Across Mountains, Land And Sea

"I remember being there in that unfamiliar classroom, 14 years old, in my strange new shoes and even though I could not speak English, I knew the children were asking me 'Who are you? Where are you from?',

And I remember thinking 'how could I ever tell them?',

When Mir was 13, the Taliban attacked his village in the mountains and he was forced to flee for his life, He was separated from his family and braved wolves, bandits and war, as he walked for weeks until he reached Turkey, He barely survived the hazardous boat crossing to Europe - a stranger's hand the only difference between him becoming a statistic - and eventually found himself arriving in Dover, clinging to the underside of a lorry, There, for the first time in months, an adult showed him kindness and he broke down,

Mir began school illiterate, speaking no English, but discovered a passion for books and learnt astonishingly quickly, getting GCSEs, A-levels and making it to university, As an adult he has worked in refugee camps and advised governments and charities on their policies towards displaced children, trying to make sure that no child will ever have to go through what he did,

'There are millions of children around the world who are forced to flee their homes and their families, They cannot tell their stories, But I can, When that stranger reached down into the water and pulled me back into the boat, they gave me the chance to have a story, I want this book to help others have one,'

This is an unforgettable story about hope, about the transformative power of education, about a child looking for a place of kindness who finally found it and who has dedicated his life to helping children like him, It is a story of astonishing bravery, which offers a vision of hope for what humans beings can be for each other in our moments of greatest need,