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Films/Videos White Oleander (film) ​ 2021 White Oleander is a 2002 American drama film directed by Peter Kosminsky. Fifteen-year-old Astrid Magnussen (Alison Lohman) is living in Los Angeles with her mother, the free-spirited artist Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer). Since her father left before she was old enough to remember him, Astrid depends heavily upon her passionate but largely self-centered mother's care. Ingrid's current relationship with a writer named Barry (Billy Connolly) ends when she discovers he is cheating on her with younger women. After she murders him with a poison made from white oleander, Ingrid is arrested and sentenced to life in prison, leaving Astrid under the care of the state of California. Astrid is sent to live with foster mother Starr Thomas (Robin Wright), a former stripper who is a recovering alcoholic and born-again Christian. External Website

Writers Valerie Mason-John ​ ​ Dr. Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John (b.1962) is a public speaker, mindfulness teacher, author and the co-founder of Eight Step Recovery. She was in English orphanages and foster care as a child, with the exception of a short period back with her mother when she was a teenager. Valerie went on to become a journalist and performer, and was the artistic director of the London Mardi Gras from 1997 to 2000. She was also director of the Pride Arts Festival for 4 years. She is the author of the award winning "Borrowed Body", a novel informed by her experiences in care, and she has an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East London. Valerie is co-founder of "Eight Step Recovery - Using The Buddha's Teaching to Overcome Addiction." She is the author of the award winning "Borrowed Body", a novel informed by her experiences in care, and she has an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East London. Valerie is co-founder of "Eight Step Recovery - Using The Buddha's Teaching to Overcome Addiction." External Website

Television Shows Hunters ​ 2020 Drama series focused on the work of Nazi hunters in New York City in 1977. Jonah Heidelbaum (Logan Lerman) takes his grandmother's place in the team of hunters after she is murdered. Jonah was raised in kinship care by his grandmother. External Website

Writers Georges Perec ​ 1936-1982 Georges Perec (1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. Georges Perec was born in Paris to Jewish migrants from Poland. His father died defending France in 1940. After the Nazis occupied France, Georges was taken by the Red Cross to Villard-de-Lans, to be cared for by his paternal aunt and her husband. Georges Perec stayed in the care of his relatives after the war. He went for some years to school in Paris and also boarded at Étampes, approximately 48km from Paris. In his final year at school, a philosophy teacher encouraged the boy to become a writer, but he was 30 before his first book was [ib;osjed/ External Website

Writers Charles Dickens ​ 1812-1870 Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812 – 1870) was an English writer and social critic. Charles appears to have had a happy childhood until he was 10 and his father suspended his education. The reason seems to be insufficient funds to provide schooling for both Charles and his older sister, Fanny, who in 1823 left home to become a boarder at the Royal Academy of Music. Young Charles filled in his time by running errands for the family, reading and exploring London. Before he had a chance to get used to his job, John Dickens was arrested and imprisoned. John was joined at Marshalsea Prison by his wife and 3 youngest children, while Charles moved in with a family friend, Mrs Roylance. Later Charles moved in with another family, remembered as the Garland family in his novel, The Old Curiosity Shop, serialised 1840 to 1841. At the end of 1824, the family moved into an impoverished neighbourhood and Charles finally went back to school, at least for a couple of years. Dickens went on to created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. External Website

Television Shows Bodies ​ 2023 Bodies is based on the eponymous 2015 graphic novel written by Si Spencer (1961-2021). It is a police procedural “with a twist”. The twist is that the same body is found on Longharvest Lane, Whitechapel, London in 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053. The death is investigated by 4 different detectives. At the heart of the time-travelling strangeness is Stephen Graham as Sir Julian Harker in 1890 and 1941, and Commander Mannix in 2053. A great-great grandchild of Harker’s is Elias Mannix (as a 15-year-old played by Gabriel Howell) who is also his own great-great grandchild. Elias is born in 2008, taken into care at age 4, and later adopted. In 2023 he blows up London and becomes authoritarian Commander Mannix. External Website

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Writers Hugh Leonard ​ 1926-2009 Hugh Leonard (1926 – 2009) was an Irish dramatist, television writer and essayist. He was born John Joseph Byrne in Dublin, but was adopted as a baby and his name changed to John Keyes Byrne. Leonard began his working life in the civil service during which time he wrote plays and acted in community theatre performances. During the 1960s and 1970s, he became the first major Irish writer to establish himself in television. In a career that spanned 50 years, Leonard wrote nearly 30 full-length plays, 10 one-act plays, three volumes of essays, two autobiographies, three novels, numerous screenplays and teleplays, and a regular newspaper column. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found: The Costa Book of the Year 2018 Bart van Es 2018 Little Lien wasn't taken from her Jewish parents in the Hague - she was given away in the hope that she might be saved. Hidden and raised by a foster family in the provinces during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. Much later, she fell out with her foster family, and Bart van Es - the grandson of Lien's foster parents - knew he needed to find out why. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Finding hope. An imperfect journey to growth and happiness Leah Elizabeth 2020 Leah Elizabeth J chronicles her life from foster care to adulthood and living a life of hope and courage. External Website

Children's Fiction The Ghosts and Jamal Bridget Blankley 2018 The Ghosts and Jamal is an intriguing story, touching on religion, terrorism and Nigeria s internal conflicts, following a young orphan who is negotiating an unforgiving society. Waking up in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, 13-year-old Jamal tries to piece together what has happened whilst simultaneously trying to evade capture by the attackers. It soon becomes clear that he has been living in a separate outhouse from his family on account of the bad spirits or rather his epilepsy that plagues him. As he wanders around his family s compound, he comes across red canisters leaking yellow gas, which he works out were the weapon that killed his family. With his family dead, he begins to search for his grandfather who he hardly knows; when his grandfather turns him away Jamal keeps walking. On the way he meets prejudice, exploitation and friendship, before finally discovering that it is people, not ghosts, that have killed his family, and they have plans to keep on killing. Young Adult fiction. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey Restless 2021 Margaret Omolola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey OBE (born 1 June 1951) is a British actress, author, Crossbench peer, and Chancellor of the University of Nottingham. Spent tme in foster care and children's homes as a child. External Website

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

Films/Videos The Last Daughter ​ 2022 The Last Daughter (2022) is a documentary exploring Brenda Matthews' journey of disconnection and reconciliation. Brenda has memories of growing up in a white foster family before she was removed and returned to her Aboriginal family. From the website: "Along the way she uncovers long-buried secrets, government lies, and the possibility for deeper connections to family and culture. The Last Daughter is a documentary about Brenda’s journey to unearth the truth about her past, and to reconcile the two sides of her family." External Website

Television Shows Water Under the Bridge (tv show) ​ 1980 A miniseries based on Sumner Locke Elliott's book of the same name. The story revolves around a young man who was in foster care as a boy and his journey from Sydney to London. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The joyful condemned Kylie Tennant 1953 The Joyful Condemned is Kylie Tennant's first attempt at writing about the NSW child protection system. A longer version of the story was published as Tell Morning This in 1967. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Sons with Two Moms Tony Hynes 2015 Tony Hynes was adopted by Mary and Janet during the mid-1990s. Until then he was in kinship care with his grandmothers, and in an orphanage for a year. The initial adoption order was overturned and his parents returned to court, eventually appealing to the Supreme Court. The outcome was a joint custody agreement between Mary and Janet and Tony's birth family. External Website

Films/Videos Enola Holmes ​ 2020 16 year old Enola Holmes is left in the kinship care of her oldest brother, Mycroft, when her mother disappears. Enola travels to London in search of her mother, resisting attempts by Mycroft to have her sent to a finishing school. At the conclusion to the film, Enola decides to follow in the footsteps of her famous brother, Sherlock, and become a detective. External Website

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

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Lost Child Caryl Phillips 2015 The Lost Child is a sweeping story of orphans and outcasts, haunted by the past and fighting to liberate themselves from it. At its centre is Monica Johnson, cut off from her parents after falling in love with a foreigner, and her bitter struggle to raise her sons in the shadow of the wild moors of the north of England. Intertwined with her modern narrative is the ragged childhood of Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff, the anti-hero of Wuthering Heights and one of literature’s most enigmatic lost boys. The Lost Child is bookended by two scenes that feature the seven-year-old Heathcliff. Left purposefully mysterious by Emily Brontë, his origins are here fleshed out by Phillips, who makes him the illegitimate son of Mr Earnshaw by an African former slave. In the early scene, the boy’s mother is dying of disease in Liverpool; the novel ends with her son being led over the moors by Mr Earnshaw to Wuthering Heights. External Website