“An excellent read. Had tears in my eyes.”

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

This month Eye Books publishes A Raindrop In The Ocean, a remarkable memoir of a life well lived.

Born in colonial Africa, Michael Dobbs-Higginson roamed the world as a teenager, working variously as a logger, a docker and an encyclopaedia salesman. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk in Japan and then rose to become an eccentric, kimono-wearing investment banker.

His tales of drug-smuggling, bed-hopping and buccaneering business deals are seen through the prism of an Eastern religious wisdom honed over thousands of years.

Watch a short trailer for A Raindrop In The Ocean here.

And from Lightning Books comes Time of Lies, the second novel from Douglas Board. His previous novel MBA (2015) was a campus comedy. His new book – described by the Guardian as being in “the vanguard of Brexit fiction” – is set in 2020, when Britain has elected its own Donald Trump as prime minister.

Chris Mullin, author of the iconic political thriller A Very British Coup, hails it as “a milestone in dystopian fiction” and “the first post-truth, post-Brexit novel”.

Watch a short trailer for Time Of Lies here.

Download our 2017 trade catalogue

Book(s) of the Month

Green Oranges on Lion Mountain

Discovery Road

only £7.99 each

“In the space of five years, I went from graduating at Harvard
to becoming a psychiatric patient.”

coming soon...

the complete guide

to all things running

new releases

Mission: Possible

A decade of living dangerously

The Shifting Pools

A challenging, dream-like, deeply personal novel

The Pinocchio Brief

A schoolboy accused of a brutal murder. A retired lawyer with secrets to hide.

A Raindrop in the Ocean

Michael Dobbs-Higginson

The life of a global adventurer

Across the West democracy is dying. Profound ignorance and contempt between ruling class and ruled is the cause. Time of Lies crystallises this theme with a satirical focus on the British general election of 2020. It offers echoes of Animal Farm, If and Dr Strangelove.

Jules Mountain has reached Everest Base Camp, within reach of fulfilling his life’s ambition, when the earthquake sets off the avalanche. Something sets him apart from the other surviving climbers: is it that he has already cheated death once before? Does his gung-ho attitude show him to be brave, fatalistic or irresponsible? Will he finally have picked a fight he cannot win?

The Hopkins Conundrum

A tragic comedy about Gerard Manley Hopkins and five shipwrecked nuns

Chasing Hornbills

Chasing Hornbills is Simon Fenton's follow-up to Squirting Milk at Chameleons; the further adventures of the Accidental African

All Will Be Well

Based on his own travels through Africa, Michael Meegan shares his unique and inspiring insights into love, hope, compassion and happiness

Soft Courage is the story, told through the eyes of a soft toy penguin called Yannick, of the adventures of peace activist and mountaineer Tess Burrows

This is the powerful and moving true-life story of a high-flying Harvard graduate who fought a terrifying battle against depression and psychosis

recommended titles

At The Deep End

Morgan Tsvangirai

At the Deep End is the story of a man who, through everything he has endured at the hands of Robert Mugabe's government, has remained committed to working for peace and democracy for all in Zimbabwe, and in the process become a beacon of hope for a beleaguered nation

Chasing Hornbills

Chasing Hornbills is Simon Fenton's follow-up to Squirting Milk at Chameleons; the further adventures of the Accidental African

Andy Brown & Tim Garratt

An inspirational tale of self-discovery, Discovery Road is full of adventure, conflict, danger and a mulititude of colourful characters. All told with refreshing honesty and great humour

Jasmine and Arnica

Nicola Naylor had always been enthralled by India, but her travel fantasies dissolved when she lost her sight

Why is so much of the world Managed By Arseholes? Were they born that way? Did they sweat to achieve it? Or did we send them to special schools to learn?

Riding with Ghosts

Riding with Ghosts is Gwen’s frank but never too serious account of her epic 7,500 mile cycling tour

Niema Ash was one of the first Westerners to enter Tibet when its borders were briefly opened in 1986, visiting at a time when tourists were few

Zohra’s Ladder

Pamela Windo chronicles her love of Morocco and its people in this wondrous collection of true stories, peeling back layers of history, paint, and finely embroidered fabrics to find the truths in the mysterious and the exotic

Blog

Lightning - a new deal for authors

Simon Edge tells the online book trade mag BookBrunch how well he has been served having signed up to Lightning Books to publish his novel The Hopkins Conundrum

Change isn't all bad

For Christine Palmer, the loss of some beloved trees in Burgundy brings unexpected compensations

Jules Mountain, survivor of the 2015 Nepal earthquake who went from being buried alive under snow to summiting Everest last year, gives tips to Shortlist magazine on boosting endurance.

Chess or checkers?

Lightning thriller writer Abi Silver revisits one of her earliest influences, Edgar Allan Poe

Lightning strikes in the trade bible

The Bookseller highlights our Lightning launch at the Gherkin in its pictures of the week

Lightning strikes at the Gherkin

Demonstrating that we're an exciting new player in the world of fiction, we launch our first full list in soaraway surroundings