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Radio & Podcast Nina Bernstein and June Norton on Ella Fitzgerald American Masters Before jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) became the First Lady of Song, she spent much of her teenage years as an orphan, at times living on the street, as journalist Nina Berstein discovered.. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union Dame Elizabeth N Anionwu 2016 Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu DBE FRCN (born Elizabeth Mary Furlong; 1947) is a British nurse, health care administrator, lecturer, and Emeritus Professor of Nursing at University of West London. In 1947 Elizabeth's mother, from a sheltered Catholic, Liverpool Irish working class heritage is studying Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the first one in her family to go to university – and then she discovers that she’s pregnant. The father is also a student at Cambridge, studying law. And he is black. Elizabeth spent just over two years living with her mother, a relationship that ended when her stepfather, who did not accept her and drank heavily, started to physically abuse her. She was placed in a catholic children's home where she was cared for by nuns, including several years in the Nazareth House convent in Birmingham. Often harshly punished and humiliated for wetting the bed. In her memoir she recalls, that later in life when working as a health visitor, "I made sure to keep up-to-date with more humane treatments for bedwetting". Nonetheless, she grieved leaving the convent to go and live with her mother. Shortly before her 25th birthday she suddenly found her father: barrister and former Nigerian Ambassador to Italy and the Vatican, Lawrence Anionwu. She was to visit Nigeria frequently and later changed her surname to Anionwu. In 1979, Anionwu became the United Kingdom's first sickle-cell and thalassemia nurse specialist, helping establish the Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Counselling centre with consultant haematologist Milica Brozovic. In 1998, by then a professor of nursing, Anionwu created the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at the University of West London. She holds a PhD, was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). She retired in 2007, and in 2016 she published her memoirs, Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union. External Website

Authors N National Aged and Community Care Roundtable for Forgotten Australians ➝ A Moment in Care ➝ Back to Top

Radio & Podcast The Strange Life of Ingrid Von Oelhafen The History Listen 2024 In this History Listen podcast, Ingrid von Oelhafen, a German physiotherapist, recounts the story of her incredible childhood. First, she and her brother were left in an orphanage for 5 years. Then the 2 were returned to their tyrannical father. After her brother disappeared one day, Ingrid found out he was a foster child. Later, she found out she was a foster child. It was decades before Ingrid found out who her parents were. External Website

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 Up from the Lowest Rung Deidre Michell 2015 Deidre Michell describes her transformation from oppression as a former foster kid and university dropout to being enculturated in the middle class, returning to university as a mature age student, and completing a PhD. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Hutchinson Heinemann signs Fagan's 'extraordinary' memoir in two-book deal Jenni Fagan 2022 Hutchinson Heinemann has signed Ootlin, a memoir by writer Jenni Fagan, in a two-book deal. Publishing director Ailah Ahmed acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Tracy Bohan at The Wylie Agency. The memoir will be published in hardback, e-book and audio on 24th August 2023. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Mr Timothy Louis Bayard (3) 2003 Mr Timothy (2003) by Louis Bayard picks up Tiny Tim's story (from a Christmas Carol) from where Charles Dickens left off. Set in London in 1860, Timothy Cratchit is now a young man of 23, walks with a limp, has "Uncle" Ebenezer has a benefactor and tutors (in reading) a woman who runs a brothel in exchange for accommodation. Inevitably, since the story is set in Dickensian London, there are many street kids and orphans. There are also girls (between ages 8 and 12) being trafficked from Europe into England and the arms of nefarious aristocratic men. Timothy sets out to save one 10 year old girl, orphaned Philomela, in particular and in the process befriends Colin, a 13 year old hustler and talented singer. External Website

Films/Videos Ladybird, Ladybird 1994 Ladybird, Ladybird (1994) is a British film directed by Ken Loach. Set in 1987, the film tells the story of Maggie Conlan (Crissy Rock) who has had 6 children removed by Social Sciences and is trying to get the children back. We learn that Maggie was in a violent relationship and escapes into a women’s refuge with 4 children. She locks them in her room when she goes out when night. There’s a fire. One child is badly injured and given to foster parents. Maggie returns to the abusive man and her other 3 children are taken into the care system. Maggie has 2 more children with Jorge (Vladimir Vega) who is a refugee from Central American. Both children are removed by state authorities Yet the authorities allow Maggie and Jorge to keep 3 more children. According to Loach, the film is based on a true story. External Website

Television Shows Unforgiven 2009 Unforgiven is a three-part British television drama series, written by Sally Wainwright and which follows Ruth Slater (Suranne Jones), a woman found guilty of murdering two police officers when she was a teenager. Upon release from prison, Ruth is determined to find her sister, who was adopted shortly after the incident. The series is set in the village of Boothtown, Halifax, Yorkshire in England. A film based on the series and starring Sandra Bullock as Ruth Slater was released in 2021. External Website

Children's Fiction The Leftovers Eleanor Spence 1983 When the home in which they've been living is about to be closed down to make way for a new road, four foster children write an advertisement for a real home with a proper family External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau Jean Jacques Rousseau 2018 Thought of as the first modern autobiography; in his Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau tells the story of his life, from the formative experience of his humble childhood in kinship care and then in foster care, through the achievement of international fame as novelist and philosopher in Paris, to his wanderings as an exile, persecuted by governments and alienated from the world of modern civilization. In trying to explain who he was and how he came to be the object of others' admiration and abuse, Rousseau analyses with unique insight the relationship between an elusive but essential inner self and the variety of social identities he was led to adopt. Rousseau was seen as being radical and was anti verbal lessons and instruction he believed children learnt by experience alone, which encouraged thought. Instruction is bad because it is not natural. Children should be guided how to learn for themselves. In the book (Emile) he wrote about the right way to raise children, and yet he sent all his own children, five of them to the Paris Foundling Hospital immediately upon birth. He never knew or even saw them. He says that at the time he was not troubled by his conscience and the only reason he did not boast openly of his actions was to save the feelings of his mistress (the mother), who did not agree with the decision. He claimed abandoning one’s children at the Foundling Hospital was “the custom of the country” as told by the “fundamentally decent” men at the dining establishments he frequented. He regarded children as a considerable inconvenience, abandoning them was a socially acceptable way to relieve oneself of it, problem solved. Rousseau eventually was troubled by his conscience about the way he had disposed of his children. He considered making a public confession at the start of Emile, but thought better of it. A baby at the Paris Foundling Hospital had only a two thirds chance of surviving its first year and only a five percent chance of reaching maturity. These are facts which Rousseau could have determined without much difficulty if he had bothered to find. This brings into question his thoughts about children when he had so little love, compassion and caring for his own. External Website

Authors A Maria Amidu ➝ Louise Allen (artist) ➝ Marina Abramović ➝ Frank Auerbach - artist ➝ Al's Art ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave by Mary Prince Mary Prince 1831 Mary Prince (c. 1 October 1788 – after 1833) was a British abolitionist and autobiographer, born in Bermuda to an slave family of African descent. Subsequent to her escape, when she was living in London, England, she and Thomas Pringle wrote her slave narrative The History of Mary Prince (1831), which was the first account of the life of a black slave woman to be published in the United Kingdom. This first-hand description of the brutalities of enslavement, released at a time when slavery was still legal in Bermuda and British Caribbean colonies, had a galvanising effect on the British anti-slavery movement. It was reprinted twice in its first year. Prince was illiterate and had her account transcribed while living and working in England at the home of Pringle, secretary of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (aka Anti-Slavery Society, 1823–1838). She had gone to London with her master and his family in 1828 from Antigua. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Care Less Lives - The story of the rights movement of young people in care Stein et al 2011 Professor Mike Stein (Author), Fran Orford (Illustrator). Care Less Lives tells the story of the rights movement of young people in care in England. It relates how, from 1973, young people came together to talk about their care, support each other and campaign to improve their lives in care. From the small beginnings of the Leeds Ad-Lib group, the story tells how the word was spread by Who Cares?, the National Association of Young People in Care, Black and In Care, and, currently by the campaigns of A National Voice. The story describes how young people during these years experienced their care, including their feelings of stigma and control, as well as, for some young people, abuse at the hands of those who were meant to care for them. But it is also a story of altruism and collective resilience, of how young people came together to improve the lives of other young people, to make their lives, less care less. 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

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Watch Tower Elizabeth Harrower 1966 The Watchtower (1966) is a novel by Australian writer Elizabeth Harrower (1928-2020). Laura and Clare Vaizey are sisters living in Sydney around the time of WWII. When their father dies and their mother disappears to England, the sisters are left to fend for themselves. Laura gives up her medical studies, works in a factory and decides to marry Felix Shaw on the understanding he will look after Clare so she can stay on at school Felix Shaw, however, is a cruel man, a malicious mean man who tyrannises the sisters until Laura is crushed. Clare does have to leave school and go to business school. Unlike Laura, Clare is not crushed. She takes refuge in literature and after helping out a refugee, she realises she has a purpose in life. External Website

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Autobiography/Memoir Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography Eric Idle 2018 Eric Idle reflects on the meaning of his own life in this memoir that takes us on a remarkable journey from his childhood in an austere boarding school through his successful career in comedy, television, theatre and film. Coming of age as a writer and comedian during the Sixties and Seventies, Eric stumbled into the crossroads of the cultural revolution and found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of George Harrison, David Bowie and Robin Williams, all of whom became lifelong friends. External Website

Films/Videos Lamb (Film) 1985 Bernard MacLaverty’s wrote the screenplay for the 1985 adaptation of his novel Lamb. The film starred Liam Neeson as Michael Lamb and Hugh O’Conor as Owen Kane. The film begins in a Home for boys run by christian brothers. One of the youngest brothers, Brother Sebastian who real name is Michael Lamb, is horrified by the violence and forms an attachment to one of the boys there. When he inherits a small amount of money, Michael Lamb leaves, taking with him 10-year-old Owen Kane. Michael and Owen pose as father and son until the money—and time as Michael Lamb is being pursued for kidnapping Owen—runs out. External Website