A short book about hope

'Without hope, people can't live.' Mohammed, from Bangladesh

'If you lose hope, you lose everything.' Name unknown, from Iran

'Hope is something you make every day.' Basma, from Libya

I'm writing a short book about hope, in response to many people I've heard say they feel hopeless. I'm doing it because all work for social change depends on hope. I'm trying to write a book that inspires hope, rather than only talks about it, and I plan to extend the project to work with groups on the theme.

Can you help?

I'm not funded to write the book -- I try to work for social change projects for free or for low rates and I live a low-cost lifestyle on a boat to make that possible. All of which means there's no spare money!

Although the manuscript is two-thirds written it's not ready to show a publisher yet, so some friends have encouraged me to fundraise this way for it. They also said that it gives them a chance to have a hand in the book's creation, and I like that idea.

The funds are just to keep me going until I can find a publisher for the book. I'll be really glad to have any amount, if you can afford it. If not, moral support is just as important and matters just as much to me.

(I've written two other books, which were commissioned: Holding Faith: Creating peace in a violent world , and Spectacle Reality Resistance: Confronting a culture of militarism)

[Photo: Painting (detail) by Arvindh Baburam]