Category Archives: Orphan Lit

The Doll Funeral by Kate Hamer

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Rosie Canning

Kate Hamer grew up in Pembrokeshire and has recently been awarded a Literature Wales bursary. Her bestselling novel The Girl in the Red Coat was a no 3. Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the Costa First Book Award, the … Continue reading →

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The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Rosie Canning

Book Review by Dee Michell The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman is a horror story! Set in Philadelphia during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, 13-year-old German migrant Pia Lange is left with her 4-month old twin brothers after her mother … Continue reading →

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Oi, You F*cker by Snowball

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Rosie Canning

Book Review by Dr Dee Michell Oi, You Fucker is the story of Snowball’s experience in the English state ‘care’ system from the time he was a baby in 1965 until he left at the age of 16. The title comes … Continue reading →

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Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

Posted on August 5, 2018 by Rosie Canning

Bitter Orange opens with Frances Jellico incarcerated, dying of an unnamed wasting disease though whether she is in a hospital, an asylum or prison is not clear. Only Victor, her friend, the once vicar of Lyntons parish visits, hoping she … Continue reading →

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The Orphans by Annemarie Neary

Posted on November 5, 2017 by Rosie Canning

Annemarie Neary’s novels are The Orphans (2017) and Siren (2016), both from Hutchinson/Windmill Books, and A Parachute in the Lime Tree (2012) from The History Press Ireland. Her short stories have been published in many places in Ireland, the UK … Continue reading →

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PhD Block?

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Rosie Canning

Doing a PhD is very much a self-directed, self-disciplined experience. I write words on a page hoping they will fuse and one day create a novel about a care leaver managing her life from sixteen to eighteen in the late … Continue reading →

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Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Rosie Canning

Two grand old houses, inhabited by the Nivens and the Sheringhams, who between them lost four sons in the great war. It was March 30th 1924. It was Mothering Sunday. Milly had her mother to go to. But the Nivens’ … Continue reading →

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Top Twelve Reads 2016

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Rosie Canning

My plan at the beginning of 2016 was to read Orphan Lit and review it. Here are some of my favourite reads, in no particular order, some reviewed and some not, from last year and nearly all of them feature … Continue reading →

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The Girl With All the Gifts by Mike Carey

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Rosie Canning

Every morning, ten year old, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks … Continue reading →

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The Fish Ladder by Katharine Norbury

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Rosie Canning

Following the miscarriage of a much-longed-for child, Katharine Norbury sets out – sometimes accompanied by her *nine-year-old daughter, Evie – with the idea of following a river from the sea to its source. The luminously observed landscape provides both a … Continue reading →

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