Search Results

Authors F Along the way ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2017 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2017. Cora is an orphan character, abandoned by her mother and a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans and she is approaching womanhood, where it is clear even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they take the perilous decision to escape to the North.In Whitehead's razor-sharp imagining of the antebellum South, the Underground Railroad has assumed a physical form: a dilapidated box car pulled along subterranean tracks by a steam locomotive, picking up fugitives wherever it can. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But its placid surface masks an infernal scheme designed for its unknowing black inhabitants. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher sent to find Cora, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom. At each stop on her journey, Cora encounters a different world. As Whitehead brilliantly recreates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America, from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. External Website

Writers Joy Williams ​ 1942-2006 Joy Williams (1942 - 2006) was an Aboriginal Australian author of poetry. A Wiradjuri woman, Joy Williams was born Eileen Williams to Doretta Williams. She was removed from her Aboriginal family at the Erambie Mission at Cowra in New South Wales when she was a tiny baby and taken to Bomaderry Home near Nowra, around 335km south-east of Cowra. At the age of six, Joy was transferred to Lutanda Children’s Home in Wentworth Falls, 228km north of Nowra. After the founder of Lutanda—Florence Dalwood—died in 1949, Lutanda (and Joy Williams) was relocated to an orphanage 90km east of Nowra to suburban Boundary Road, Pennant Hills. During the 1970s Joy Williams enrolled at Wollongong University to do a Bachelor of Arts where she became interested in Black Literature. She also become involved in the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody and in other Aboriginal community groups. Joy Williams’ poetry appears in over 65 publications. External Website

Films/Videos The Changeling (FILM) ​ 1980 The Changeling was a 1980 Canadian horror film. After the tragic death of his wife and daughter, a music professor, John Russell (played by George C Scott) is staying at a Seattle mansion and becomes involved in an old mystery. Investigating the history of his house (which seems to be haunted), John finds out that a boy was murdered there in 1906 by his father. The father then replaced the dead boy with one from an orphanage, then took the lad off to Europe claiming to be seeking a cure for his son’s illness. The adopted boy is now an old man, a US Senator, and patron of the historical society which owns the house where John Russell is living. External Website

Films/Videos The Cider House Rules ​ 1999 The Cider House Rules (1999) is an adaptation of the eponymous book by American writer John Irving. Homer Wells (Toby McGuire) grows up in an orphanage in Maine, run by Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine). Children are treated well at the orphanage. Dr Larch trains young Homer to become an obstetrician. After Larch’s death, Homer Wells returns to the orphanage to become the new director. External Website

Writers Floella Benjamin ​ 1949- Trinidadian-British television presenter, writer, singer and politician, Baroness Floella Benjamin (b. 1949), was in foster care as a child. Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin was born in Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad. She was the second child of Veronica and Roy and remembers a happy secure childhood until her father decided to migrate to England. A year after Roy left, Veronica also left for England and Floella and siblings with left in foster care. When she was 10, and accompanied only by her siblings, Floella made the 15 day trip by sea from Trinidad to England. In 1976, Floella Benjamin became the presenter of Play School. This was the beginning of a long 30 year career in presenting and producing programs for children’s television. She was the first woman of African-Caribbean heritage to be appointed Chancellor of a British university, Exeter University, and served in the role for 10 years from 2006. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors The Queen's Gambit: Walter Tevis 2020 When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there's more at stake than merely winning and losing. External Website

Television Shows The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart ​ 2023 The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is an Amazon series starring Sigourney Weaver and Alicia Debnam-Carey and based on the novel by Australian Holly Ringland. Set in Australia, the series is centred on a flower farm specialising in Australian natives. The women on the farm create bouquets which have a meaning developed over generations. The farm also provides a refuge for women who’ve been battered by men. As well, there is a young woman who was taken in as a baby, and an orphaned girl who is being raised by her grandmother. External Website

Films/Videos Orphans ​ 1987 Orphans is a 1987 American drama film directed by Alan J. Pakula. Written by Lyle Kessler, based on his 1983 play of the same name, the film follows two orphaned brothers as they navigate life on their own. External Website

Poets Poems From a Runaway: A true story Ben Westwood ​ Ben Westwood was born in England and taken under the care of social services as a small child. He then constantly goes missing from foster carers and children's homes. His book, Poems From a Runaway, is a non-fiction real-life account in poetry of Ben Westwoods journey as a child runaway, constantly going missing from home. External Website

Films/Videos The Pale Blue Eye ​ 2022 The Pale Blue Eye (2022) is an American mystery thriller currently showing on Netlix. Set in 1830, retired detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) is asked to investigate the death of a cadet at the West Point military academy. Landor enlists the help of another cadet, Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling). Edgar Allan Poe was in foster care as a child, and he was also at West Point as a young man. There is mention during the movie of the death 20 years previously of his mother (his father had earlier abandoned the family). Poe’s influence has been extensive. For example, his detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, was influential in the development of the detective genre and many of his stories have been adapted for film and television. External Website

Films/Videos Mommie Deariest ​ 1981 An adaptation of Christina Crawford's 1978 memoir, this film depicts American film star, Joan Crawford, as Christina's abusive adoptive mother. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Care Experienced Experienced History Month Care Experienced History Month 2020 April 2021 was the first-ever Care Experienced History Month. The webite includes a wealth of information including blogs on Global Perspectives of the History of Care before 1800, a history of care around the world, stories about Care Experienced people like writers JRR Tolkien and Maya Angelou, reoordings of lectures given throughout the month, and a host of other resources. External Website