It felt like the world and his dog turned out to greet one man and his cat when they recently came to Reading to sign copies of their book.
And their hugely popular guest appearance will also benefit the work of a local homeless support charity.
James Bowden and his cat Bob visited Waterstone’s branch in Broad Street Reading to sign copies of their latest book, The World According to Bob, and left one very special signed copy, much to the lovely surprise of local homeless support charity Launchpad.
Cheryl Dibden events co-ordinator from Waterstone’s contacted Amanda Rose, Launchpad’s marketing manager.
Amanda had already popped into the bookshop to pre-order a signed copy of The World According to Bob to auction for the charity at a later date, raising much needed funds to support people like James, who have been homeless and living in charity-run shelters and misusing drugs to escape from the realities of homelessness.
Cheryl contacted Amanda to say as soon as James and his publishers were aware of Launchpad and the work they do in the town they wanted help as much as they could and donated a dedicated copy of the book to the charity to use for fundraising purposes.
Amanda said: “We’re so grateful to James (and Bob) and his publishers for their support. James is a credit to himself the way he’s turned his life.
“There is usually a trigger or set backs in someone’s life for them to start taking drugs and there also needs to be a trigger to help them stop, for James, Bob was his positive trigger along with a lot of hard work.”
For more details, visit Launchpad’s website.
