Download from Smashwords (eBook) Amazon Sam Smith books Category:  Mainstream Publisher: Smashwords Type: Fiction Pages: 252 Copyright: Dec 12 2002 ISBN-13: 9781311450494 Price: $4.95 (eBook) Based on my experience of working in 'Care', all of my royalties are being sent directly to Child Aid Direct. The book is life-changing. But don't take my word for it. "The Care Vortex is a vitally important book. It should be read by anyone who has responsibility for children and young adults, whether they be parents, teachers, care workers, police, administrators ... it's all too easy in environments of near-isolation - family homes, care institutions, schools - to sweep the truth (and the children) under the carpet." Neil Marr: author of 'Bullycide: Death at Playtime' Chapter Three: Introducing The First Of The Girls Barry leans backwards as he walks: compensatory fat man posture. When he gets out of the bath these days he can slap his hands on the sides of his stomach. It doesn't hurt. He does it to test it: all his flesh feels remote from him, padded out by deadening layers of fat. His personality is the bouncy smaller man he once was, not this ponderous roly-poly. The bridge gate is a small picket gate with a pull back latch. He has to rest his underbelly on the gate's spikes to open it. Curtains of all the bedrooms are drawn. No broken windows. Everything he is doing makes significant noise, draws attention to himself - tinkle of the latch, his tread on the boards... This is the smell he associates with work - dry creosoted timber and weedy damp rising off the sluggish stream. Una is crouched among a clump of irises on the bank. She, of course, would be up. Her bent spine knuckles out the white tee-shirt. Crudely cut and crudely coloured red hair flops down about her face. "Hi Una!" he calls. Her white face rotates towards him. She looks at him with eyes of stone. "Nice morning," Barry says, neutral, not too loud to wake the others; and he passes above her. She turns slowly back to the irises. What's she got hidden there? Aerosols? Booze for the others? Whatever it is, it'll be moved now that he's seen her. Inside his trouser pocket he exchanges his car key bunch for the office bunch. Behind the flat iris stems, beyond the white fleshy underparts of other streamside plants, something darkly moves. "Hi Una!" All goes still, waiting. The voice has stilled even the shadows. Reluctantly, and with effort, Una makes herself look around. Fat Barry is crossing the bridge, a double echo in each of his steps. Drum drum. Drum drum. He says something else. Then Drum drum. Drum drum. The light is behind him. The light is therefore behind her. She looks back into the iris thicket. Deep in the thicket, between the green sword blades and the rounded stems, something has darkly moved. Profile : Una Davenport Age : 13 Mother : Cynthia Green Father : Roger Davenport Siblings : Brothers(11)(9) Stepsister(15) Ethnic origin : Anglo/Italian History : Una phys. abused by her natural father, Roger Davenport, from birth until age 8. Mother & brothers also beaten by him. Mother put herself and children in refuge. Roger Davenport shot himself. When Una 10 m. remarried - Stephen Green, a divorcee with custody of his daughter, Helen. 1 yr after marriage Helen disclosed sexual abuse by her father. Una too had been sexually abused by Stephen Green. Mother, Cynthia Green, committed suicide, overdose. Una was reported for truancy prior to mother's marriage to Stephen Green. Also twice cautioned for shoplifting. Taken into care after mother's suicide. In foster home repeatedly cut arms & face, took o.d. paracetemol, absconded x 2, was found 2nd time living in flat of Adam Trison. Pornographic photographs and video of Una found. Una is also known to sniff. Moved out-of-county after suspected arson at last children's home. Considerations : Una sees herself as victim. (Was bullied by 2 younger brothers.) Early treatment by father consolidated role. Self-esteem low, little insight. Blames herself for mother's death (she disclosed) and for brothers being in Care. She doesn't seek contact with them. Maternal g'parents are in Italy - don't want contact. Helen, in a stable foster placement, tries to keep in touch. Una doesn't respond. Has difficulty forming or sustaining relationships. Cautions : Loner, sniffer, cutter; arson, suicide risk. No contact with Stephen Green or Adam Trison. (Court cases against Stephen Green and Adam Trison pending.)

by Gillian Davis - Wales
'Now and then a book comes along that can never be forgotten, a book whose characters touch you deeply and remain in your memory. A story that shocks you into thinking about something you had never considered or completely changing your previous perceptions.The Care Vortex by Sam Smith is such a book.... The Care Vortex is fast paced, interesting and believable. The characters are all too human, people like you and I. Ordinary people trying to deal with unimaginable events.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, without reservation. It is not an easy book to read, because of the subject and the issues raised in it. When Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist he was criticised for using criminals and prostitutes, in writing about subjects that were considered taboo. Yet Oliver Twist is now regarded as a classic, not only an excellent story, but a book that changed attitudes and made people wake up and take notice. Perhaps one day the same thing will be said of The Care Vortex.
If you want to read a book that will lull you to sleep at night, this book is not for you. It is no Little Orphan Annie with pretty pig-tailed children and fairy tale endings. Those trapped in the Care Vortex are damaged, the details harrowing. But for all that, it is a story of heroism, of people reaching out to each other and trying to overcome what has been done.'