Read all about it - Fair Trade campaigner Bruce hits Kickstarter target to publish book in autumn

The founder of the international Fair Trade Towns movement is to become a published author after his Kickstarter appeal hits its initial target of £1,900.

Bruce Crowther, who helped lead the way for the Lancashire market town of Garstang to become the world's first Fair Trade Town, launched his appeal on May 31.

The funding will finance publication of a book he has written about the international Fair Trade Towns movement, its origins and expansion and his role in the movement.

Former vet Bruce, 61, from Dolphinholme, had set a target of raising £1,900 in 30 days and the appeal remains open until June 30.

The book is entitled: 'Not in My Lifetime - A Fair Trade Campaigner's Journal'. Bruce, a long standing anti-poverty campaigner, said: "It's just great to think that book is going to be published now and that the story is going to be there forever."

Support came from across the world including from America, Poland, Germany and Majorca as well as the UK. Bruce said he wanted to say "an enormous thank you" to all who responded to the appeal. He said: "The thing I've said to all these people is this is your project, it belongs to us all, it's not just me."

Bruce set up the FIG Tree International Fair Trade Visitor Centre in Garstang which closed amid redevelopment plans for the council owned business and community centre, where it was based. The FIG Tree continues as a campaigning and educational organisation and makes and sells From Bean To Bar Fair Trade chocolate.

The Kickstarter funding will finance, editing, production and an original print run, the size of which will depend on the amount raised. Further copies will then be available to be printed to order.

The book will be published on November 22, the 20th anniversary of Garstang becoming a Fair Trade town. By yesterday evening the Kickstarter fund stood at £2,053. Any profits from sales of the book will go to The FIG Tree, Oxfam and the Lorna Young Foundation.

For details of Bruce's Kickstarter appeal see:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brucecrowther/getting-the-fair-trade-towns-story-into-print

For our report on the launch of the appeal see here .

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