Lightning Books snaps up sport writer Corbett's debut novel

Lightning Books has snapped up The Outsiders, the “page-turning' debut novel from sports writer and journalist James Corbett.

Founder Dan Hiscocks and editor-at-large Scott Pack acquired world rights direct from the author, for publication in May 2021.

The publisher said: “A page-turning story of lost loves and painful truths told against the backdrop of Liverpool’s recent history, The Outsiders opens amid the Toxteth riots of 1981. Its publication has been timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the civil disturbance, which broke out after the heavy-handed arrest of a young Black man in one of the city’s most deprived areas, at a time of crippling mass unemployment. The three central characters of Corbett’s novel meet as the city burns. We see them develop against the backdrop of major events affecting the city in the 1980s and 1990s and Liverpool’s modern renaissance this century.”

Pack said: “What impressed me about James’ novel is the way he manages to cover decades in the life of this great city while telling a story that is also intimate and personal. I hope readers will see it as the great Liverpool novel that the city has long deserved.’

Corbett, whose non-fiction includes The Binman Chronicles with Neville Southall (deCoubertin) and Faith of our Families (deCoubertin), said: “I’m delighted to be able to collaborate with Scott Pack, an editor whose work I’ve admired for a long time, on this love letter to my home city. With a few notable exceptions, Liverpool has largely escaped the attention of modern novelists. I hope I do it justice in showing Liverpool’s vibrancy, spirit and contradictions, while also challenging some of the misconceptions about the place. But at its heart is a really good story and characters that I think people will love.”