Search Results

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Are care leavers really more likely to go to prison than university? – ExChange Neil Harrison 2019 In this blog, academic Neil Harrison challenges what he calls the 'factoid' that care leavers are more likely to end up prison instead of at university. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Man Who Lived Underground Richard Wright 2021 The Man Who Lived Underground was first submitted to Richard Wright's publisher in 1941, but was rejected, perhaps, one person suggests, because its "depiction of police brutality was "unbearable"". It is being published in 2021, and tells the story of an African American man who is coerced into confessing a crime he did not commit and then escapes to live underground in the sewer system. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Being homeless felt inevitable': after years in care, I was living in a tent. Who was to blame? The Guardian 2022 Daniel Lavelle is a UK based freelance writer, who has written for The Guardian on social problems including homelessness and mental illness. In this recent article, Daniel tells his own story of being in care, of doing night school while working full time, and of becoming homeless in 2013 towards the end of his university degree. The article is an extract from his soon to be published book: Down and Out: Suriving the Homelessness Crisis. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/may/12/being-homeless-felt-inevitable-after-years-in-care-i-was-living-in-a-tent-who-was-to-blame External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires Richard Bradford 2021 Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith is lauded as one of the most influential and celebrated modern writers. However, there has never been a clear picture of the woman behind the books. In this new biography, Richard Bradford considers Highsmith's bestsellers in the context of her troubled personal life, including time spent in kinship care as a child. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Good Girl, Bad Girl Michael Robotham (2019) 2019 Good Girl, Bad Girl is the first in Michael Robotham's Cyrus Haven series. Cyrus Haven was in kinship care with his grandparents from the age of 13, after his family was killed by Cyrus' older brother. At the opening to Good Girl, Bad Girl, Haven is introduced to Evie Cormac who’s living in Langford Hall, “a secure children’s home” or youth detention centre in Nottingham. The resident social worker, a friend of Haven’s from university called Guthry, thinks Haven might be able to help Evie, since they have in common a loss of family. Evie has lots of other traumas too. Like having lived in a house with a dead body for months, and then going into the foster care system. Cyrus thinks he can help Evie, although he recognises she has considerable unpacked traumed. Cyrus also discovers that Evie has an uncanny ability to detect the lies that people tell. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Ten Doors Down: The story of an extraordinary adoption reunion Robert Tickner 2020 Robert Tickner had always known he was adopted, but had rarely felt much curiosity about his origins. Born in 1951, he had a happy childhood - raised by his loving adoptive parents, Bert and Gwen Tickner, in the small seaside town of Forster, New South Wales. He grew up to be a cheerful and confident young man with a fierce sense of social justice, and the desire and stamina to make political change. Serving in the Hawke and Keating governments, he held the portfolio of minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. During his time on the front bench, Robert's son was born, and it was his deep sense of connection to this child that moved him at last to turn his attention to the question of his own birth. Although he had some sense of the potentially life-changing course that lay ahead of him, he could not have anticipated learning of the exceptional nature of the woman who had brought him into the world, the deep scars that his forced adoption had left on her, and the astonishing series of coincidences that had already linked their lives. And this was only the first half of a story. External Website

Actors Stanley J Browne Born on December 15th 1970 at The Mothers' Hospital, Hackney, East London, Stanley is the second child of four and grew up in the care system as a young boy from the age of five. After a troubled childhood alongside his struggles growing up in care, Stanley missed out on mainstream education and discovered his passion for acting at the Anna Scher Theatre in Islington at the age of twenty-three, a drama school set up for working-class students which he attended for three years before landing an acting agent. Facing despondency from playing type casting roles, Stanley took a break from acting for almost eleven years, during that time he trained as a counsellor, working with prisoners and primary school children with behavioural issues. Stanley would go on to perform Shakespeare's "Othello" (2011), touring Ireland for three months. In addition to his accomplishments as an actor, Stanley has a passion for music and art. He is a painter and charcoal artist and has a portfolio of work. Having been a singer-songwriter for over twenty years, performing at various acoustic venues across the UK. In 2021, Stanley was signed to Jacaranda Books for his memoir "Little Big Man", due to be published on October 14th 2022. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Alternatives Caoilinn Hughes 2024 The Alternatives (2024) is the most recent novel by Irish writer, Caoilinn Hughes. Five sisters were orphaned 30 years ago, after which they effectively raised themselves. The oldest, Olwen Flattery, is a geology professor. Her 4 younger sisters all have PhD degrees. When Olwen disappears from her home, her sisters find her living in a remote house in rural Ireland. The unexpected reunion gives the 5 women an opportunity to review their lives, including examining old wounds. External Website

Plays & Musicals featuring Care Exp Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1980 Les Misérables; colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz (/leɪ ˈmɪz/), is a sung-through musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel of the same name, by Claude-Michel Schönberg (music), Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel (original French lyrics), and Herbert Kretzmer (English lyrics). The original French musical premiered in Paris in 1980 with direction by Robert Hossein. Its English-language adaptation by producer Cameron Mackintosh has been running in London since October 1985, making it the longest-running musical in the West End and the second longest-running musical in the world after the original Off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks. Set in early 19th-century France, Les Misérables is the story of Jean Valjean. After 19 years as a prisoner, Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is freed by Javert (Russell Crowe), the officer in charge of the prison workforce. Valjean promptly breaks parole but later uses money from stolen silver to reinvent himself as a mayor and factory owner. Javert vows to bring Valjean back to prison. Eight years later, Valjean becomes the guardian of a child named Cosette after her mother's (Anne Hathaway) death, but Javert's relentless pursuit means that peace will be a long time coming.Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters are swept into the June 1832 Rebellion in France, where a group of young idealists attempt to overthrow the government at a street barricade in Paris. External Website

Performing Arts Singer, musician Donny Hathaway Donny Edward Hathaway (1945 – 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and arranger. Hewas born in Chicago but he lived in the Carr Square, St Louis, Missouri housing project, with his grandmother, Martha Crumwell. His mother, Drusella Huntley, had sent the three year old boy to live with Martha when she separated from Donny’s father, Hosea Brown—a traumatised serviceman—and couldn’t support Donny on her own. Donny started at St Louis’ Vashon High School when he was 14. Recognised for his prodigious musical talent, he began taking music theory classes at Washington University. On graduation from high school, Donny attended Howard University where he met his wife, Eulaulah. After 3 years, he stopped going to university because he had so many offers to perform. By 1973, when he was 28, Donny had recorded five albums and won a Grammy. Donny Hathaway was only 35 when he died; he fell to his death from the 15th floor of the Essex Hotel in Manhattan. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Runaway Martina Cole 1997 A thriller which features the character of Cathy Connor who is forced into social care where she is abused. External Website

Films/Videos The Christmas Note 2015 The Christmas Note is a Christmas film originally broadcast on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel in 2015. The film is based on the book of the same name by Donna VanLiere. Gretchen Daniels moves back to hometown Wilsonville with her son Ethan. Neighbour & workaholic Melissa, discovers an unfinished note from her mother, who gave up a child for adoption. Gretchen (also adopted) convinces Melissa to search for her sibling. External Website

Actors John Thomson John Patrick Thomson (born Patrick Francis McAleer; 2 April 1969) is an English comedian and actor, best known for his roles in The Fast Show, Men Behaving Badly, Cold Feet and Coronation Street. John was put up for adoption when he was six weeks old and then adopted. He studied drama at Manchester Polytechnic where he met Steve Coogan, another English actor and comedian. External Website

Writers Elizabeth Gaskell 1810-1865 Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; (1810 – 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Elizabeth Gaskell was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson in Chelsea, London, to Unitarian parents, Elizabeth Holland and William Stevenson. Elizabeth Holland died in 1811 and baby Elizabeth was despatched to live with her mother’s older sister, Aunt Lumb, in Knutsford, Cheshire, about 31km from Manchester. Although William Stevenson remarried, Elizabeth visited her father rarely. Gaskell's novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851–53), North and South (1854–55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), each having been adapted for television by the BBC. External Website

Radio & Podcast The mums accused of poisoning their kids Background Briefing 2022 Two Australian women accused of and charged with poisoning their own children at the same Sydney hospital. Although neither woman was convicted of the crime, they both spent years separated from their families. In case, the children were in the custody of their father; in the other, the daughter went into foster care. External Website

Children's Fiction Alone On A Wide Wide Sea Michael Morpurgo 2007 When six-year-old orphan Arthur Hobhouse is shipped to Australia after WWII he loses his sister, his country and everything he knows. Overcoming enormous hardships with fellow orphan Marty, Arthur is finally saved by the extraordinary people he meets and by his talent for boat-design and sailing. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Orphans & Care Experience in Literature Rosie Canning Rosie Canning is an author, campaigner, project coordinator and PhD Candidate. The website features her PhD journey, her recent work with University of Oxford as well as featuring orphans and care experience in literature. External Website

Television Shows Tales of the Unexpected 1982 In this episode of Tales of the Unexpected, Series 5 (1982–1983) 54 (3) Operation Safecrack (9th may 1982) most of the action takes place in a children's home threatened with closure due to lack of funds. Sam 'The Touch' Morrissey is the most famous safe-cracker in Britain and advertising executive Jack Harrison uses him in an elaborate live television stunt to promote his company. Sam has to break into the impregnable new Holdwell 801 safe in the studio, thereby claiming the twenty-five thousand pounds in an envelope in the safe. Time starts to run out and it looks as if Sam has failed. Fortunately for Sam he came to the studio with another skill as well as safe-cracking. External Website

Television Shows The Gloaming 2020 Australian television series which features a story line of children in foster care and which has a Senior Detective who has been in foster care as a child. External Website

Non Fiction We Were Once a Family Roxanna Asgarian 2023 We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death and Child Removal in America (2023) by investigative journalist, Roxanna Asgarian, is the harrowing story of a murder-suicide. In 2018, a white married couple drove their car over a cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway. The 2 women had adopted 6 African American children, 3 siblings each from 2 families. 5 of those children were now dead, and 1 was missing. Asgarian centres the birth families of the dead children and uncovers a disturbing system of racial bias when removing children and a lack of knowledge about prospective adoptive parents. External Website