The Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL) has been working on behalf of disadvantaged people – providing care, support and advocacy – for over 75 years. In this heart-warming book, Father Jeff O’Hare introduces us to a range of people who have been helped by or work with the organisation.

BSL executive director Tony Nicholson writes in the foreword: ‘So often we categorise people as “other”, we think of them as somehow different, we push them to the margins and imagine that they are not like us.’

This book goes some way to redressing that, telling the moving and often inspiring life stories of people like David Nyuol Vincent, who survived war, refugee camps and separation from his family in Sudan and Ethiopia and now volunteers with refugee children at the Brotherhood. Others include Simon Mansell from the Choir of Hard Knocks, and Anthony Brennan, whose life was turned around by a Brotherhood traineeship. Reading their stories, it becomes clear that many of these lives have been restricted by unlucky circumstances or events. Organisations like BSL are essential – they contribute, as much as they can, to redressing that imbalance.

All proceeds go to BSL.