A gripping novel exploring time-travel and nuclear warfare—written more than 25 years ago—is finally being published in 2025. Titled Big Daddy, the book is set to be released by independent publisher Hit the North.
Originally written in the late 1990s by author Mark Brumby and titled Lost Weekend, the manuscript remained unpublished as Brumby pursued a successful career in finance, becoming a respected voice in the UK’s hospitality and leisure sectors.
Brumby, who leads financial advisory firm Langton Capital, rekindled his literary pursuits earlier this decade with the release of Always Adam. When asked by his publisher if he had another manuscript, he dusted off Lost Weekend, renamed it Big Daddy, and found the themes more relevant today than ever.
‘The world is a lot more unpredictable and unbalanced than it was in 2000 with the rise of global populism, Trump’s chaotic second term and Putin threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine,’ said Hit the North publisher, Andrew Field. ‘Big Daddy’s timeless flight shows how nations should be working together as allies, not enemies.’
Andrew added: ‘We’re chuffed to rescue Big Daddy and release the book for fans of time-travel sci-fi thrillers. The title of the book is a fictious third bomb, similar to the ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ devices dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the second world war.’
Big Daddy is a fast-paced sci-fi adventure. Readers will encounter Viking warriors awakening in modern-day Hull, Nazi soldiers reappearing in post-war Poland, and a B-29 bomber carrying out a deadly World War II mission decades after the war’s end.
Although the book was written in the nineties, Brumby insists its ideas remain fresh.
‘The ‘science-not-quite-fact’ should have the word ‘yet’ at the end and, as none of the science I’ve alluded to has come to pass, the stories haven’t been overtaken by events. There’s time for that to happen yet, however!’
A Cambridge-educated accountant and entrepreneur, Brumby was raised in Hull and now splits his time between York and London. His writing style is likely to attract fans of modern speculative fiction including Blake Crouch, Andy Weir, and Iain M. Banks.
‘Like any analyst who also writes, I love to play with ‘what if’ scenarios and let my imagination run wild in a credible world. If time-travel existed, how could we ensure it was used responsibly and avoid it being exploited by the wrong people? The same question applies to artificial intelligence, especially as authors are being exploited by tech giants, and their books harvested without payment to apparently train AI software,’ said Mark.
Reflecting on the parallels between financial risk and publishing, Mark shares a pragmatic view.
‘As an investor, I’ve benefited from one or two windfalls, but I’ve got a habit of recycling windfalls, though, so it was, and still is, ‘two steps forward and one step back’. If I could erase all the bad stuff, I’d be laughing. For instance, one company I worked for struggled and, as a major shareholder, I made one of those ‘one step back’ moves. It wasn’t life threatening, but nobody likes to lose half their money, even if they’re still comfortable on most measures. As a family we’ve have never had a very high maintenance lifestyle so I was able to find it exciting and horrible rather than just super-horrible.
‘Books are equally risky in the sense that the vast majority of authors write brilliant novels but struggle to reach out to an audience without major investment. That’s why celebrity authors have such as advantage. They are already known and have large, loyal followings – so most of their battles are won. I think the secret for the vast majority of us is to be pragmatic and let the books loose on the world and see what happens. If you’re writing purely for money, you might be disappointed.’
Big Daddy will be available in digital format from 23rd May, with hardback and pocket paperback editions released on 6th June 2025 by Hit the North.
