Fiction featuring Care Experience The Late Train to Gipsy Hill Alan Johnson 2021 As a teenager, Alan Johnson (b. 1950) wanted to become a writer, but he ended up as a member of the British parliament. He finally took up writing after he retired from politics, publishing his first memoir to critical acclaim in 2014. In this he talks about being raised by his single mum, and after she dies when he is 13, by his older sister. Alan Johnson's first work of fiction, is a thriller The Late Train to Gipsy Hill, published in 2021. Appropriately, the hero is a young man raised by a single mother. There is, too, a character who was raised in care - in Russia. Unfortunately, (because its a stereotype) Miranchuk is a thug, a clever man who loves violence and who has recently made a commitment to join the 3rd of the 3 key Russian organisations, the Krovnyye Bratya or an organised crime group (the other options are the military and the secret service) which, writes, Johnson, all interconnected anyway. The Late Train to Gipsy Hill is a timely - because of the invasion of Ukraine - thriller, fast paced and well written. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Innocent Blood P.D. James 2011 If you are a PD James fan, I should say up front that Innocent Blood is very different from the Adam Dalgliesh detective series. It is a psychological thriller, a slow-building mystery which starts with little steps then, as the odd details start to make sense, the tension builds. It is the story of a young woman who knows she is adopted, who exercises her right to know the names of her birth parents, and finds something she never in a million years expected. External Website

Academic Articles What "The Mandalorian" Teaches Us About Foster Care Sophia Alexandra Hall 2021 Sophia Alexandra Hall went into foster care as a teenager and was cared for by her local authority until leaving at 18 to attend the University of Oxford. Here she writes about the 'The Madalorianan' an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau beginning five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). It stars Pedro Pascal as the title character, a lone bounty hunter who goes on the run after being hired to retrieve "The Child". Hall writes: "Finally, a story that portrays family as something that can be chosen, made up of those that care for you and not just the blood running through your veins. In the final scene of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, Mando reassures Grogu (AKA Baby Yoda) that it is okay to leave with his new guardian. As a former foster care kid, this was an all-too familiar scene. Having had multiple foster homes in the space of a few years, I had to deal with the introduction of new guardians on a regular basis. Forming personal bonds with my carers, ultimately only to have to leave, was a crushing reality I faced repeatedly throughout my childhood." External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Representing Aboriginal Childhood The Politics of Memory and Forgetting in Australia Joanne Faulkner 2023 Representing Aboriginal Childhood: The Politics of Memory and Forgetting in Australia (2023) by by Australian academic Joanne Faulker investigates ways in which Aboriginal children have been represented over the decades. Faulker uses literature and film, as well as public discourse including from the government and by news outlets, to show that representations of Aboriginal children tend to occlude colonial violence. Reference to Jedda (1955) is made and to the Bringing them Home Report (1997) about the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their families. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Constance Couronne: From Enslaved Child in Mauritius to Emancipated Convict Grandmother in New South Wales Convicts, Creolization & Cosmopolitanism in the British & French Empires 2022 British historian Clare Anderson has written more information on the situation of 9-year old enslaved girl Constance Couronne who was transported from one British colony to another in 1834. The blog includes a transcript of 9-year-old Constance’s convict record for when she’d been sent to NSW in 1834. Constance Couronne was transported from Mauritius to Australia with her cousin 12-year-old Elizabeth Verloppe. They were first sent to the Female Factory in Parammatta before being assigned as servants to Henry Wilson, Sydney’s First Police Magistrate External Website

Television Shows Archie 2023 Archie (2023) is a 4 part biographical drama telling the story of Archibald Alec Leach who became known as the debonair actor Cary Grant (1904-1986). Cary Grant was born in England, in a suburb of Bristol. When he was 9, his father had his mother institutionalised and a year later abandoned Archie who lived with his grandmother. As a teenager, Archie joined an acrobatic troupe and travelled with them to New York. When the troupe went home, Archie stayed in the US and became Cary Grant. Archie is an adaptation of a memoir by Dyan Cannon, Grant’s 4th wife. Jason Isaacs plays Cary Grant. External Website

Writers Bertrand Russell 1872-1970 Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British polymath, philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate. Russell was born into the British aristocracy. His mother died when he was 2 and his father 2 years later. From then his paternal grandmother had the primary care of the child. Throughout his life, Russell considered himself a liberal, a socialist and a pacifist, although he sometimes suggested that his sceptical nature had led him to feel that he had "never been any of these things, in any profound sense". He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege, colleague G. E. Moore and protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians. With A. N. Whitehead he wrote Principia Mathematica, an attempt to create a logical basis for mathematics, the quintessential work of classical logic. His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered a "paradigm of philosophy". His work has had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science (see type theory and type system) and philosophy, especially the philosophy of language, epistemology and metaphysics. Russell was a prominent anti-war activist, championed anti-imperialism, and chaired the India League. External Website

Authors A Silent System: Forgotten Australians the Institutionalisation of Women and Children ➝ Back to Top

Biography of Care Experienced People Abraham Lincoln: A Life Michael Burlingame 2008 The first biography of Abraham Lincoln to be published in decades, Michael Burlingame explores Lincoln's early childhood in Part 1 and in Part 2, examines Lincoln's life during his presidency. External Website

Radio & Podcast Why my birth parents tried to keep me a secret BBC Outlook "How could a nun be my mother? It didn't make any sense at all." For Brendan Watkins - who was told at the age of 8 that he was adopted - finding out his mother was a nun answered some questions, but raised a whole lot more. Brendan tells the story of his detective work which led to discovering he is a Child of Priests in this episode of the BBC's Outlook program. External Website

Artists Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564)was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. According to some sources, Michelangelo was already in foster care when his mother died in 1481. It appears he stayed on in foster care after his mother's death and worked alongside the other children in the family to cut stone from a local quarry. When he was seven, Michelangelo was sent to school and apprenticed to a fresco paint when he was thirteen. Several scholars have described Michelangelo as the greatest artist of his age and even as the greatest artist of all time. A number of Michelangelo's works of painting, sculpture and architecture rank among the most famous in existence. His output in these fields was prodigious; given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches and reminiscences, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century. He sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. awe. Attempts by subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelo's impassioned, highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. External Website

Films/Videos Mrs Chatterji vs Norway 2023 Debika and Aniruddha are a Bengali couple living in Stavanger, Norway with their two children. Following repeated visits by Norwegian Child Welfare Services their two children are taking away from them and placed in foster care. Debika argues that they have been misunderstood as a family because Indian familial traditions are different to Norwegian ones. Debika has to fight for her children's return. Based on a true story External Website

Television Shows Dark Heart 2016 Dark Heart (2016) is a British crime show based on the Will Wagstaffe novels by English writer Adam Creed. The series features Detective Inspector Will Wagstaffe who is haunted by the murder of both parents when he was only 16 years old. What happened to the young Will Wagstaffe after the death of his parents – did he go into care, or was he taken care of by his sister? – we aren’t told. Nor do we know by the end of the series the circumstances of his parents’ murder. External Website

Children's Fiction Who Am I? The Diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937 Anita Heiss 2001 Who Am I? is the fictional diary of a young Aboriginal girl, Mary Talence, a member of the Stolen Generation. The Sister in charge of Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home gave her a diary. Through its pages she describes her life – from her arrival there, aged five, through her struggle to understand why she was taken from her real mother, to her adoption at ten years of age by a white Catholic family in St Ives. Mary is increasingly confused and ashamed as she is taught that white skinned is good, black skinned is bad. She longs to understand why this is so but finds that almost any questions provoke anger and accusations of ingratitude from the Burkes, her white adoptive family. External Website

Writers Pam Weaver English writer, Pam Weaver, was adopted from birth. She trained as a Nursery Nurse during the 1960s & went on to work in Children’s Homes as well as private nurseries. Pam Weaver began writing 30 years later, in the 1990s. She began publishing first with small magazines and since then she has written >250 articles, 180 short stories & >12 novels. A number of her novels are set in Worthing, West Sussex and during WWII. Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes (2013) is Weaver’s memoir. External Website

Films/Videos Anne of Green Gables (tv film) 1985 Canadian television film based on the 1908 book by Lucy Maud Montgomery. 13-year-old orphan Anne Shirley is living in servitude with the cruel Hammond family in Nova Scotia. When Mr. Hammond dies, his wife sends Anne back to the orphanage. After six months, she receives the news that she has been adopted by a family in Prince Edward Island. Upon arriving in the small town of Avonlea, Anne is met at the train station by the elderly Matthew Cuthbert, who is surprised to find her there. Matthew and his sister Marilla had requested a boy to help them on their farm, Green Gables, but Anne was sent due to a miscommunication. Although Matthew takes a liking to Anne, Marilla refuses to keep her, saying a girl is of no use to them. However, she has a change of heart when she finds out Anne would be sent to live with the unpleasant Mrs. Blewett. Marilla decides to put Anne "on trial" before making up her mind. Anne is delighted but soon finds herself in trouble with Marilla's friend and the local gossip Rachel Lynde, who criticizes her looks and red hair. Anne loses her temper at Rachel and refuses to apologize, preferring to go back to the orphanage, but Matthew convinces her to do so. Rachel accepts Anne's apology and suggests to Marilla that Anne attend a Sunday School picnic so she can make friends. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Alex Cross (Novel Series) James Patterson 1993 Alex Cross is a crime thriller novel series created by American writer, James Patterson (b. 1947). There are more than 30 novels in the series – which began in 1993 - and the protagonist is an African American detective who was raised in the kinship care of his grandmother. Alex Cross was born in Winston-Salem in North Carolina. His mother died when he was 9 and his father a year later. After his father died, Alex was sent to live with his grandmother in Washington, DC. Nana Mama, as she is known, was an English teacher. Alex Cross has a PhD in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University. He has worked for the Washington DC Police Department and for the FB. In the 18th novel of the Alex Cross series, Kill Alex Cross, James Patterson adds an additional character to the Cross family. Nana Mama – the grandmother who raised Alex Cross and who now lives with Alex and his family – is robbed by a homeless girl living on the streets. Ava is taken in by Nana Mama and Bree, Alex’s wife, and they agree to adopt the girl. Later, in Alex Cross, Run, Ava is sent into foster care because of doing drugs at home. At the end of that novel Ava is (apparently) killed by the last in a long line of Alex’s nemeses. Ava returns to the series in 19th novel, Merry Christmas. External Website

Non Fiction History and Sociology of the Willowbrook State School William Bronston 2013 Willowbrook State School was used to warehouse as many as 6000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities between 1947 and when it was closed in 1987. In 1972 a journalist exposed the appalling practices within the 'school'. In this book the authors tell the story of what was happening at Willowbrook prior to the 1972 expose, and include a history of the treatment of people with disabilities in the United States. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors The Lost Orphan Pam Weaver 2023 The Lost Orphan (2023) follows what happens to two girls evacuated from London in 1941. Haunted by the memory of their missing sister, Amelie and Mireille go in search for her now that Amelie is training as a nurse and Mireille as enlisted in the Air Force. External Website

Artists Maria Amidu Maria Amidu is a graduate of the Royal College of Art in glass and ceramics and exhibited nationally and internationally as maker before pursuing a more social practice. From the age of six, Maria grew up in the UK care system after her mother died and her father returned to Nigeria. As a socially engaged artist, Maria has a commitment in her work to hidden stories, to people who have been unremembered. External Website