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James Bowen

Born

in Surrey, The United Kingdom

March 15, 1979

Twitter

StreetCatBob

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

James Bowen is an author and musician currently based in London. He is author of A Street Cat Named Bob, which tells his life story.

James Bowen was born in Surrey in 1979. Following his parents’ divorce, he moved to Australia with his mother and stepfather. Home life was tense and, because the family moved frequently, James was unsettled at school. He was frequently bullied, and began sniffing glue while still in education, becoming a self-confessed “tearaway kid” who would later be diagnosed with ADHD, schizophrenia and manic depression. In 1997 he returned to the UK and lived with his half-sister, but this arrangement did not last; in time, he became ho Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

James Bowen is an author and musician currently based in London. He is author of A Street Cat Named Bob, which tells his life story.

James Bowen was born in Surrey in 1979. Following his parents’ divorce, he moved to Australia with his mother and stepfather. Home life was tense and, because the family moved frequently, James was unsettled at school. He was frequently bullied, and began sniffing glue while still in education, becoming a self-confessed “tearaway kid” who would later be diagnosed with ADHD, schizophrenia and manic depression. In 1997 he returned to the UK and lived with his half-sister, but this arrangement did not last; in time, he became homeless and began sleeping on the streets. From this point, James spent almost 10 years either sleeping rough or staying briefly in charity-run shelters; it was during this time that he began to use heroin in an attempt to escape the realities of homelessness.

In Spring 2007, James was enrolled on a methadone programme, busking in Covent Garden, and living in sheltered accommodation in Tottenham. One evening he returned home to find a ginger cat in the hallway of his building; assuming it belonged to another resident, he simply returned to his flat. When the cat was still there the following day, and the day after that, James became concerned and discovered the cat was wearing no collar or ID tag, and had an infected wound on his leg. James checked with other residents to see if the stray belonged to any of them, and when none of them claimed ownership of the animal James decided to help the cat himself.

He took the cat to a nearby veterinary surgery run by an animal charity, which provided antibiotics to treat the infected wound. In order to make sure he received the full two-week course of medication, James decided to take him in for a time while he continued to look for the stray’s owner. When he couldn’t find any information, he released the cat back on to the street, hoping he’d find his own way home. Instead, he began to follow James around, even following him onto the bus when he left to go busking. Concerned that the cat had nowhere else to go, James took him in on a permanent basis, naming him Bob after a character from the television drama Twin Peaks.[3]

Since Bob seemed keen to accompany James to work, he constructed a harness from shoelaces and began to bring him along to his regular spots in Covent Garden and Piccadilly, travelling in the window seat of the number 73 bus. The public reaction was positive and the pair became popular, their visibility increasing still further when James began selling the Big Issue. Soon the public began uploading videos of James and Bob to YouTube, and tourists from across the world would visit Covent Garden to see them. During this time, James decided to withdraw the methadone treatment; he credits his success to Bob, saying “I believe it came down to this little man. He came and asked me for help, and he needed me more than I needed to abuse my own body. He is what I wake up for every day now... he’s definitely given me the right direction to live my life.”

In time, James and Bob’s public appearances attracted the attention of Mary Pachnos, the literary agent responsible for the UK rights to John Grogan’s Marley and Me, who secured the pair a book deal with the publishers Hodder & Stoughton after she heard their story. The book was co-written by Garry Jenkins, and since its publication has sold over 250,000 copies, been translated into 22 languages and spent over 45 weeks at the top of the Sunday Times’ bestseller list in both its hardback and paperback format.

As of November 2012, two further books were at the planning stage - a follow-up to A Street Cat Named Bob, and a version of the book for children. ...more

Combine Editions
James Bowen’s books

Average rating: 4.06 · 81,560 ratings · 8,375 reviews · 49 distinct works • Similar authors

	A Street Cat Named Bob 3.99 avg rating — 61,410 ratings — published 2012 — 150 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The World According to Bob: The Further Adventures of One Man and His Street-wise Cat 4.28 avg rating — 10,971 ratings — published 2015 — 94 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Gift from Bob: How a Street Cat Helped One Man Learn the Meaning of Christmas 4.22 avg rating — 4,971 ratings — published 2014 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bob: No Ordinary Cat 4.25 avg rating — 1,274 ratings — published 2013 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Little Book of Bob: Everyday wisdom from Street Cat Bob 4.10 avg rating — 1,067 ratings — published 2018 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Street Cat Bob: How one man and a cat saved each other's lives. A true story. 4.15 avg rating — 581 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	For the Love of Bob 4.46 avg rating — 467 ratings — published 2014 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Name is Bob by James Bowen, Garry Jenkins, Gerald Kelley (Illustrator) 4.37 avg rating — 435 ratings — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bob, der Streuner & Bob und wie er die Welt sieht by James Bowen, Ursula Mensah (Translator), Carlos Lobo (Narrator) 4.10 avg rating — 180 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Where in the World is Bob? 4.52 avg rating — 61 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by James Bowen…

Series by James Bowen

Bob The Cat (3 books)
by

James Bowen

4.05 avg rating — 77,347 ratings

Bob the Cat: Children's Editions (2 books)
by

James Bowen

4.31 avg rating — 1,741 ratings

Bob the Cat Picture Books (2 books)
by

James Bowen,

Garry Jenkins

4.39 avg rating — 480 ratings

Quotes by James Bowen (?)

“Cats are notoriously picky about who they like. And if a cat doesn’t like its owner it will go and find another one. Cats do that all the time.”
― James Bowen, A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life

60 likes

“Living on the streets of London strips away your dignity, your identity − your everything, really. Worst of all, it strips away people’s opinion of you. They see you are living on the streets and treat you as a non-person. They don’t want anything to do with you. Soon you haven’t got a real friend in the world.”
― James Bowen, A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life

35 likes

“I tried to sneak in without him seeing me. It was a stupid move. He was a cat, he had more senses in one of his whiskers than I had in my entire body. No sooner had I opened the door to the building than he was there squeezing his way in.”
― James Bowen, A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life

29 likes

See all James Bowen's quotes »

Polls

Which nonfiction book would you like to read with us during June and July? Please vote here.

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith

27 votes, 23.1%

A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets by James Bowen

26 votes, 22.2%

The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard

23 votes, 19.7%

The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding by Robert Hughes

19 votes, 16.2%

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

12 votes, 10.3%

Royal Panoply: Brief Lives of the English Monarchs by Carolly Erickson

10 votes, 8.5%

117 total votes

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James Bowen’s Followers (1,078)

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