![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
James Bowen
"A Street Cat Named Bob : How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets" (Hodder & Stoughton)
"Ordinarily, no one would engage or even exchange a look with me. I was a busker and this was London. I didn't exist. I was a person to be avoided, shunned even. But as I walked down Neal Street that afternoon almost every person we passed was looking at me. Well, more to the point, they were looking at Bob... It must have looked slightly incongruous, a tall, long-haired bloke walking along with a large, ginger tom on his shoulders."
This is SUCH a sweet autobiography. It's not the most amazingly written book, it doesn't dazzle you with its exquisite prose - but you know what? Sometimes it's the story that counts, and this is a lovely one. As most of the universe will already know by now, it's about how James, a recently homeless recovering drug addict, finds a bedraggled ginger tom cat in his apartment building and, being the soppy sort, decides to take him in. Initially only intending to help Bob recover from various street-life-induced problems, the pair quickly become inseparable. After a while Bob starts to follow James to his busking gigs and sits by his side while he's working, earning plenty of interest (and extra coins) from passers-by. In turn, caring for Bob gives James a friend, a responsibility, someone to get up for every morning, a lifeline to happiness even during his darkest hours. This is the story of their friendship and how Bob and James changed each other's lives for the better. It's got some really tear-jerking moments, some dark ones and some all-out gorgeous ones, and I loved it. Bob and his little scarf, of course, are now famous around the world, partly thanks to his penchant for riding around London on James's shoulder!
This isn't only a tale of one man and his faithful cat - though of course, Bob is a constant theme from beginning to end - it's also a rather harrowing insight into life on the poverty line. James has been homeless, has been a drug addict, and throughout most of the book is on a methadone program to wean him off heroin. As an official busker in London, he works long days come rain or shine to scrape together enough to live on, and although Bob's presence ups his daily takings it's still not enough if sudden expenses arise. Not only that, but he's constantly vulnerable to attack by the... let's be honest here, the nasty pieces of work that riddle our society... as well as facing prejudice and verbal abuse on a daily basis.
As he starts to pull his life back together (with a little help from his feline friend), his next step is to become a Big Issue seller. This book will hopefully be a huge boost to sellers, because most people, like me, probably have no idea what this actually entails. I had no idea, for example, that for a seller the magazine is like a personal business. When they first become a seller (all sellers are licensed and given a spot to work from) they get a handful of copies for free, but after that it's up to them. Magazines must be bought (for a set price) before they can be sold on (again, at a set price), and stock must be carefully managed to avoid over- or under-buying. When the next issue comes out, some of the profit is used to buy new magazines, and so on. I didn't really know any of this, so I think I'm a lot more likely to be sympathetic to our local sellers and start picking up an issue every now and again!
All in all, this is a great little heart-warming read (especially for my fellow cat lovers). James is now fundraising to pour money back into the Blue Cross, the veterinary charity that helped him out with Bob when money was tight, which makes me like him even more. A bloody good chap - and a VERY cute cat. A word of warning though, have a handkerchief or tissues handy as this will make you cry and beam with joy in equal measure.
"A Street Cat Named Bob : How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets" (Hodder & Stoughton)
"Ordinarily, no one would engage or even exchange a look with me. I was a busker and this was London. I didn't exist. I was a person to be avoided, shunned even. But as I walked down Neal Street that afternoon almost every person we passed was looking at me. Well, more to the point, they were looking at Bob... It must have looked slightly incongruous, a tall, long-haired bloke walking along with a large, ginger tom on his shoulders."
This is SUCH a sweet autobiography. It's not the most amazingly written book, it doesn't dazzle you with its exquisite prose - but you know what? Sometimes it's the story that counts, and this is a lovely one. As most of the universe will already know by now, it's about how James, a recently homeless recovering drug addict, finds a bedraggled ginger tom cat in his apartment building and, being the soppy sort, decides to take him in. Initially only intending to help Bob recover from various street-life-induced problems, the pair quickly become inseparable. After a while Bob starts to follow James to his busking gigs and sits by his side while he's working, earning plenty of interest (and extra coins) from passers-by. In turn, caring for Bob gives James a friend, a responsibility, someone to get up for every morning, a lifeline to happiness even during his darkest hours. This is the story of their friendship and how Bob and James changed each other's lives for the better. It's got some really tear-jerking moments, some dark ones and some all-out gorgeous ones, and I loved it. Bob and his little scarf, of course, are now famous around the world, partly thanks to his penchant for riding around London on James's shoulder!
This isn't only a tale of one man and his faithful cat - though of course, Bob is a constant theme from beginning to end - it's also a rather harrowing insight into life on the poverty line. James has been homeless, has been a drug addict, and throughout most of the book is on a methadone program to wean him off heroin. As an official busker in London, he works long days come rain or shine to scrape together enough to live on, and although Bob's presence ups his daily takings it's still not enough if sudden expenses arise. Not only that, but he's constantly vulnerable to attack by the... let's be honest here, the nasty pieces of work that riddle our society... as well as facing prejudice and verbal abuse on a daily basis.
As he starts to pull his life back together (with a little help from his feline friend), his next step is to become a Big Issue seller. This book will hopefully be a huge boost to sellers, because most people, like me, probably have no idea what this actually entails. I had no idea, for example, that for a seller the magazine is like a personal business. When they first become a seller (all sellers are licensed and given a spot to work from) they get a handful of copies for free, but after that it's up to them. Magazines must be bought (for a set price) before they can be sold on (again, at a set price), and stock must be carefully managed to avoid over- or under-buying. When the next issue comes out, some of the profit is used to buy new magazines, and so on. I didn't really know any of this, so I think I'm a lot more likely to be sympathetic to our local sellers and start picking up an issue every now and again!
All in all, this is a great little heart-warming read (especially for my fellow cat lovers). James is now fundraising to pour money back into the Blue Cross, the veterinary charity that helped him out with Bob when money was tight, which makes me like him even more. A bloody good chap - and a VERY cute cat. A word of warning though, have a handkerchief or tissues handy as this will make you cry and beam with joy in equal measure.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}