Author, Designer & Publisher Andrew Buller's Work With Catching Lives

Andrew Buller‘s Work

For Catching Lives

Empowering the Disadvantaged

Between 2014 and 2019 I worked at Catching Lives, a homeless charity in Canterbury. The charity work tirelessly caring, supporting and re-empowering some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable within our society. They have a wonderful vision “of a society where all are included and all, no matter how disadvantaged, can make a contribution.”

It has been an absolute privilege to work with and get to know the clients, staff and volunteers at Catching Lives. I would encourage anyone who felt able to support their work, either in time, financially or both, to do so.

Literature for Life

I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to use my skills as a writer, illustrator and book designer to support the work and vision of Catching Lives in building the literacy skills and self-esteem of our clients. The centre received European Union funding from the “Literature For Life” project to support this work on literacy, together with partners in France, Spain and Italy.

I worked with clients on each step of the story writing process from the initial brainstorming of ideas, to focusing on the ideas that resonated with them. We looked at characters, settings and possible plots before embarking on the story-boarding process. We took these story-boards into drafting our stories and planned illustrations to accompany the text.

We visited the locations of our settings in the Canterbury area to help with our descriptions. The places chosen have been guided by those that are important to our homeless community and many feature in the incredibly moving “A Walk in Our Shoes” guide to Canterbury written by the homeless of Catching Lives.

We undertook considerable historical research for the characters and time period used in the books. This research included the work of Dick Sheppard for the homeless in London and Canterbury who inspired our clients.

Our Creative Journey

These many facets have led to the development of the Harbledown book series. The carousel below give a flavour of our creative journey.

Workshops & Presentations

I have delivered many creative writing workshops and presentations relating to my work with Catching Lives. This has included facilitating workshops for our European Erasmus partners, presenting at a literary festival in France and delivering to NHS practitioners on the importance of creativity for mental health and well-being.

I would be delighted to share all about this inspiring project with your organisation, as I have done with many groups already.

FULL LIST OF AUTHOR TALKS >

Harbledown Book Series

All profits from the sale of these books goes directly to Catching Lives homeless charity.

Harbledown Hope

A story of a young orphaned fox’s traumatic journey through Canterbury. It is a story of hardship, pain, loss and discrimination, but through friendship, courage and sacrifice, comes hope. It draws upon the challenges and experiences faced by the homeless.

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Harbledown Heal

The follow-up to Harbledown Hope – continuing to share in a fox’s traumatic journey, drawing on experiences faced by the homeless who have written and illustrated this book. It is a story of hardship, but through friendship, courage and sacrifice, healing can be found.

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