James Bowen is a London-based writer and street musician. His books "Bob the Street Cat" and "The World Through the Eyes of Bob the Cat", co-authored with Gary Jenkins, have become international bestsellers.
Childhood
James Bowen was born in Surrey on March 15, 1979. After his parents divorced, he moved to Australia with his mother and stepfather. Family life was stressful, and as the family moved frequently, James was not supervised at school. He was bullied at school, and because of this, he began to sniff glue. During his school years, he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and manic-depressive disorder.
Street life
In 1997 he returned to the UK and went to live with his half-sister. But this did not last long, and very soon Bowen became homeless and began to live on the streets of London. It was during this time that he began using heroin in an attempt to escape the reality of a homeless person. In the spring of 2007, Bowen was enrolled in the methadone program as a Covent Garden earner who lives in public housing in Tottenham.
Meeting with Bob
One evening he returned home and found a ginger cat at the entrance. Assuming that the cat belongs to someone, James simply returned to his apartment. When James spotted the cat on the porch the next day, he became worried and found that the cat had no collar and also noticed an infected wound on his paw. Bowen took the cat to the nearest charity veterinary surgery facility and donated nearly all of the day's money to buy antibiotics. To make sure that the cat went through the full two-week course of treatment and was cured, James decided to take him home until he could find the owner of the animal. When he was desperate to find the owner of the cat, he decided to just let him out, hoping that he would find his way home. But instead, the cat began to constantly follow James, even when he went to work as a street musician on the bus. Concerned that the cat had nowhere to go, James took the cat home forever, naming him Bob after a character from the Twin Peaks television series. Since Bob loved taking James to work, James made a cord from laces and began accompanying him to his regular street concert venues.
The beginning of success
The public reaction to the cat was positive, but later James had to stop playing guitar on the street, as he could have problems with the law. Instead, he found a safer and more legal way to make money - selling the street newspaper The Big Issue. When people started uploading videos of James and Bob to the Internet, tourists began to visit Covent Garden more often, sometimes just to just see James and Bob. It was then that James decided to stop methadone treatment and stop using drugs. He explains his decision by the appearance of Bob and acknowledges his contribution to improving his life, saying: “I believe it all came down to this little creature. He came and asked me for help, and he asked for my help more than my body asked for self-destruction. He is the reason I now wake up every day."
Books and film adaptation
One day, James and Bob's public appearances caught the attention of the Islington Tribune, which first published their story in September 2010. This story was read by Mary Paknos, a literary agent. Mary introduced James Bowen to Harry Jenkins to write a biography of James. Since its first book has sold over one million copies in the UK alone, the book has been translated into over 30 languages (including Russian) and spent more than seventy-six weeks at the top of The Sunday Times bestseller list. Bob the Street Cat and How He Saved My Life was published in the United States on July 30, 2013 and made the New York Times bestseller list at number seven. In 2016, based on this book, the movie "Bob the Street Cat" was released. The book was nominated for the British National Book Award in the popular non-fiction category in November 2012. In March 2014, the book was ranked seventh on the list of most inspiring teen books as part of a poll for World Book Day.
The World Through the Eyes of Bob the Cat continues the story of James and Bob, and also describes the period before James met his literary agent Mary Paknos. The book was released on July 4, 2013 and was featured on The Sunday Times Bestseller Rankings. "Bob: The Unusual Cat" is a version of the book "A Street Cat Called Bob", specially rewritten for children. The book was released on Valentine's Day in 2013. "Bob the Cat: In the Name of Love" is a sequel to the book "Bob the Unusual Cat". As in the first part, the hero will have to endure a lot of trials, but with him will still be his red-haired guardian angel - a cat named Bob. "Where in the world is Bob?" is an illustrated book in which readers must discover Bob and James in scenes around the world. This book inspired readers to write on the blog "Around the World in 80 Beans", where fans of the book photographed the famous cat in various places around the world. The book was published in October 2013. My Name is Bob is an illustrated book for young children, written by James Bowen with Harry Jenkins and illustrated by Gerald Kelly. The book follows Bob's life before he met James. The book was published by Random House in April 2014 in the UK. "A Present from Bob the Cat" is a tale of James and Bob and their last Christmas on the streets together. The book was published on October 9, 2014.
