ONE MAN AND HIS CAT TRUE STORY OF BUSKER AND THE GINGER TOM CALLED BOB WAS GOT HIS LIFE BACK ON TRACK

Book A Stray Cat Named Bob has sold more than 250,000 copies nLiterary agent who brokered box office hit Marley & Me in film talks for story

A true story by a London busker and former heroin addict about how he got his life back on track thanks to a stray ginger tom cat is to become a film.

James Bowen, 33, whose book A Street Cat Named Bob has scaled best-selling book lists, is in talks with his literary agent who brought Marley & Me, starring Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and a Labrador, to the silver screen.

Mr Bowen first met Bob when he found the stray cat in the stairwell of his block of council flats in Tottenham, North London five and a half years ago. Now, the pair has become famous for their story and Bob is set to become the next Hollywood pet sensation.

The book was first published in March this year and within weeks was top of The Sunday Times list for hardback non-fiction and has sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide, including 160,000 copies in Britain, and is available in 18 languages.

Bob even has his own Twitter account, with some 11,700 followers and there is a blog called Around the World in 80 Bobs where fans post photographs of the book taken in unusual places around the world.

Mr Bowen had struggled with drug addiction, spending three years homeless, before he was given a council flat. He was in the pro- cess of kicking his drug habit with the aid of an NHS recovery program when he met Bob.

He said: ‘I didn’t

I didn’t plan to keep him. I thought he was a street cat. So after three weeks, I tried to set him free

plan to keep him. I thought he was a street cat. So after three weeks, I tried to set him free.’

‘I’d take him outside but he just wouldn’t run away. I would leave for a day’s busking and he’d follow me up the road. Then one day, he followed me all the way onto the bus. The number 73 – he climbed on right after me!’

Mr Bowen decided to take the determined cat busking with him in Covent Garden and before long he was taking home almost three times his usual earnings as the pair attracted more and more fans.

BEST-SELLER: James Bowen’s book about stray cat Bob (pictured together) who he adopted has sold more than 250,000 copies and is being considered for film by the same agent who brokered Marley & Me

‘PEOPLE LOVE SEEING HIM’: The pair turn heads on the street as Bob happily sits on Mr. Bowen’s shoulders

Tripled his earnings: After Bob refused to leave Mr. Bowen alone, he decided to take him busking and before long he was making almost three times his usual earnings as the pair attracted more and more fans