Founder of Burnley's Church on the Street Pastor Mick Fleming has Amazon best-selling memoir translated into French

Pastor Mick Fleming travelled to Paris last fortnight after a French media company bought the rights to translate and release his book Blown Away: From Drug Dealer to Life Bringer.

The Burnley pastor, who spent four days in the country, also had “a profound experience” when preaching to thousands of people who began “breaking down” at Paray-le-Monial, nicknamed the City of the Sacred Heart.

He said: “The lady who translated the book had a profound experience with it. She got a lot of peace from it and said it changed her life.

"All the people working on it said they have been touched by it.

"There was also a huge gathering and I spoke to thousands of people there. I had interpreters who started crying as I was speaking, then the crowd started crying and breaking down. It was a profound experience. It was very powerful. I’ve never preached to that many people before. I’m happy: it was amazing.”

Pastor Mick’s memoir tells of his journey from being a drug addict and dealer to finding God and setting up Church on The Street in Hammerton Street, a homelessness charity supported by Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The pastor first shot to fame in December 2020 when 50 million people watched a BBC news report about his work delivering food and necessities like fridges and beds to desperate Burnley families struggling with poverty, loneliness and mental illness during the pandemic.

His book was published in the UK by SPCK and was the company’s “biggest book last year” as well as being an Amazon bestseller three or four times. The translated version will be released in several French-speaking countries, including Belgium, Switzerland and in North Africa.

Speaking about its success, the charity founder added: "You can’t make it up. It’s really shocked me. It speaks to people on a deeper level. You don’t have to have experienced what I’ve been through as the feelings are the same: we all get lost at one time or another. It’s that human story people have gravitated to.

“It means a lot to me. The book has a message of hope and tells people there is something else out there that’s bigger than your problems.”