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Children's Fiction The Ruby In The Smoke: 1 (A Sally Lockhart Mystery) Philip Pullman 2015 The first in the Sally Lockhart Mysteries. Sally is sixteen and uncommonly pretty. Her knowledge of English literature, French, history, art and music is non-existent, but she has a thorough grounding in military tactics, can run a business, ride like a Cossack and shoot straight with a pistol. When her dear father is drowned in suspicious circumstances in the South China Sea, Sally is left to fend for herself, an orphan and alone in the smoky fog of Victorian London. Though she doesn't know it, Sally is already in terrible danger. Soon the mystery and the danger will deepen - and at the rotten heart of it all lies the deadly secret of the ruby in the smoke... 2:The Shadow in the North It is 1878. Following a fraudulent medium's ramblings, a Scottish magician's visions, and a transport ship's disappearance, Sally finds that she must seek help from old friends, and finds herself losing all she holds dear trying to uncover the truth behind the North Star, the Steam Gun, and the mysterious businessman Axel Bellmann. 3:The Tiger in the Well Main article: The Tiger in the Well It is 1881. A trap has been sprung, a trap which has been in preparation for years. The barely human Tzaddik is behind this, and his demons are far greater than anything Sally Lockhart can muster. With the law, the Tzaddik's henchmen, and luck against her, she is forced to go undercover, leaving behind her family and friends as she is sucked into the well... 4:The Tin Princess Main article: The Tin Princess It is 1882. Jim finds Adelaide, a girl who went missing as a poor urchin during Sally's first encounter with danger, and finds that she has married into the royal family of Razkavia, a small country near Germany. However, resentment is rife within the palace, and plots develop to dethrone the family and join Germany. Only the Eagle can stop them. External Website

Television Shows Sanditon 2019 Sanditon, a British historical drama based on an unfinished novel by Jane Austen, is a salient reminder that the age of adulthood has varied over time. In Sanditon, there are 2 'wards' or young women under the guardianship of older people. Clara Brereton (Lily Sacofsky) is declared by Lady Denham (Anne Reid) to be her ward in the opening episode. There is much more discussion about Sidney Parker (Theo James) being the legal guardian for 19-year-old Georgiana Lambe. During the Regency Era, the period in which Sanditon is set, the 'age of majority' was 21. It reduced to 18 in 1970 in England. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd 2002 The Secret Life of Bees (2002) by Sue Monk Kidd was a major success on publication, with 2.5 years on the NY Times Best Seller list & 8 million copies sold internationally. Influenced by her experiences with racism as child, in The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd tells the story of a 14-year-old white girl who leaves her abusive father, T. Ray Owens, a churchgoing peach farmer, and heads off from her hometown of Sylvan, South Carolina in search of information about her mother in the town of Tiburon, also in South Carolina. With Lily Owens is African American woman Rosaleen who has been working for her father and was recently badly beaten by local white men because she wanted to claim her right to vote. When her father finally locates his daughter, she refuses to go back home, preferring to stay with August Boatwright, a Black woman who was at one point a carer for Lily’s mother and is now a successful businesswoman. External Website

Performing Arts Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actor. Prince Prince Rogers Nelson (1958 – 2016) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. Prince was born in Minneapolis to jazz musician, John Nelson, and jazz singer, Mattie Shaw. His parents separated when Prince was about 10. From then he alternated living with both of them, even after his mother remarried. Hayward Baker, Prince’s stepfather, took the boy to see James Brown, an important influence on Prince’s songwriting and performing. Prince became good friends with Andre Anderson (to become known as Andre Cymone), a newcomer to Prince’s school at around age twelve. After Prince became tired of moving between his mother’s and his father’s house, he ran away and moved in with Andre and his family. Prince was still in his teens when he signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. His second album, Prince (1979), sold more than 1 million copies. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Nine Clouds Amanda Gargula 2010 Amanda tells the story of her time in the Moralta Childrens Home, in a cottage home and on her own after she left state care. External Website

Authors L The Dictionary of Lost Words (Play) ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows BBC Two - Neil Morrissey: Care Home Kid, Episode 1 2011 Neil Morrissey looks back at his childhood at Penkhull Children's Homes, Stoke-on-Trent. External Website

Actors Samantha Morton Samantha Jane Morton (born 13 May 1977) is an English actress and director. She was in residential and foster care as a child and was a member of the Central Junior Television Workshop in her native Nottingham, and later began her career in British television in 1991. She guest-starred in Soldier Soldier and Cracker and had a bigger role in the ITV series Band of Gold. Samantha Morton has received numerous accolades for her work, including a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a British Academy Film Award. She made the transition to film with lead roles in the dramas Emma (1996), Jane Eyre (1997). For her role in Longford, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Morton made her directorial debut with the television film The Unloved (2009), which won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Single Drama. External Website

Television Shows The Residence 2025 The Residence (2025) is an American mystery drama series, inspired by Kate Andersen Brower’s nonfiction book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House (2015). The series is centred around solving the murder of A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito), the White House Chief Usher, during a state dinner held for the Australian Prime Minister (Julian McMahon), the Australian Foreign Minister (Brett Tucker) and including Kylie Minogue (playing herself) and Hugh Jackman (Justin-Ellis-Johnson). During the final episode of the series, we find out that A.B. Wynter was orphaned when his was 11 years old; his parents died in a car accident. There is no information as to what happened to the boy subsequently. External Website

Authors P Sancho: An Act of Rememberance ➝ Back to Top

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels Modesty Blaise Peter O'Donnell, Jim Holdaway 1963 Modesty Blaise is a British comic strip with a fictional character of the same name. It was created in 1963 by Peter O’Donnell and Jim Holdaway and follows the adventures of the talented Modesty Blaise and her sidekick Willie Garvin. In 1945, a girl escapes from a displaced persons camp in Greece. She wanders around the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa, learning to survive and eventually becoming Modesty Blaise. In 1953, Modesty Blaise takes control of a criminal gang in Tangier and expands it an international organisation she calls the Network. Over time, Modesty Blaise meets Willie Garvin, the pair retire and move to England, but, bored, they begin work for the British Secret Service—and for themselves. Many reprints of Modesty Blaise have appeared over the years, along with novels and several films. External Website

Actors James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American actor. James' mother died when he was nine and his father sent him to live with relatives. James dropped out of university to pursue acting. In 1953 he performed the role of Cal Trask in East of Eden, for which he was posthumously nominated for Best Actor in the 1956 Academy Awards. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. After his death in a car crash, Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 18th best male movie star of Golden Age Hollywood in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list. External Website

Television Shows Top of the Lake 2013 Top of the Lake is a TV mystery drama series created and written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee, and directed by Campion and Garth Davis. It aired in 2013, and the sequel, Top of the Lake: China Girl, in 2017. It marks Campion's first work for television since An Angel at My Table in 1990. Series 1 (2013) follows Detective Robin Griffin investigating the disappearance of a pregnant 12-year-old girl in New Zealand. Series 2 (2017), China Girl, is set in Sydney five years later, as Detective Griffin investigates the death of an unidentified Asian girl found at Bondi Beach. External Website

Children's Fiction We Are The Beaker Girls Jacqueline Wilson 2019 Jess Beaker is having an amazing summer at her new seaside home! Jess and her mum Tracy who grew up in care have left the Duke Estate behind them, and have moved to Cooksea. They have new friends, their dog Alfie, and they’re running an antiques shop called… The Dumping Ground! But as lovely as it is to live by the sea, trouble still seems to be following the Beaker Girls. Horrible Sean is back on the scene, a local kid is picking on Jess, and their beloved Cam isn’t just round the corner any more. Can the Beaker Girls make a success of their new life? Tracy won’t go rushing back to that awful boyfriend … will she? External Website

Radio & Podcast Childen locked away: Britain's modern bedlam Slow News ➝ Charlie Chaplin Dan Snow's History Hit ➝ The 'Troubled Teen' Industry Truth & Consequences ➝ Historical fiction with Jodi Picoult The Penguin Podcast ➝ Mary lawson: Crow Lake BBC Book Club (Crow Lake) ➝ The Unsent Letters of Erik Satie BBC Radio 4 ➝ Edward Gibbon In Our Time ➝ Patricia Cornwell (podcast) World Book Club ➝ Christmas with Charles Dickens BBC You're Dead to Me ➝ My long-lost sister was a surrogate mother to my twins BBC Outlook ➝ Tolstoy: War and the Russian Empire Empire ➝ Remembering Randall Remembering Randall ➝ How 700 Polish children made an unlikely journey from the depths of Siberia to the New Zealand countryside. Stories from the Eastern West ➝ The 31: Ukraine's stolen children Slow News (2) ➝ The UpEND Podcast The UpEND Podcast ➝ Cher, singer and actor Desert Island Discs (Cher) ➝ Adoption: The Making of Me Adoption: The Making of Me ➝ The forgotten children of the Empire Conversations ➝ Philip Pullman (BBC) World Book Club ➝ Forest hermit to Professor:Dr Gregory P Smith TEDxTalks ➝ Redacted Lives Redacted Lives ➝ Today in Focus: Bangladesh The Guardian ➝ The Sunday Read: 'The Blind Side' Made Him Famous. But He Has a Different Story to Tell The Daily ➝ Coco Chanel The Scandal Mongers Podcast ➝ JRR Tolkien's religious legacy God Forbid ➝ Sherlock Holmes The Rest is History ➝ Anton Clifford-Motopi on finding his full name Conversations (Anton Clifford-Motopi) ➝ Episode 237. Marilyn Monroe The Rest is History 2 ➝ The mums accused of poisoning their kids Background Briefing ➝ A Sea-Brooding Poet TLS Podcast ➝ One Another (Podcast) Read This (Gail Jones ➝ The Strange Life of Ingrid Von Oelhafen The History Listen ➝ The Book Club: Patricia Highsmith The Bookshelf ➝ Adoption and moral obligation The Philosopher's Zone ➝ Robi Walters (podcast) A life made beautiful by rubbish ➝ Alan Warner: Movern Callar Bookclub (Warner) ➝ The language we use about children in care Word of Mouth ➝ PG Wodehouse Great Lives ➝ Life after Adoption from Foster Care The Measure of Everyday Life ➝ Prince Alamayu Great Lives (Sissay) ➝ Brian Cox on The Book Shelf with Ryan Tubridy The Bookshelf ➝ The sisters reuniting separated siblings at camp BBC Outlook ➝ Living in class limbo Today in Focus ➝ Maya Angelou (radio) World Book Club ➝ The Songwriter: Willie Nelson American Masters ➝ Access All: Disability News and Mental Health Claire Baker ➝ Mother of Lion, Sue Brierley, tells her story Sue Brierley ➝ Foundling: Found Episode 7, Mo Jamil Julian Brown ➝ Season 3, Episode 6 Dee Michell and Rosie Canning on Care Experience & Culture - Trauma Resonance Resilience Lisa Cherry ➝ Charles Dickens - Great Expectations Charles Dickens ➝ Matthew Henson: Courageous Discoverer Despite Racism Matthew Henson ➝ Poet Jackie Kay traces her journey to her birth parents Jackie Kay ➝ Nina Bernstein and June Norton on Ella Fitzgerald American Masters ➝ BBC Radio 4 - Books and Authors, Joyce Carol Oates, Wind in the Willows and Orphans in literature Joyce Carol Oates ➝ John Lennon - Part 2: Joined to Yoko on Apple Podcasts Personology ➝ Edgar Allan Poe (Podcast) In Our Time (Poe) ➝ ‎Daddy-Less Issues Podcast on Apple Podcasts Chanel Ali Rollo et al. ➝ The Children of Morelia Destry Maria Sibley ➝ BBC Radio 4 - Child of the State Lemn Sissay ➝ When Robert met Maida Robert Tickner ➝ ‎The Penguin Podcast: Alex Wheatle with Nihal Arthanayake Alex Wheatle et al ➝ Mary Wilson — Dream Girl Mary Wilson ➝ Guilty feminist Deborah Frances-White Conversations ➝ Rhys Stephenson and Esther Manito A Good Read ➝ James VI and I: Life of the Week History Extra Podcast ➝ Dr Johnson's Black Heir Empire ➝ Why Bond and the Beatles ruled the sixties History Extra ➝ Baroness Lola Young: From foster care to the House of Lords Full Disclosure with James O'Brien ➝ Why my birth parents tried to keep me a secret BBC Outlook ➝ Eleanor Roosevelt Short History of (Roosevelt) ➝ Alone with J.S. Bach The History Listen ➝ Child removal, women & class Surviving Society ➝ Kiri Te Kanawa (Podcast) This Cultural Life ➝ The agency accused of paying bribes for babies Background Briefing (4) ➝ Stupid crooks, crooked cops and honest John Conversations ➝ Discovering you are not who you thought you were ABC God Forbid ➝ Douglass on Slavery Talking Politics: History of Ideas ➝ Samantha Morton on Growing Up in the Care Ssytem and Facing Adversity in the Acting World. Louis Theroux Podcast Samantha Morton ➝ Lemn Sissay Is the One and Only BBC Sounds (Sissay) ➝ A free lunch Life Changing with Jane Garvey ➝ Jackie Kay Desert Island Discs ➝ How Superman Defeated the KKK (in Real Life): Hear the World Changing 1946 Radio Drama Open Culture ➝ Andrea Levy - Small Island World Book Club ➝ The unusual life of Elizabeth Macarthur Conversations ➝ Astrid Lindgren, creator of Pippi Longstocking Great Lives ➝ What Just Happened? LRB Conversations ➝ From ‘devil’s child’ to star ballerina | Michaela DePrince Ted Talks ➝ The Lady Imposter The History Listen ➝ Charlie Chaplin's Funny Walk and Other Music Hall Mysteries The History Listen ➝ Pieces of a Man BBC Radio 4 ➝ Stacey Halls Bookclub ➝ The Imprint Weekly Podcast The Imprint Weekly Podcast ➝ A Reading Life, A Writing Life A Reading Life, A Writing Life ➝ The Magdalenes and I Steven O'Riordan ➝ Dickens vs Tolstoy Intelligence Squared ➝ Jackie Kay: Trumpet World Book Club ➝ Trans-national adoption and "blending in" The Philosopher's Zone ➝ Sir Isaac Newton Short History of (Isaac Newton) ➝ Rousseau on Inequality Talking Politics: History of Ideas ➝ Episode 74 - The Care Experienced Conference The Adoption and Fostering Podcast ➝ Mary & George: the real history behind the new drama History Extra Podcast ➝ Malik and Mark Descendants ➝ How to Tell Your Life Story: Rob Henderson How I Write ➝ Better Reading Top 100: Criag Silvey on the Books that Shaped his Childhood Better Reading ➝ May Wirth: bareback riding queen The History Listen ➝ My ancestors were both slaves and slave owners Malik Al Nasir ➝ Frank Auerbach (Podcast) This Cultural Life (Frank Auerbach) ➝ Peter Bell and the singular quest of Kyung Ae Peter Bell ➝ Bluebells on Bunny Hill Alan And Irene Brogan ➝ Foundling: Found - a new podcast series Julian Brown ➝ The Second Victim: Daisy's Story Daisy and Emma Barnaby ➝ Hamilton: the man behind the musical History Extra ➝ The IMO Podcast: open and honest conversations with care leavers IMO ➝ Betty, Queen of Donks Betty Klimenko ➝ Loco Parentis Podcast Twayna Mayne ➝ The Horror Writer: Edgar Allan Poe Denis O’Hare ➝ ‎John Lennon - Part 1: Composer of Longing on Apple Podcasts Personology ➝ The babies of Holnicote House Deborah Prior ➝ Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller - Broadway and me Jeffrey Seller ➝ The Bed Under the Stairs Lemn Sissay ➝ Voices Unheard: Exploring Stigma of Children in Care through History to Modern Day with Dr Annie Skinner Annie Skinner ➝ JRR Tolkien Short History of (JRR Tolkien) ➝ The indestructible nature of Corey White Corey White ➝ Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson ➝ Is adoption ethical God Forbid ➝ The Kids of Rutherford County The Kids of Rutherford County ➝ The Tangled Branches of Lech Blaine’s Family Tree Read This (Lech Blaine) ➝ Finding Finland Finding Finland ➝ Baroness Floella Benjamin, DBE Desert Island Discs ➝ Hay Festival - Dickens in the 21st century Start the Week ➝ Voices in Action Voices in Action ➝ Innocence and "child rescue" in the colonial imagination The Philosopher's Zone ➝ Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley BBC Sounds ➝ An obscenity trial that shocked Victorian Britain History Extra Podcast (Besant) ➝ The kids who broke out of detention Background Briefing ➝ Stripped of my spirituality Heart and Soul ➝ Each and Every Child Each and Every Child ➝ The Foster Friendly Movement The Foster Friendly Podast ➝ John Boyne on The Book Shelf with Ryan Tubridy The Bookshelf ➝ How Brendan Watkins claimed his birthright Conversations (Brendan Watkins) ➝ The Children's Homes Scandal The Rest is Money ➝ How Walter Scott’s stories shaped Scotland History Extra ➝ Fielding's Tom Jones In Our Time ➝ The Missing Magdalens History Listen ➝ But We All Shine On But We All Shine On ➝ CBC Come by Chance CBC Podcasts ➝ Frederick Douglas You're Dead to Me (3) ➝ Muhammad, Cervantes and the Algarve LRB Podcast ➝ Life of the Week: Frederick Douglass History Extra (Frederick Douglass) ➝ Adoptees Crossing Lines Adoptees Crossing Lines ➝ 153. The Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton Empire ➝ Margo O'Byrne Fremantle Shipping News ➝ Can new scientific evidence prove a convicted child-killer is innocent? | 60 Minutes Australia 60 Minutes Australia ➝ The green suitcase and the secret family Conversations ➝ How Stephen sang himself to life Conversations (Stephen Smith) ➝ Stolen (2021) Stolen ➝ Wards of the State Karlos Dillard ➝ Who does Australia lock up? Seriously Social ➝ Madam CJ Walker You're Dead to Me (Madam CJ Walker) ➝ Benjamin Zephaniah (Podcast) Desert Island Discs (Zephaniah) ➝ Simon Woolley Desert Island Discs (Simon Woolley) ➝ More to the story... Meeting your mum as an adult Background Briefing (4a) ➝ Patricia Cornwell This Cultural Life ➝ Darcey & Chloe - How the system failed to save two baby girls Background Briefing (3) ➝ The floating hell of prison hulks History Extra Podcast ➝ Jennifer Down and Jonathan Franzen relive the 1970s The Book Show ➝ The Unfinished Prince Stuff the British Stole (podcast) ➝ The Poet: Dr. Maya Angelou American Masters ➝ Episode 5. Person With Care Experience - BBC Sounds Small Axe ➝ The orphan hero: George King Helen Berry ➝ Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte ➝ Uncle Jack Charles: not true blue, true blak Jack Charles ➝ Inside A Mountain PodBean Development ➝ Jenni Fagan 12 Podcast Episodes Jenni Fagan ➝ Trevor Jordan: adoption and the ethics of secrets Trevor Jordan ➝ A Journey through the Disney Animated Classics Daniel Lammin ➝ Karen Menzies' hidden Aboriginal heritage Karen Menzies ➝ A mother I never knew — the secret of Peter Papathanasiou Peter Papathanasiou ➝ The Joy of Dickens Johnny Pitts et al. ➝ In and out of strife: Vickie Roach's turbulent life Vickie Roach ➝ Series 4 Episode 1 Birth & Justice ➝ From the Festivals — Lemn Sissay Lemn Sissay ➝ An ode to the telephone Melanie Tait ➝ The wisdom of deep listening: Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann and Fleur Magick Dennis Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann ➝ New Norcia’s nuns and the riddle of reconciliation Veronica Willaway ➝ Jeanette Winterson: the storyteller's tale Jeanette Winterson ➝ Back to Top

Academic Articles 45 Care Leaver Friendly Ways Care Leavers Association 2017 The CLA has produced a short guide on how to work with adolescent looked after children and care leavers. This booklet has been created by care leavers who were involved in our health project. It is in their own words wherever possible. They share what would have made a difference to them now and when they were in care as a child. It is also punctuated by statistics on outcomes for care leavers so that you understand how growing up in care can affect an individual for their entire life. External Website

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Blogs/Web Pages/Articles All in the Family: Considering Television’s Orphan Plot Literary Hub (Martin) 2025 In this LitHub article, Kristen Martin argues that: “In pop culture, foster care is always—like life in an orphanage or with a poor family—something a character has to escape or overcome in order to have a fighting chance.” She goes on to a review a number of American television dramas, including Party of Five (1994-2000). For Martin, Party of Five doesn’t “break any new ground” because “it reinforces one of the oldest stories in the orphan book: the adventure plot.” However, Party of Five “does get one thing right” says Martin. Because the Salinger family are middle class, the siblings are “able to avoid foster care and stay together”. This was also the case for Kristen Martin and her brother: her father had named a legal guardian so she never went into the formal foster care system. External Website

Non Fiction The reason why so many Disney characters are orphans is SO sad Claire Hodgson 2015 A discussion about why there are so many characters in Disney films who are orphaned or separated from their parents. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Survivor: The Shocking and Inspiring Story of a True Champion Fatima Whitbread 2012 Fatima Whitbread had the worst possible start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she spent much of her childhood in and out of children's homes. A brief, disastrous stay with her birth mother saw her raped by her mother's drunken boyfriend - while her mother held a knife to her throat to 'quieten her down'. Fatima was only twelve at the time. Athletics was her saviour: local athletics coach Margaret Whitbread took the young Fatima under her wing, eventually adopting her. Fatima competed in three Olympics, winning bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In 1986 she set a world record, and the following year in Rome became world champion and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. But then Fatima faded from the public eye, leaving many to wonder where she had gone. After the cheering stopped, Fatima faced prejudice, penury, scandal and heartbreak. Survivor describes how she defeated all her demons to rise triumphantly from the ashes once again, this time as queen of the jungle. Almost 13 million people watched her on I'm a Celebrity, and after surviving 20 days in the Australian heat, she has millions of new fans eager to know more about Fatima the woman: the forthright, focused, slightly bossy, charismatic single mum who knows how to transform even the most devastating experiences into lessons in life. This is the unforgettable story of a true champion, who triumphed against the worst hardships imaginable. External Website