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Fiction featuring Care Experience The Bone People Keri Hulme 2001 Winner of the Booker Prize in 1985, Keri Hulme's The Bone People is the story of Kerewin, a despairing part-Maori artist who is convinced that her solitary life is the only way to face the world. Kerewin's cocoon is rudely blown away by the sudden arrival during a rainstorm of Simon, a mute six-year-old whose past seems to hold some terrible trauma. In his wake comes his foster-father Joe, a Maori factory worker with a nasty temper. The narrative unravels to reveal the truths that lie behind these three characters, and in so doing displays itself as a huge, ambitious work that tackles the clash between Maori and European characters in beautiful prose of a heartrending poignancy. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles When Lucy O'Flaherty took up shoemaking she didn't know it was part of her heritage Fiona Blackwood 2020 Lucy O'Flaherty has a massive shoe collection and for six years has been making her own, finding it was "repairing her soul". When she finally met her birth parents in the UK, the obsession made complete sense. Making shoes ran in her family. External Website

Films/Videos A Chance in the World ​ 2019 A Chance in the World is based on the true story of Steve Pemberton.Taken from his mother at age three, Steve Klakowicz lives in the clutches of a cruel foster family. He finds his only refuge in a box of books given to him by a kind stranger, books that take him to new worlds he can only imagine. He begins to hope that one day he might have a different life. As he grows, Steve is determined to unravel the mystery of his origins. A light-skinned boy with blue eyes, a curly Afro, and a Polish last name, he embarks on an extraordinary quest for his identity, armed with only one clue. Yet nothing is as it appears. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Goodwood Holly Throsby ➝ The Thief of Time John Boyne ➝ The Sun Walks Down Fiona McFarlane ➝ The Fish Lloyd Jones ➝ The Inheritance Louisa May Alcott ➝ Mansfield Park Jane Austen ➝ Quirke (series) John Banville ➝ Rocks in the Belly Jon Bauer ➝ The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Louis Bayard ➝ Ghost River Tony Birch ➝ Common People Tony Birch ➝ The Foster Child: Jenny Blackhurst ➝ The Heart's Invisible Furies John Boyne (3) ➝ Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte ➝ The Chocolate Maker's Wife Karen Brooks ➝ Prudence (Custard Protocol, 1 Gail Carriger ➝ Mrs McGinty's dead Agatha Christie ➝ Sword Catcher Cassandra Clare ➝ Resurrection Walk Michael Connelly ➝ The Friend in Need Elizabeth Coxhead ➝ Boy Swallows Universe (Novel) Trent Dalton ➝ The Ghost of Lily Painter Caitlin Davies ➝ Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade Patrick Dennis ➝ The Sunken Road Garry Disher ➝ Solace of the Road Siobhan Dowd ➝ The Round House Louise Erdrich ➝ Belgravia (novel) Julian Fellowes ➝ The Woman in the Window A J Finn ➝ The Exit Helen Fitzgerald ➝ The Donor Helen Fitzgerald ➝ Casino Royale Ian Fleming ➝ Shadow Baby Margaret Forster ➝ I Couldn't Love You More Esther Freud ➝ Secrets of the Sea House Elisabeth Gifford ➝ A Room Made of Leaves Kate Grenville ➝ Florence and Giles John Harding ➝ The Secret of Lost Things Sheridan Hay ➝ Someone Else's Skin Sarah Hilary ➝ Where The Dead Sit Talking Brandon Hobson ➝ Kirkland Revels Victoria Holt ➝ No One Was Watching Annie Horner ➝ Les Misérables (novel) Victor Costa Hugo et al. ➝ Bea's Witch Daniel Ingram-Brown ➝ Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro ➝ The Orphan's Tale Pam Jenoff ➝ Mister Pip Lloyd Jones ➝ Paper Nautilus Nicholas Jose ➝ Foster (novella) Claire Keegan ➝ The Feast Margaret Kennedy ➝ Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver ➝ The Girl in the Spider's Web (novel) David Lagercrantz ➝ Choose Me Kay Langdale ➝ The Memoirs of a Survivor Doris Lessing ➝ Small Island Andrea Levy ➝ Daphis and Chloe Longus ➝ Safe With Me Grace Lowrie ➝ The Everlasting Sunday Robert Lukins ➝ Auē Becky Manawatu ➝ Amy's Children Olga Masters ➝ 1989 Val McDermid ➝ As Swallows Fly LP McMahan ➝ Long Bright River Liz Moore ➝ The Orphans Annemarie Neary ➝ The December Boys Michael Noonan ➝ Political Suicide Michael Palmer ➝ Poor Man's Orange Ruth Park ➝ There Was Still Love Favel Parrett ➝ Run Ann Patchett ➝ In The Clearing J.P. Pomare ➝ The Other Wife Michael Robotham 2018 ➝ The Suspect Michael Robotham (2018) ➝ Island Jane Rogers ➝ Shirley (novel by Ronnie Scott) Ronnie Scott ➝ A Whole Life Robert Seethaler ➝ All the Murmuring Bones Angela Slatter ➝ Foundlings Anna Spargo-Ryan ➝ The Aunt's House Elizabeth Stead ➝ The Goldfinch Donna Tartt ➝ Tell Morning This Kylie Tennant ➝ The Franchise Affair (novel) Josephine Tey ➝ Clarke Holly Throsby ➝ That girl Ethel Ewan Turner et al. ➝ The Extraordinary Adventures of Foundling Mick Jules Verne ➝ Kemosha of the Caribbean Alex Wheatle MBE ➝ The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead ➝ The Dictionary of Lost Words Pip Williams ➝ Orphan Rock Dominque Wilson ➝ Before We Were Yours Lisa ➝ The Life She Was Given Ellen Marie Wiseman (4) ➝ Marriages Amy Witting ➝ The Book Thief (novel) Markus Zusak ➝ No One John Hughes ➝ The Way It Is Now Garry Disher ➝ The Turn of the Screw Henry James ➝ Ordeal by Innocence (Novel) Agatha Christie ➝ Celestial Bodies Jokha Alharthi ➝ Sins of the Father Sharon Bairden ➝ Agony of desertion (out of print) Melissa Barron ➝ The Black Tower Louis Bayard (2) ➝ The Butterfly Lampshade Aimee Bender ➝ The Promise Tony Birch ➝ Blood Tony Birch ➝ A Second Life Dermot Bolger ➝ Grace and Mary Melvyn Bragg ➝ Wuthering Heights Emily Nestor Brontë et al. ➝ Lost for words Stephanie Butland ➝ Greenwood Michael Christie ➝ They Do it with Mirrors (novel) Agatha Christie ➝ Burial of Ghosts Ann Cleeves ➝ Leatherstocking Tales James Fenimore Cooper ➝ Born in a Burial Gown M.W. Craven ➝ All Our Shimmering Skies Trent Dalton ➝ Family likeness Caitlin Davies ➝ The Foundling Boy Michel Deon ➝ Bitter Wash Road Garry Disher ➝ Bodies of Light Jennifer Down ➝ Crooked Heart Lissa Evans ➝ Calico Bush Rachel Field ➝ All the Good Things Clare Fisher ➝ The Devil's Staircase Helen Fitzgerald ➝ Worst Case Scenario Helen Fitzgerald ➝ A Tall History of Sugar Curdella Forbes ➝ How to Measure a Cow Margaret Forster ➝ Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus ➝ Starlings Miranda Gold ➝ The Foundling (2020) Stacey Halls ➝ A Discovery of Witches Deborah Harkness ➝ Tales of the Otori Lian Hearn ➝ Quieter Than Killing Sarah Hilary ➝ The Shadow of the Lynx Victoria Holt ➝ Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman ➝ Cazalet Chronicle Collection Elizabeth Jane Howard ➝ The Bone People Keri Hulme ➝ The Cider House Rules (Novel) John Irving ➝ Innocent Blood P.D. James ➝ The Late Train to Gipsy Hill Alan Johnson ➝ One Another (Novel) Gail Jones ➝ The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignacius Sancho Paterson Joseph ➝ Small Things Like These Claire Keegan ➝ Burial Rites Hannah Kent ➝ Orphan Train Christina Baker Kline ➝ The Fall of Man in Wilmslow David Lagercrantz ➝ Crow Lake Mary Lawson ➝ Caging Skies Christine Leunens ➝ Patience Toby Litt ➝ The Twins Tessa de Loo ➝ Too Much Lip Melissa Lucashenko ➝ Lamb Bernard MacLaverty ➝ Died in the Wool Ngaio Marsh ➝ Jamaica Inn Daphne Du Maurier et al. ➝ Insidious Intent Val McDermid ➝ How the Dead Speak Val Mcdermid ➝ The Ninth Orphan (The Orphan Trilogy Book 1) James and Lance Morcan ➝ The Kingdom Jo Nesbo ➝ Evidence of V Sheila O'Connor ➝ Missus Ruth Park ➝ Sixkill Robert B Parker ➝ Doctor Zhivago Boris Leonidovich Pasternak ➝ The Lost Child Caryl Phillips ➝ Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs ➝ When She Was Good Michael Robotham (2020) ➝ Good Girl, Bad Girl Michael Robotham (2019) ➝ Shadow in the Empire of Light Jane Routley ➝ The Emigrants W G Sebald (2) ➝ Frankenstein: or the modern Prometheus Mary Shelley ➝ Will Trent Series (books) Karin Slaughter ➝ Clara Morrison Catherine Helen Spence ➝ After Anne Logan Steiner ➝ Truth Peter Temple ➝ The joyful condemned Kylie Tennant ➝ The Fraud Zadie Smith ➝ The Flying Troutmans Miriam Toews ➝ Stepping Up Sarah Turner ➝ My Name Is Leon Kit de Waal ➝ Every Good Deed and Other Stories Dorothy Whipple ➝ The Underground Railroad (novel) Colson Whitehead ➝ Extinctions Josephine Wilson ➝ The Yield Tara June Winch ➝ What She Left Behind Ellen Marie Wiseman (2) ➝ The Orphan Collector Ellen Marie Wiseman ➝ The Adoption Zidou (Author), Arno Monin (Artist) ➝ In the Woods Tana French ➝ Secrets of Happiness Joan Silber ➝ The Last Thing He Told Me Laura Dave ➝ The Likeness Tana French ➝ Robert B. Parker's Lullaby Ace Atkins ➝ Different Genes Claire Baldry ➝ A Thousand Moons Sebastian Barry ➝ Mr Timothy Louis Bayard (3) ➝ The Dictator's Wife Freya Berry ➝ The White Girl Tony Birch ➝ Christine Falls Benjamin Black ➝ This House is Haunted John Boyne (2) ➝ Death of an Avid Reader Frances Brody ➝ The Orphan of Salt Winds Elizabeth Brooks ➝ Parable of the Sower Octavia E. Butler ➝ Elephants Can Remember Agatha Christie ➝ Three Blind Mice Agatha Christie ➝ The Runaway Martina Cole ➝ All the Sinners Bleed S.A. Cosby ➝ Wild Pork and Watercress Barry Crump ➝ Ignoring Gravity Sandra Danby ➝ Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe ➝ The Language of Flowers Vanessa Diffenbaugh ➝ Akin Emma Donoghue ➝ Winter Sonata Dorothy Edwards ➝ Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo ➝ Year of the Orphan Daniel Findlay ➝ White Oleander Janet Fitch ➝ My Last Confession Helen Fitzgerald ➝ Wanting Richard Flanagan ➝ The Battle For Christabel Margaret Forster ➝ Because of You Dawn French ➝ Half A World Away Mike Gayle ➝ Cousins Patricia Grace ➝ The Doll Funeral Kate Hamer ➝ Into the Water Paula Hawkins ➝ Fragile Sarah Hilary ➝ Two O'Clock Boy Mark Hill ➝ The Black Opal Victoria Holt ➝ The Subjects Sarah Hopkins ➝ The Alternatives Caoilinn Hughes ➝ Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston ➝ When We Were Orphans Kazuo Ishiguro ➝ Codename Villanelle Luke Jennings ➝ The Orphan Master's Son Adam Johnson ➝ Hand Me Down World Lloyd Jones ➝ Eyes Like Mine Sheena ➝ The Dickens Boy Thomas Keneally ➝ Mr Potter Jamaica Kincaid ➝ The House in the Cerulean Sea TJ Klune ➝ The Children's Home Charles Lambert ➝ The Foundling (2022) Ann Leary ➝ The Long Song Andrea Levy ➝ The Flight of Gemma Hardy Margot Livesey ➝ Murder in the Mill-Race: A Devon Mystery E.C.R. Lorac ➝ Ginny Moon Benjamin Ludwig ➝ Goodnight Mister Tom (novel) Michelle Magorian ➝ Song of the Sea Maid Rebecca Mascull ➝ The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe ➝ That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern ➝ Fugitive Pieces (Novel) Anne Michaels ➝ The Chaperone Laura Moriarty ➝ Macbeth Jo Nesbo ➝ Where the Crawdads Sing (novel) Delia Owens ➝ The Harp in the South Ruth Park ➝ When Hoopoes Go To Heaven Gaile Parkin ➝ The Dutch House Ann Patchett ➝ A Girl Returned Donatella Di Pietrantonio ➝ The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Novel) Holly Ringland ➝ Lying Beside You Michael Robotham (2022) ➝ Separate Tracks Jane Rogers ➝ Son of Sin Omar Sakr ➝ Austerlitz W G Sebald ➝ Honeybee Craig Silvey ➝ The Ash Museum Rebecca Smith ➝ The Switherby Pilgrims Eleanor Spence ➝ Mothering Sunday (book) Graham Swift ➝ The Broken Shore Peter Temple ➝ The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey (2) ➝ Tattycoram Audrey Thomas ➝ Lily: A Tale of Revenge Rose Tremain ➝ The Strangers Katherena Vermette ➝ The Wide, Wide World Susan Warner ➝ The Nowhere Child Christian White ➝ The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde ➝ The Yellow Papers Dominque Wilson ➝ Swallow the Air Tara June Winch ➝ The Lost Girls of Willowbrook Ellen Marie Wiseman (5) ➝ Coal River Ellen Marie Wiseman (3) ➝ Bridge of Clay Markus Zusak ➝ Back to Top

Radio & Podcast Childen locked away: Britain's modern bedlam Slow News 2023 A disturbing story by UK journalist Louise Tickle on the distressed and vulnerable children in England who are, ostensibly, locked up and denied their liberty to protect them whereas there aren’t sufficient regulated therapeutic places for the children. For example, 12-year-old Becky is being held in a psychiatric facility. She is locked in a room and the only people she sees are the staff who bring her food and put it through a hatch. Becky is safe, but most people responsible for Becky think the environment is totally unsuitable for her. External Website

Television Shows Grimm ​ 2011 Grimm (2011-2017) is an American police procedural with a Grimms’ Fairy Tales fantasy element. Set in Portland, Oregon, the story follows homicide detective Nicholas Burkhardt (David Giuntol) who was raised in the kinship care of his aunt Marie Kessler (Kate Burton). As his aunt nears death, she tells him he is descended from guardians called Grimms whose responsibility it is to keep the peace between humanity and the Wesen, or mythological creators. ‘Gifted’ with the ability to see the Wesen, Nick must cope with this knowledge while continuing to do his job as a detective. External Website

Children's Fiction Walk Two Moons Sharon Creech 2019 Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle, proud of her country roots and the "Indian-ness in her blood," travels from Ohio to Idaho with her eccentric grandparents. Along the way, she tells them of the story of Phoebe Winterbottom, who received mysterious messages, who met a "potential lunatic," and whose mother disappeared. As Sal entertains her grandparents with Phoebe's outrageous story, her own story begins to unfold—the story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose only wish is to be reunited with her missing mother. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton 1999 The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-Tsix, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders--the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has led a peripetatic childhood in kinship care, foster care and boarding school. External Website

Behind the Scenes Carl Hancock Rux ​ ​ Carl Hancock Rux is an American poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, actor, director, singer-songwriter. He was born in New York and guardianship was assigned to his maternal grandmother. When she died, four year old Carl entered the foster care system until guardianship was again transferred to relatives. Carl Hancock Rux is the author of several books including the Village Voice Literary Prize-winning "Pagan Operetta," the novel, Asphalt, and the Obie Award-winning play, Talk. Rux is also a singer/songwriter with four CDs to his credit, as well as a frequent collaborator in the fields of dance, theater, film, and contemporary art. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Doris Duke Award for New Works. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Stepping Up Sarah Turner 2023 Stepping Up is Sarah Turner's debut novel. It is the heartwarming story of Beth whose life is irrecovably changed when she takes in and becomes the guardian for her niece and nephew because of a family tragedy. External Website

Films/Videos Steve Jobs ​ 2015 The Apple computer company founder, Steve Jobs, was adopted as a baby. In this film, Steve Jobs is portrayed by Michael Fassbender and is a based on the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. The film tells the story of Steve Jobs' life and development of the portable computer around the launch of 3 products - the Apple Macintosh in 1984, the black cube by NeXT in 1988, and the iMac in 1998. External Website

Academic Articles The politics of good intentions and what I’ve learned from Romania’s ‘orphans’ Mariela Neagu 2021 A history of child protection (yet to be written) would reveal a history of good intentions that often led to abuse, lost childhoods and struggling adults. The children sent to Australia and Canada after the First World War until the late 1960s or placed into adoption against their mothers’ will (as in Philomena’s story) are such examples. External Website

Actors Rosie Perez ​ ​ Rosa María Perez (born September 6, 1964) is an American actress, choreographer and community activist. Her mother Lydia Perez spent time in and out of jail. Perez’s mother gave birth to her youngest child while incarcerated. Rosa was for a time raised by an aunt and then like her siblings went through group homes and foster care. Her and her siblings were often split up. She was then transferred to a group foster home and lived in foster care in New York and Peekskill until age eight, and was still legally considered a ward of the State of New York until age twelve. Her mother and aunt frequently visited, and her father made an unsuccessful custody bid at one point. When she was in third grade, Perez learned that she had a speech impediment. She had a strict Catholic upbringing, which she has credited to the influence of the nuns during her childhood. She eventually moved in with paternal aunt, Ana Dominga Otero Serrano-Roque, and attended Grover Cleveland High School, in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens. Her mother died of AIDS-related complications in 1999. When her mother died she was living in poverty in Queensbridge houses. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Nine Clouds Amanda Gargula 2010 Amanda tells the story of her time in the Moralta Childrens Home, in a cottage home and on her own after she left state care. External Website

Television Shows The Changeling (TV horror series) ​ 2023 The Changeling (2023) is an American horror series (Appl) adapted from a novel by Victor LaValle. According to Mike Hale in The New York Times: “A changeling is what a fairy or demon or troll leaves behind when it kidnaps a human baby…”The Changeling” on Apple TV+ is about what happens when a mother comes to believe, perhaps correctly, that the tiny thing she is caring for is no longer her baby.” The mother, Emma “Emmy” Valentine (Clark Backo), is an orphan who grew up in kinship care. External Website

Films/Videos Blonde ​ 2022 Blonde (2022) is based on Joyce Carol Oates' 2000 novel of the same name and tells the story of Marilyn Monroe's difficult childhood and rise to fame. Reviews have been mixed, with Mark Kermode (The Guardian) at one end of the spectrum describing it as "a gothic melodrama, a fever dream of childhood trauma" while at the other end, Joyce Carol Oates was reportedly delighted with it. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Ruth Elizabeth 1853 Ruth is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in three volumes in 1853. Ruth Hilton is an orphaned young seamstress who catches the eye of a gentleman, Henry Bellingham, who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. When she loses her job and home, he offers her comfort and shelter, only to cruelly desert her soon after. External Website

Cartoons Not so broken - The Fostering Network ​ 2017 This short, moving animation, and accompanying book, was launched alongside an exhibition showcasing artistic work produced in a wide range of media by over 100 children and young people in foster care across Northern Ireland. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience After Anne Logan Steiner 2023 In After Anne, Logan Steiner explores "the story behind the story", the story of Canadian Lucy Maud Montgomery who gave us the delighful and enduring character, Anne of Green Gables. The novel is a tribute to Montgomery, revealing the hidden challenges faced by Montgomery during her life while also celebrating her work. External Website

Performing Arts Professor Green Professor Green ​ Stephen Paul Manderson (born 27 November 1983), better known by his stage name Professor Green or simply Pro Green, is a British rapper, songwriter and television personality from London. Growing up on a council estate in east London, Stephen was raised by his grandmother, great-grandmother and uncles. Green went on to become a multi-platinum artist, with 3.5 million combined sales in the UK. He is the former co-host of Lip Sync Battle UK on Channel 5. His autobiography featured on the Times bestseller list, and he is the patron of the suicide prevention charity Calm. External Website