Polygon has acquired World rights for Jenny Lecoat’s second novel, Beyond Summerland, in a deal brokered by Lisa Highton of Jenny Brown Associates. Polygon will publish in July 2024. Rights have already been sold to option publishers, Graydon House at HarperCollins US, Allen and Unwin in Australia and Lubbe in Germany.

Lisa: ‘I’m thrilled that we’re continuing our highly successful partnership with the great team at Polygon for Jenny’s terrific new book and will be able to build on the worldwide success of The Girl from the Channel Islands.’

Polygon’s rights director Fiona Brownlee said: ‘We sold Jenny’s first book to Australia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the US and we’re confident we can replicate that success with her second. We have already had extremely good preempts from option publishers in the US/Canada, Australia and Germany and are now going out to the other territories who I am sure will be equally enthusiastic.’

Beyond Summerland, like Jenny’s previous book – the New York Times bestseller The Girl from the Channel Islands – is a page-turning story of what happens to ordinary people in extraordinary times. Set in the immediate aftermath of the liberation of Jersey in June 1945, this is a tale of long-buried family secrets, of heroism and sacrifice, of mothers and daughters, and of how innocent young people caught up in the tide of war try to find themselves a place of safety and love on an island that will never be the same again.

‘It’s great to be working with Jenny again,’ said Polygon’s senior editor Alison Rae. ‘Beyond Summerland is masterfully plotted, and a nuanced look at redemption and retribution in a unique wartime setting.’ HarperCollins US editorial director Susan Swinwood described the novel as ‘one of my favourite reads this year . . . it gets better every time I read it.’

Jenny: ‘Absolutely thrilled to be working once again with Polygon, HarperCollins US and the other publishers around the world who helped to make such a success of my first book. I hope that readers who enjoyed The Girl from the Channel Islands will find the same drama and strong female characters in Beyond Summerland, this time set in the rarely covered period of Jersey’s post war trauma.’

JENNY LECOAT was born in the Channel Islands, where her parents were raised under German Occupation, before moving to England as a teenager where, following a drama degree, she spent a decade as a feminist stand-up. She was nominated for a prestigious Perrier Award in 1986 and has enjoyed a distinguished career as a journalist and screenwriter. A love of history and her island roots brought about her feature film Another Mother’s Son (2017), which starred Jenny Seagrove and John Hannah, as well as her first novel, The Girl from the Channel Islands.

Check out Jenny’s first book here: