It’s finally happening: after many months of tireless work from my agent and rights manager, Lightborne has officially found a home in my home country with Pegasus Books! While it’s available to pre-order in the US now, you can look for it in bookstores from October 22, 2024.
As soon as my agent gave me the good news, I realized there was something very familiar about the name Pegasus. Like many of my anecdotes, it all starts with my dad and his ever-expanding collection of books.
Cast your eyes across the innumerable spines packed higgledy-piggledy into Dad’s groaning, sagging bookcases, and two things will surely stand out to you: one, that nearly every book has something to do with history, and two, that the Pegasus logo appears over and over again. Turns out, my dad is one of their most dedicated customers. He likes to describe himself as a history buff – though “fanatic” might be a more accurate word – and for just about every notable person, important event, place or people you can think of, there’s a book or two in Pegasus’ catalogue. On any given weekend morning, you may find old Dad planted in the history section of one of his local bookstores, flipping through some massive tome about a medieval Venetian cartographer or the life of Hannibal or the beef between Andrew Mellon and Winston Churchill. Only rarely does he walk out with his wallet unscathed. I’m fairly sure that some of the booksellers in southwestern Pennsylvania are only keeping the lights on thanks to his patronage.
I also have a few Pegasus titles on my shelves, like the thoroughly enjoyable and informative A Journey Through Tudor England by Susannah Lipscomb, Paul Strathern’s indispensable The Other Renaissance, and Living Like A Tudor by Amy Licence, which paints a vivid sensory portrait of the time period I anachronistically refer to as “mine.” Pegasus also publishes a brilliant selection of fiction titles by trail-blazing authors like Andrea J. Buchanan, Henriette Lazardis, Neil Jordan, Elizabeth Freemantle, and J.R. Thorpe, all of whom are redefining the historical genre.
It’s humbling and exciting to see my own name listed alongside luminaries like these. But naturally, nothing brings me more pleasure than to imagine Dad walking into one of his favorite bookstores on a Saturday morning and seeing a copy of Lightborne there on the shelf, in its gorgeous new American jacket.
(Dad, if you’re reading this, when the time comes: DON’T BUY IT. You’ll be getting a free copy!)
And now – for now – it’s back to gearing up for the UK launch on 2nd May. There will be an event scheduled in London to celebrate Lightborne’s birthday. More details to come!
HESSE PHILLIPS 