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A name mispronounced, a laugh shared, and then the door opens onto a life where books were the only safe room in the house. We sit down with author and playwright Alan Dapré—63 children’s books and counting—to explore how a childhood in care, a brutal boarding school, and one compassionate nun shaped a creative practice built on dignity, humour, and hope. Alan takes us from libraries that felt like lifelines to Radio 4 plays about leaving care and ageing in care, and he shows how a single line—why be ordinary when you can be extraordinary—can become a working philosophy for kids who’ve been told to shrink.

The heart of the conversation is Max, a rescue dog with a rough first year who became the star of a tender picture book. Max’s history (passed around, frightened, trigger-stacked) mirrors what many children carry, and his transformation under love becomes a simple, blazing point: you are not your past; you are how you’re held now. We talk about reading in the age of tablets, vanishing libraries, and why a toddler lost in a page world is still radical. Alan brings craft insights, too—why writing what you know isn’t a cage but a compass, and how cutting a line can make room for an actor to say everything with one word.

Then comes a poem that stops time. Sixteen marks a cliff edge for too many young people in care—support drops, risk rises, and “corporate parenting” sounds like a bad joke when homework is done on a stool beside leaky pipes. From there we get practical: the perils of profit in placements, the need for local capacity, and a one-line banner anyone can carry—real homes for real kids. We also share our 10K-a-day fundraiser to build a proper platform for fostering stories that recruit new carers, one short, shareable clip at a time.

If you care about children, books, or building a fairer system, this conversation will stay with you. Listen, share it with someone who needs a nudge to act, and leave a review so more people can find these stories.

For those interested in what Palliative care looks like at home there is "The Last Kiss" (Not a Romance)
Available on Amazon now
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Kiss-Romance-Carers-Stories/dp/1919635289/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13D6YWONKR5YH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._59mNNFoc-rROuWZnAQfsG0l3iseuQuK_gx-VxO_fe6DLJR8M0Az039lJk_HxFcW2o2HMhIH3r3PuD7Dj-D6KTwIHDMl2Q51FGLK8UFYOBwbRmrLMbpYoqOL6I5ruLukF1vq7umXueIASDS2pO91JktkZriJDJzgLfPv1ft5UtkdQxs9isRDmzAYzc5MKKztINcNGBq-GRWKxgvc_OV5iKKvpw0I5d7ZQMWuvGZODlY.fqQgWV-yBiNB5186RxkkWvQYBoEsDbyq-Hai3rU1cwg&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+last+kiss+not+a+romance&qid=1713902566&s=books&sprefix=The+Last+kiss+n%2Cstripbooks%2C107&sr=1-1