Autobiography/Memoir Foster Care and Me Judith Denton 2019 In this memoir, Judith Denton talks about her experiences in the foster care system including exclusions from school and conflict with the legal system, to later going to university and working in the corporate world. Judith Denton is Founder and CEO of The Transformed You, a support and mentorship program for children and young people in care, and Care Leavers. External Website

Artists Goldie (artist) Clifford Joseph Price (MBE), better known as Goldie, is a British musician, music producer, DJ, visual artist and actor. He was b.1965 and put up for adoption at the age of 3. He spent time in various children's homes and with several different foster parents. He was sexually and physically abused during this period. His first move into the arts was as a breakdancer but then he gained exposure for his work as a graffiti artist. Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in the 1990’s. In 2007, he returned to the art world with an art exhibition, Love Over Gold, which was held at the Leonard Street Gallery, London. External Website

Actors Chad Coleman Chad L. Coleman (born September 6, 1974) is an American actor. He grew up in foster care and became known by portraying Dennis "Cutty" Wise on the HBO crime drama series The Wire (2004–2008), voicing Coach in the video game Left 4 Dead 2, and portraying Tyreese Williams on the AMC post-apocalyptic horror series The Walking Dead (2012–2015). He currently stars in the science fiction series The Expanse as Fred Johnson, a.k.a. "the Butcher of Anderson Station", and starred in the History Channel's 2016 re-imagining of the miniseries Roots. He currently plays a recurring role as the alien Klyden, on the Fox series The Orville. External Website

Authors D Death in Holy Orders ➝ Dexter: Original Sin ➝ Dexter ➝ Dickensian ➝ Decline and Fall ➝ Dalgliesh ➝ Died in the Wool (TV Show) ➝ Dublin Murders ➝ Down Cemetry Road ➝ Dark ➝ Dear Child ➝ Dark Winds ➝ Dark Heart ➝ Dogs of Berlin ➝ Diff'rent Strokes ➝ Devil in Ohio ➝ Dickinson ➝ Back to Top

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Lola in the Mirror Trent Dalton 2023 Lola in the Mirror (2023) by popular Australian writer Trent Dalton has 2 Care Experienced characters. First, the protagonist of Lola in the Mirror is a teenage girl who finds out early in the novel that her mother—who has just died—isn’t her mother. It’s not until the final pages that we learn what happened when the protagonist was a baby and why she and Erica Finlay have been on the run ever since. Second, the protagonist’s best friend is a 19-year-old homeless Aboriginal Australian, Charlie Mould. Charlie spent his childhood bouncing from foster family to foster family until he’d had enough and ran away. External Website

Authors L George Lopez ➝ Ray Liotta ➝ Simu Liu ➝ Back to Top

Writers Jack London 1876-1916 John Griffith London (1876 – 1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. John was in foster care as a baby because his single mother was too sick to care for him. The length of time is not clear - it was anywhere between 8 months & 2 years. Jack remained in contact with his foster mother, former slave Jenny Prentice, for the rest of his life. Jack left school at the mandatory leaving age of thirteen and did a range of precarious working class jobs until he decided he'd had enough and would become a writer. He went back to school at nineteen, and to university - briefly - the following year. His first collection of short stories was published when Jack was only twenty-four. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, Jack London was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. External Website

Television Shows Criminal Record 2024 Criminal Record (2024) is a British crime series created by Paul Rutman. After an anonymous phone call, an early career detective (Cush Jumbo) confronts seasoned detective (Peter Capaldi) over an old case in which the Peter Capaldi character has been part of a team responsible for apprehending a man later convicted for the murder of his partner. In the background is the son of the murdered woman who ends up in the state care system. Rasaq Kukoyi plays the role of the young Patrick Burrowes. External Website

Radio & Podcast Who does Australia lock up? Seriously Social 2023 In this podcast, Professor Eileen Baldry makes the point that some member of the Australian community are more likely to be incarcerated than others: "Aboriginal people form 3% of the population. So, what we are talking about here is that all of these steps, being in out-of-home care, being removed from your family, experiencing violence in your family, ... and in many instances, continuing to experience violence in out-of-home care… All of these things add up to making a person highly vulnerable to being managed by the police." Also on the podcast is Justen Thomas who was institutionalised as a small child, homeless and in jail for not paying fines as a teenager, and now is an advocate for those with similar experiences. External Website

Television Shows Ties That Bind 2015 A Canadian-American drama series which screened as Detective McLean in the UK and Australia. The series involves an experienced police officer taking in her brother's teenage children after their father is arrested and sent to prison. External Website

Children's Fiction The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 2020 Mark Twain's great American masterpiece, the tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Dauphin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents - of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck's struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society, which threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim. External Website

Radio & Podcast Sherlock Holmes The Rest is History 2021 In this episode, historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss the enduring influence of the character created by Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes has remained a popular literary character for more than a century and has influenced the detective genre considerably. External Website

Academic Articles (Pseudo)motherhood, care constructs and the geography of the nuclear family: class, gender and the suburbs in contemporary fiction Kirsty Capes 2017 Existing research on gender in the suburbs draws on geography and feminist theory to demonstrate patriarchal constructs within (sub)urban spaces. Western suburban landscapes are fundamentally underpinned by the most entrenched patriarchal constructs. Existing research on gender in the suburbs draws on geography and feminist theory to demonstrate patriarchal constructs within (sub)urban spaces. Western suburban landscapes are fundamentally underpinned by the most entrenched patriarchal constructs of modern society: the nuclear family, the workplace, motherhood, housewifery and marriage. These constructs are enforced in domestic spaces and evident in fiction. My research will examine the role of the mother, or the mother figure, within suburban settings, focusing on non-traditional maternal figures, such as foster / adoptive mothers, female relatives as primary carers, institutional care and orphanages. As spaces change, so do the demographic makeups of suburban neighbourhoods, and the poster will also discuss intersections of gender, race and social mobility in fiction, and my own novel which forms part of my PhD thesis: a work of working-class, feminist, suburban fiction which examines motherhood through the eyes of a 15-year-old girl in foster care. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles From the first admissions: How care has changed in 280 years Carol Homden 2021 A history of Coram and changes in thinking about children in care over time. External Website

Authors R Margaret Rutherford ➝ Victoria Rowell ➝ Back to Top

Authors U Biden issues 'long overdue' apology for federal Indigenous boarding schools ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows The Family Next Door 2025 The Family Next Door (2025) is an Australian mystery drama based on the eponymous novel by Sally Hepworth. The 6 part series follows Isabelle (Teresa Palmer), who works for Child Protection, as she moves into a house in Osprey Point. Isabelle is investigating the disappearance of a baby and is suspicious of 4 families in the cul-de-sac. One of those families includes Lulu (Jane Harber) who was in foster care as a child and who now has custody of her dead sister’s child. However - *spoiler alert* - Lulu is not guilty of stealing a baby. External Website

Radio & Podcast Philip Pullman (BBC) World Book Club 2005 In this podcast talks about his His Dark Materials fantasy triology which features Care Experienced character, Lyra Bbelacqua. He stresses the importances of having helpful characters in children's stories so that children - no matter their circumstances - know there are good people in the world. External Website

Authors G Maxim Gorky ➝ Ernest J. Gaines ➝ Elizabeth Gaskell ➝ Sheilah Graham ➝ Xiaolu Guo ➝ Jean Genet ➝ Edward Gibbon (writer) ➝ Maree Giles ➝ Rosa Guy ➝ Frank Golding ➝ Kenneth Grahame ➝ Back to Top

Authors T Faith Thomas ➝ Walter Tull ➝ Professional Boxer ➝ Back to Top