A Manx publishing company, established purely on the strength of a manuscript sent to its Director, has just launched the first book in ‘The Socrates Project’ trilogy.
Nautilus Media was launched by James Green, himself a published author, editor and translator, in 2012 to bring the ‘The Socrates Project’ and the important environmental and sustainability issues highlighted within it, to a global audience.
Written by Daron Sheehan, one of the offshore investment world’s leading names, ‘The Socrates Project’ tells the story of a secret attempt by the United Nations to avert the predicted collapse of global civilisations as water, food and energy become more scarce, famine increases rapidly, ice-shelves melt and sea levels continue to rise.
Simon Oceandis heads up the Sicads, a team of ‘humans’ created as part of a secret world research programme, who must observe our behaviour and blend modern science with ancient wisdom to find the solutions to global sustainability before time runs out. However, he must fight a secret plot to discredit the Sicads and their work on a thrilling adventure to save both his life – and humanity.
Daron, co-founder of investment management firm, Metage Capital Limited, and now founder of the Active Earth Foundation and Active Earth Investment Management, wrote ‘The Socrates Project’ after taking a three-year career sabbatical in 2006. His experiences taking part in charitable, ecological and educational projects across Europe, the Middle East and South Africa fed many of the ideas contained within the book.
‘The Socrates Project’ has already received rave reviews from renowned literary critics including ‘Country Life’ book reviewer and broadcaster, Ross Leckie, and has attracted the support of a number of celebrities and well-known activists. These include round-the-world cyclist, adventurer and TV presenter, Mark Beaumont, travel writer and ‘Elephant Family’ charity founder, Mark Shand, environmental campaigner, Sir Jonathon Porritt CBE, and Lebanese explorer, Max Chaya.
Such is their belief in the way the trilogy highlights the environmental issues raised, Mark Shand, Max Chaya and Mark Beaumont are also helping to fund its publication.
Nautilus Media intends to use its predicted profits to publish a series of fiction and non-fiction titles promoting sustainability, regeneration and other ethical issues on a wider level, in addition to publishing English language versions of other such books only published in foreign languages.
A quarter of the profits generated by sales of the trilogy will be donated to charities active in these areas.
James Green, Director of Nautilus Media, commented: “As well as being a fast-moving adventure story, ‘The Socrates Project’ uses fiction to highlight some very real problems facing the world today, and poses a number of scenarios which we really hope will resonate with readers and help them to make sense of a lot of the global issues they see on the news on a daily basis but probably don’t fully understand.
“The support of our globally-known ambassadors such as Mark Beaumont and Jonathon Porritt only demonstrates just how good a read it is, and it is fantastic to see them supporting a Manx company trying to make a difference in the world today.”
