Dear Friends

We thought it was high time we gave you an update on our most exciting publishing year to date at Eye Books (non-fiction) and Lightning Books (fiction).

• In June Eye published A Raindrop in the Ocean, a racy, philosophical memoir in which Michael Dobbs-Higginson looks back on on his extraordinary journey from farmer's son in the Rhodesia bush to Zen Buddhist monk to investment banker. He featured in a compelling BBC World Service interview and was described by a journalist from the paper CityAM as “perhaps the most interesting person I’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing”. Watch a two-minute video trailer here.
• This month Lightning publishes The Shifting Pools, a dark, lyrical novel by Zoë Duncan in which a woman who has lost her family through war many years ago grapples with the disturbing dreams which are the product of her trauma. "This is a very strong debut that I highly recommend you look out for,” says the influential blogger Lonesome Reader, who describes the book as “beautiful and heart-rending”. Watch a 90-second trailer here.
• This month we also publish The Pinocchio Brief, the debut whodunnit by lawyer-turned-crime-writer Abi Silver. Accused of the murder of one of his teachers, a 15-year-old schoolboy refuses to speak to his lawyers, and a revolutionary lie-detecting device, nicknamed Pinocchio, is used at his trial for the first time. This exciting novel has been named by the Sunday Times Crime Club as one of its July picks.

​Meanwhile Simon Edge’s The Hopkins Conundrum has been enthusiastically reviewed by The Spectator, the Daily Express, Attitude, the Press & Journal, the Bookbag, Buzz magazine and RTE radio, and Douglas Board, author of the timely political satire Time of Lies, continues to garner ringing endorsements: former Spectator editor Matthew d’Ancona calls it “my book of the moment”.

On a sombre note, we were devastated to learn of the death in a road accident of our friend and colleague Simon Fenton, author of Chasing Hornbills and Squirting Milk at Chameleons. Read an obituary here.

Do visit our website where you’ll find details of our full list, and please also follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

Very best from all the team.