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Our Chancellor’s poetic look at our treatment of children without parents

04 Oct 2016

Lemn Sissay tells his Origin Stories on BBC Radio 4

Lemn Sissay

Following the success of Lemn Sissay's Homecoming, our Chancellor returns to BBC Radio 4 with Origin Stories, a comic and poetic look at the treatment of children raised in care, orphans and foster children in popular culture, comparing them with reality.

It surely says something about how we view them that we create so many for fiction: Batman was an orphan; Lisbeth Salander, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was an orphan; Superman was an orphan and a foundling. Cinderella was a foster child. Darth Vader - well, they can't all be winners.

Poet Lemn - who grew up in care himself - will explore the gap between fiction and reality, based on his own experiences of growing up in care as well as those of some special guests.

To listen

To listen to the programme, visit: