New Novel out January 2026!
In 1928, newlywed and titled Lady Mary Heath embarks on her most daring adventure yet: a solo flight from Cape Town to Croydon. Already a trailblazer—Britain’s first woman to parachute from a plane and earn a commercial pilot’s license—she’s determined to prove women belong in aviation and to showcase the potential of “the colonies.”Fiercely independent, Mary charts her 10,000-mile route using pages from a road atlas, services her own aircraft, and defies every expectation placed on women. But as she soars across continents, memories from a traumatic past resurface: her mother murdered, her father imprisoned in an Irish asylum, and a childhood shaped by repression and loss.After enduring illness, seeking help from Mussolini, and being nursed by a tribal chief’s harem, she finally lands in London—heels, furs, and all. Though celebrated, Mary realises fame cannot free her from her past.
She has conquered the skies but not the shadows that follow.
Life is hard in Ireland in 1867. Eliza Carthy moves with her lighthouse-keeper husband James and sons Peter and Joseph to the remote island of Skellig Michael. Eliza is proud of her husband and his promotion to Principal Keeper and is eager to support him in his work and fulfil her duty as a good wife and mother. But life in this extreme location is challenging.
The island is 54 acres of jagged rock, jutting out of the Atlantic, with no way of communicating from or leaving the island. With no access to a boat, keepers must rely on a tender boat to deliver news, supplies and act as their conduit to life on the mainland. The island is exposed to extreme changes of weather and the landscape is fraught with danger.
When Assistant Keeper Edmund and his wife Ruth arrive, Eliza hopes for respite. But her new neighbours are not what she’d expected. They blow hot and cold, seemingly wanting Eliza and her family to leave Skellig Michael, and making her question her sanity.
Will Eliza be able to keep her family safe at the edge of the world?
And can her marriage survive all that the island throws at them?
Join June at the Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival October 11th.
Praise for June’s novel
“On such a tiny stage, a rock in the ocean, June presents an epic story of love, loss, betrayal, heartbreak, and survival. This is a stunning debut.”
DÓNAL RYAN
A powerful and evocative debut historical novel with many resonances for our own world.”
JOSEPH O’CONNOR
“A powerful, poignant story of love, loss, motherhood, with characters so vivid they live and breathe well beyond the page. It is a truly beautiful piece of storytelling. I loved this book.”
FÍONA SCARLETT author of Boys Don’t Cry.
June O'Sullivan 