Genesis remembers George Harrison with 'poetic autobiography’ from wife Olivia

Genesis Publications has secured Came the Lightening: Twenty Poems For George, a poetry collection by Olivia Harrison dedicated to her late husband George Harrison on the 20th anniversary on his death.  

Managing director Nick Roylance acquired world English rights, excluding paperback, audio and e-book, directly from Harrison. The collection will be published on 21st June.  

The collection includes a foreword from Martin Scorsese, a long-time friend of the former Beatle and director of the 2011 documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World”.

“Olivia evokes the most fleeting gestures and instants, plucked from the flow of time and memory and felt through her choice of words and the overall rhythm,” Scorsese writes. “She might have done an oral history or a memoir. Instead, she composed a work of poetic autobiography.” 

Came the Lightening claims to establish Harrison as a “new voice in poetry” as she examines the intimacy and emotional connection of her relationship with her husband in a memorable series of poems. Harrison’s words have an “ethereal connection to love”, the publisher said. She delves into the experience of losing a partner and the passage of time accompanied by a collection of photographs and mementos, including some never-before-seen images of the couple.