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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Bryans At the age of four, because of the Easter bombings in May 1941, we were bombed out of our beautiful home and evacuated to a farm thirty miles north of Belfast, Northern Ireland. A year or so later, we returned and lived in a very deprived area in the city. My father, an old soldier, was an alcoholic who smoked in the region of a thousand cigarettes a week, so, the cupboards were bare and family life broke down. My mother had little or no money for food, or even necessary items. I became something of a problem child and was convicted of theft for stealing food. They put me in the care of an extremely tough children’s home until the age of sixteen. Because of the problems in my early life, I never did smoke or drink and at the age of twenty-six, married my wife and we subsequently went into fostering and did it for many years along with our six children. We finally retired over forty-five years later. My experiences gave me a lot of insight and I felt that I had a story that needed to be told, that’s why I wrote my book; ‘So you think you want to Foster.’ It all takes place in the United Kingdom, the main characters are, My wife June, myself, and our children. We all had to deal with the daily events and or the traumas that sometimes arose. The central topic of course is Fostering and the problems that arise for your family while doing this sort of work. It highlights the need to recognise that when you become Foster Parents, your children also do a large part of the Fostering.

Readers of my book, if they have already fostered children, will see and recognise some of the problems that can arise. Those who haven’t fostered, including workers, will hopefully be able to recognise that going into fostering isn’t exactly for the faint hearted. In today’s society, because of the escalation of violence and immigration, there are so many more children who need what a family has to offer, and with large numbers of unattached children arriving through Immigration, it means that there is an increase on top of the normal demand for carers. Fostering is usually seen as people being so kind and caring for these poor little unfortunate children. I haven’t come across a book like mine that deals with kids who bring their own bag and baggage, quite often to the distress of the carers and their children. For anyone going into fostering, I can’t stress enough, the importance of being vigil. The following is a quote from my book and I think it highlights the sort of problem that can arise. ‘And this…this thing,’ June hissed, gesturing at her. ‘She has been going around the campsite telling everyone that you sexually abused your previous twelve-year-old foster daughter and that Sammy, (our fourteen-year-old) made her pregnant and she had to have an abortion.’ ‘Jesus Christ!’ I exclaimed. ‘No wonder I’ve been getting strange looks.’