The World According to Bob

In his follow up to A Street Cat named Bob, James Bowen has written yet another successful book in The World According to Bob.

James writes with searing honesty about his life before Bob found him and helped him to turn his life around. Life on the streets is not easy at the best of times, but for a man coming out of 10 years of drug abuse, homeless with no money, life must have seemed an ever-downward spiral for James. Meeting Bob in 2007 and his life began a dramatic turnaround as people warmed to the man on the streets with the ginger cat draped around his shoulders.

James doesn’t shy from telling the brutal truth about how hard it is for anyone living on the streets, the jealousies that arose because of the success of A Street Cat named Bob and the petty lengths people went to in order to bring him down.

I really enjoyed James’ second book; I read it in a couple of days and if I hadn’t had to eat, sleep or do anything of the other things that fill my day, I would have laid on the sofa and just read it until it was finished. It is an un-put-down-able book. My heart was in my mouth on several occasions as James recounts various incidents where people try to menace him or rob him. There is one notable occasion near the end of the book where Bob actually saves James’ life and inflicts a lot of damage on the would-be mugger.

We all know that cats and dogs enhance our daily lives, but do we know the lengths a cat will go to in order to protect the person it loves? Bob stands by James through thick and thin, in all weathers, meeting and greeting tourists and office workers daily. Their lives are totally entwined like Morecambe and Wise, Ant and Dec, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.

James is a unique individual who is mindful of the fact that many people have helped him to reach where he is now. He appreciates organisations like the Blue Cross and he donated a sum of money to help boost their funds as a way of thanking them for the many times they helped him with Bob. He has employed an accountant because he now earns enough money that he has to pay taxes. When you live on the streets you don’t feel as if you are part of society; if anything, you feel as if you’re on the fringe of society and that people look down on you. James wants to feel part of society so he’s happy to pay taxes because that is one thing that people can’t look down on him now; he was spat at, looked down on and had horrible comments made to his face when he was busking and when he was selling The Big Issue. With two successful books (A Street Cat named Bob has been translated into 26 different languages!) under his belt James can hold his head up high and he says he owes it all to the love and affection of one wise ginger cat called Bob.     

Bob has been with James for 6 years now and is approximately 7 years old. Let’s hope that they have many more years together because I really want to hear more of their adventures on the streets of London.

Well done James, another brilliant book.

Written in hardback, it is available from Hodder and Stoughton at www.hodder.co.uk or www.amazon.co.uk , www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com The ISBN number is: 978 – 1- 444 – 77755- 0

It’s also available as an e-book and digital download.    

• < Prev
• Next >