Little Big Man

Product Information

Born in Wigan to an Ethiopian mother, Lemn Sissay was placed in foster care as a baby, and sent aged 12 to the first of a series of children’s homes. Later, while piecing together his origins, he discovered that his mother had pleaded for his return and been denied by social services. Sissay has spoken out about his care experience and its many traumas throughout his career as a poet and broadcaster. Allan Jenkins I came into care when I was 13, due to being homeless,” says Sanna Mahmood. Her care experience in West Yorkshire “was reasonably positive, partly because I was just happy to have a home. Someone gave me a fish-finger sandwich and I was like, I’ve made it.” Leaving care was harder: “The social housing that I got put into was not the best – there were needles all over the floor and blood on the wall – and the support wasn’t always the greatest.” Support for care leavers has since improved, Mahmood says, thanks to new policies from her local authority in Kirklees. Jenny Bagchi

Jacaranda Books have revealed the final cover for Little Big Man, the gripping upcoming memoir from actor Stanley J. Browne. Production editor Kamillah Brandes notes: "The vulnerability of young Stanley is immediately evoked, staring directly at the reader, but his gaze also holds a glimpse of the persistence and determination that helped to make Stanley who he is today." The stories I'm most proud of are ones where I can get an insight into the experiences of individuals, such as this powerful independent woman who fled Eritrea and ended up opening her own salon in Brixton.It destroys you as a person, the amount of anxiety you develop from always expecting something to go wrong in your life,” says Tarell Mcintosh, who became homeless after two local authorities in south London failed to properly care for him. Mcintosh managed to make it to university and now runs a Caribbean restaurant, Sugarcane London, in Wandsworth, but he remains scarred by his experiences. “You just get used to battling with everybody all the time, and you always have your guard up. It’s really horrible.” Siroun Button An intelligent and sensitive child, Stanley descends into a life of crime and drug abuse. During his time spent in various young offender's institutions and prisons he battles with addiction and slowly begins to turn his life around. I was born in the era of forcible adoption – my mother was coerced into giving me up,” says Louise Wallwein. Her adoption broke down when she was nine and she moved through various children’s homes around Manchester until leaving care at 17 – “because I came out as a lesbian and it was a Catholic children’s home”. Wallwein later dramatised her search for her birth mother in the acclaimed one-woman show (later a book) Glue. Chris Wild My care experience was both traumatic and enlightening,” says Johanan Walker, who went into care in east London after she had a baby at 12. “I was challenged with a lot of preconceived ideas and biases by the adults I was around, about whether I could be a mum and make it through against all odds.” Walker managed to hold on to her child and was later able to focus on education, “which saved me,” she says. Now she is a lived experience consultant and the co-founder of calling4gr8ness.org, supporting care-experienced young adults in the creative industries. Sophie Willan In 1963 Browne produced a "Report of a Study Tour of Leprosy Research Centres in India and the East". He mentions visiting Buluba Leprosarium (30 miles from Jinja), where there were 23,000 registered leprosy cases.

Best known for designing clothes for Diana, Princess of Wales, Bruce Oldfield was born in Durham and fostered at 18 months by a seamstress, Violet Masters, who taught him how to sew. From 13, he lived at a Barnardo’s care home in Ripon, North Yorkshire. Chris Fretwell This year I became a finalist for the British Muslim Awards in the Media Achiever of the Year category - and I hope to make a difference every single year with my work.Stanley J. Browne is an actor, and he has been an actor all his life. Born to a Jamaican mother in a London suburb, he began rehearsing for the role of survivor from an early age. From birth he knew nothing but a home filled with love and the vibrancy of a Caribbean culture, but this changes when his mother is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Before joining digital arts platfrom WhyNow as creative director last year, Janet Lee worked for the BBC, where she was the editor of programmes including Imagine and The Culture Show and a producer on Desert Island Discs. Stewart Lee The way I see it, this should be something for people who are going through the system. Where they are, we have been; where we are, they can go,” says Akabusi who, like several others in the room, found his way through by joining the army. “It taught me the middle-class way of life: how to lay a table and make a bed and eat with a knife and fork. These are social graces that help us to move on.”

The 51-year-old says his life changed when his mum was diagnosed with schizophrenia (Image: MyLondon) A decade ago, Clare Gorham was “very much pro” transracial adoption. “I would have said that the only thing a child needs is love,” she says, reflecting on her own experience of being happily adopted by her white family in Wimbledon in 1966. “Now my mindset is slightly different. I still think love is the most important thing. But it’s a bit of a B-movie of an existence. My parents were amazing, but their colour-blind approach wasn’t representative of society’s view of me.” Sylvan Baker Browne trained at the Anna Scher Theatre in North London, going on to win the sole scholarship for men at Mountview Acting Academy in classical theatre. He has performed Shakespeare’s "Othello", and also appears in film, TV and theatre. He is also a singer songwriter and has recorded an album. I would say definitely invest in a ghost writer! Just to help get you started or at the very least help you to put a proposal together. There is a format the industry recognises, so it makes sense to start on the right foot, see it as an investment in yourself. Once you understand the logistics of how to go about things, then the rest will flow. My own “success” happened in spite of my time in care, not because of it. I am not defined by my scars but by the incredible ability to heal. Healing can hurt too. Here are a few organisations for support and information: Become has been supporting and campaigning for children in care and young care leavers since 1985. The Care Leavers’ Association is a national user-led charity aimed at improving the lives of care leavers of all ages. The Fostering Network is the UK’s leading fostering charity; it champions fostering and seeks to create vital change. PAIN – Parents against Injustice is a voluntary organisation, run and funded by volunteers who provide help and support to families caught in the care system. Samaritans is a 24-hour service offering emotional support for anyone struggling to cope. One of the greatest signs of my own sense of independence when I left care was the day I could ask for help when I needed it.Gibson, Mary E. “Browne, Stanley George (1907–1986).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by HCG Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online (accessed September 13, 2006). He said: "We were in a Children's home with other white people, so when you walk in it's a different smell, the food is different, washing powder is different, sheets smell different, your whole world changes. They want to help me and my siblings of course, but when you're torn from your family you just think these strange people have taken us away from my mum. I think of my life in two parts: before I traced my birth family and after,” says former Guardian journalist Hannah-Azieb Pool, who detailed the journey in her memoir My Fathers’ Daughter (republished this year). Pool was adopted from an Eritrean orphanage and lived in Sudan and Norway before coming to the UK aged six. Reconnecting with her birth family in Eritrea in her late 20s “allowed me to realise the multiplicities of who I am, to make connections around inter-country adoption, and the idea that you can belong in multiple places and with multiple families. It’s radically changed who I am.” Lucy Reynolds It’s so important to celebrate the successes,” says Axa Hynes of the photoshoot at the Foundling Museum, “but because there were so many hurdles it can also feel uncomfortable, a distraction from the deep, systemic societal change that has to happen.” Hynes went into care aged 10, fostered by a family friend who had already been giving her family emotional and practical support. “By isolating and highlighting the success of care-experienced people it can become voyeuristic and soothes decision-makers into thinking that meritocracy is real. Instead of celebrating success ‘despite the odds’, we urgently need to improve the odds.” Sanna Mahmood The issues around growing up in care don’t magically stop at 25, just because public policy stops,” says Jim Goddard, who went into care in Liverpool aged three. “They carry on, and people deal with them in various ways.” Goddard is the chair of the Care Leavers’ Association, which focuses on care leavers of all ages – it might help people access their care files, or deal with issues around social isolation. “The level of invisibility of the issues facing young people leaving care has not fundamentally altered in the past 20 years.” Akiya Henry

An intelligent and sensitive child, Stanley descends into a life of crime and drug abuse. During his time spent in various young offender’s institutions and prisons he battles with addiction and slowly begins to turn his life around. Browne was born in London in 1907. He was awarded two scholarships, which covered his education in medicine and theology at Kings College, London. He became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1934, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons the following year. After completing an additional qualification in tropical medicine, he was recruited by the Baptist Missionary Society to work as a medical missionary in what was then the Belgian Congo. I must have been around 7 or 8 years old when this photo was taken. I had the world on my shoulders already at that point," Stanley reflects. "You can tell from my eyes and my facial expression that I was an unhappy camper and wore the thousand-yard-stare at such an early age. I felt switched off from the world and distant." Stanley J. Browne: This memoir touches on many topics that are significant in today’s society mental health, depression, addiction, incarceration, racism, loneliness, recovery, redemption and belonging.Some of his TV appearances include the 2016 Sky Vision production of "Killers: Behind the Myth" in which Stanley played the role of Tracy Burleson. In the same year, he played Taxi Driver Joe in the comedy series "Twisted Tales" a Chanel 4 production. In 2018, Stanley played William Walker in the Sky series called "Someone You Thought You Knew". The view of care leavers is typically: unable to achieve a higher education, expected to fail in life,” says Michelle Brown, who went into care at 11 and was “hugely let down” by her local authorities – she was left on the streets aged 15 after one of her foster carers relocated. “Many of us who stood at the Foundling Museum have had to battle our way through systemic failures and discrimination. Today we stand proud as care leavers and remove society’s stigma.” Brown defied expectations by progressing to university and getting a Masters. She is now a psychodynamic psychotherapist and the director of two companies. Nze Kriss Kezie Akabusi MBE Jenny Bagchi spent time in foster care and unregulated settings as a teenager before experiencing an abrupt end to care at 16. Becoming a young parent motivated her to return to education as an adult. She is now employed by the NHS in Greater Manchester, leading a programme to create trauma responsive communities and organisations and to improve health outcomes and opportunities across the region. She is also a trustee of the charity Pure Insight, which supports young people to have a better care-leaving experience than she did herself. Derek Owusu