, Arkansas and lived with their grandmother for 4 years. While living with her mother in California, 8-year-old Maya was first sexually abused and then raped by her mother’s partner. Freeman was convicted but was only jailed for one day. Shortly after his release from prison, Freeman was murdered. Maya stopped speaking, and the children were again returned to their grandmother, this time until Maya was 14. While living with her grandmother, Maya was introduced to literary greats such as Charles Dickes and Edgar Allan Poe by a Mrs Bertha Flowers who encouraged the child to speak again by talking about the literature. Maya completed her high school education when living back with her mother, and she became the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Maya Angelou published her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969 and went on to publish many more books, poetry and essays. She received numerous awards in her lifetime including a Pulitzer Prize nomination and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. In 2022, the US Mint released a 25 cent coin with Angelou's portraited on one side. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Heart of Darkness: Fear and Loathing in the Congo The Rest is History 2025 In this The Rest is History Podcast, hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now (1979) and is, Holland & Sandbrook contend, “one of the most celebrated literary works of all time, though now increasingly contentious”. The discussion begins with a review of Conrad’s early years including being orphaned by age 11 and subsequently raised by relatives. External Website

Television Shows Protection 2024 Protection (2024) is a British crime drama series exploring the UK’s witness protection program. DI Liz Nyles (Siobhan Finneran) is responsible for leading the team safeguarding the McLennan family. After an assassination attempt, she moves the now orphaned daughter of the family, Amy McLennan (Tilly Kaye), to another safehouse while she investigates who did the killing. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Alan Turing (1912-1954) - noted Computer Scientist and Mathematician Alan Turing 2018 Alan Turing (1912-1954) was an English computer scientist and mathematician, played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2014 historical drama, The Imitation Game. Turing was in foster care for much of his first 10 years. His father, Julius Turing (1873-1947), was a public servant in the Indian Civil Service and insisted that he and his wife, Ethel (1881-1976), return to India without their two sons. Turing was given a posthumous royal pardon on 24 December 2013. In 1952 Turing had been arrested and convicted for having a sexual relationship with a man. Rather than go to prison he accepted a year’s treatment of oestrogen intended to decrease his libido. External Website

Films/Videos Case 39 2009 In this American supernatural horror film, a 10 year old girl is taken into foster care with the social worker assigned to her case. The 10 year old girl turns out to have supernatural powers which result in people around the girl committing crimes or killing themselves. External Website

Poetry Rebel without Applause Lemn Sissay Published in 2000, this is Lemn Sissay first published collection of poetry. Since this collections, Lemn's poetry has been made visible on pavement stones and on London buses. External Website

Radio & Podcast Why Bond and the Beatles ruled the sixties History Extra A fascinating conversation in this podcast about that day in 1962 when the 1st Beatles’ single was released and the 1st James Bond movie was shown. It was “a big bang moment for modern British culture”. Interestingly, these “cultural giants” include John Lennon who grew up in kinship care as did the fictional James Bond who was also in foster care (although it took until 1964 and 1966 for those backstories to appear in the Ian Fleming books). Not mentioned though! External Website

Authors K The Adoption Papers ➝ Back to Top

Children's Fiction Little Women Louisa May Alcott 2014 The classic story of the four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy who are living with their mother while their father is away fighting in the American Civil War. Laurie, or Theordore Laurence, is in kinship care. A neighbour and friend, he is a teenage boy who has been living with his wealthy grandfather since his parents died. External Website

Films/Videos Dustbin Baby 2008 Dustbin Baby is a BBC television film directed by Juliet May, based on Jacqueline Wilson's 2001 novel of the same name. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 21 December 2008. The film stars Dakota Blue Richards as April, a troubled teenager who was abandoned in a dustbin as an infant, and Juliet Stevenson as Marion Bean, April's adoptive mother. David Haig stars as Elliot, Marion's friend and colleague. The screenplay was written by Helen Blakeman, and the film was produced by Kindle Entertainment. Dustbin Baby deals with themes including maternal bonding, bullying, and youth crime. The story revolves around April running away on her fourteenth birthday, while Marion searches for her. April's life is recounted in flashbacks as she meets people and visits places that are significant to her. External Website

Plays & Musicals featuring Care Exp Refugee Boy (Play) Lemn Sissay 2013 As a violent civil war rages back home in Ethiopia, teenager Alem and his father are in a B&B in Berkshire. It's his best holiday ever. The next morning his father is gone and has left a note explaining that he and his mother want to protect Alem from the war. This strange grey country of England is now his home. On his own, and in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council, he lives from letter to letter, waiting to hear something from his father. Then Alem meets car-obsessed Mustapha, the lovely 'out of your league' Ruth and dangerous Sweeney – three unexpected allies who spur him on as Alem fights to be seen as more than just the Refugee Boy. Based on the novel by Benjamin Zephaniah, Refugee Boy is an urgent story of a courageous African boy sent to England to escape the violent civil war, a story about arriving, belonging and finding 'home'. External Website

Authors W Wild Rose ➝ The Wizard of Oz ➝ Where the Crawdads Sing (film) ➝ We Have a Ghost ➝ Wash My Soul in the River's Flow ➝ Walkabout ➝ Without Gorky ➝ What are you doing at Christmas? ➝ White Oleander (film) ➝ Back to Top

Authors F Belgravia (novel) ➝ Maddalena and the Dark ➝ All the Good Things ➝ The Devil's Staircase ➝ The Donor ➝ A Tall History of Sugar ➝ Shadow Baby ➝ The Likeness ➝ Calico Bush ➝ The Woman in the Window ➝ White Oleander ➝ My Last Confession ➝ Wanting ➝ The Battle For Christabel ➝ Because of You ➝ I Couldn't Love You More ➝ Year of the Orphan ➝ The Secret Child ➝ Worst Case Scenario ➝ The Exit ➝ Casino Royale ➝ How to Measure a Cow ➝ In the Woods ➝ Mister God, This is Anna ➝ Back to Top

Authors G Terry Galloway: Campaigner and Advocate ➝ Accessing Social Services Child Care Files: The Life and Importance of Graham Gaskin (1959 – 2002) ➝ Back to Top