Children's writer Mark Haddon has given his support to a book detailing the experiences of asylum-seekers arriving in Oxford, which is being published to coincide with the literary festival.

How the World came to Oxford: Refugees Past and Present features the life stories of refugees who have been helped by volunteers at Asylum Welcome, which is based in Cowley Road.

In his foreword to the book, Haddon, the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and A Spot of Bother, said he was captivated when he saw Rory Carnegie's photographs of asylum-seekers at Modern Art Oxford a couple of years ago.

He added: "Becoming an asylum-seeker is not something that happens to people by accident. We talk of people being forced to flee persecution in their home countries. But the brutal truth is that no-one is forced to flee.

"Fleeing is what you do if you have the guts to leave. Most people stay and hope for the best. But the best rarely happens. If they're lucky, they lie awake at night waiting for the knock on the door. If they're unlucky, they're killed, or tortured, or thrown into prison. "That's the self-possession you can see in these faces. These are people who had the strength to do something most people are incapable of doing, leaving everything behind and starting their lives all over again in a country that often makes this very difficult indeed.

"Read the testimonies and you will understand the vulnerability, too. Some of these people have seen their families, friends and neighbours killed."

Nikki van der Gaag, the book's editor and a trustee of Asylum Welcome, said 2,000 copies were being published by the Oxford Literary Festival and printed by Oxford University Press. Profits from the £10 cover price would go to Asylum Welcome and the linked organisation Refugee Resource.

How the World Came to Oxford is at 6pm on Thursday, March 22, in the Music Room, Christ Church. For further information about Asylum Welcome, visit the asylum-welcome.supanet.com website.