Eye Books Group brings together Eye Books and Wilton Square Books, two independent publishing houses under one roof.
Eye Books was founded by Dan Hiscocks in 1996, with an ambition to publish the great stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Nearly three decades later, Will Atkinson joined Dan and Eye Books in 2024.
In 2025, Dan and Will founded Wilton Square Books to provide a secure and continuing home for authors who were previously published by Unbound and Neem Tree Press. This new imprint gave us the opportunity to protect an existing body of work but also build a new list, using Will’s experience at Faber and Atlantic Books.
We publish fiction and non-fiction for curious readers everywhere. Across our two imprints, we look for distinctive voices, remarkable stories and books that have something to say. At Eye Books Group, we believe that publishing should be built on close relationships with authors, editorial judgement and the freedom to make decisions quickly. Being independent means we can take risks, champion work that might be overlooked elsewhere and give every book the attention it deserves.
Although our imprints have their own editorial identities, they benefit from the experience, expertise and shared values of the wider Eye Books Group.
Eye Books Group is led by joint founders Will Atkinson and Dan Hiscocks.
Eye Books
Never forgetting its pedigree in travel writing, Eye Books now publishes books for a ready market, across memoir, business, self-help, and fiction, providing solutions, inspiration and entertainment. At its heart, Eye Books looks to great stories for a curious and general reader.
Founded in 1996 by Dan Hiscocks, Eye Books began by publishing remarkable true stories. Early titles included: Frigid Women, by members of the first all-female expedition to the North Pole; Discovery Road by the first cyclists to mountain-bike around the world without support; and The Boy Who Biked the World, Alastair Humphreys’ bestselling children’s trilogy based on his own round-the-world adventure.
Later, we created Lightning as our fiction imprint alongside Eye. Today, Lightning has been combined with Eye Books under one name.
Our home-grown prize nominees include Ray Robinson’s The Mating Habits of Stags and James Corbett’s The Outsiders (Portico Prize), Hilary Taylor’s Sea Defences (New Angle Prize, Paul Torday Memorial Prize), Katharine Quarmby’s The Low Road (New Angle Prize), Adam Macqueen’s Beneath the Streets (Polari Prize), and George Harrison’s Season (Nero, Betty Trask and East Anglian Books Awards) and Jim Cockin’s Ghost Tide (East Anglian Book Awards).
Other high-profile fiction authors include Nicola May, Dan Rhodes, Elinor Lipman, Peter Bradshaw, Antony Johnston, Simon Edge and Josh Berry.
In 2022 we were the Midlands regional winner of Small Press of the Year at the British Book Awards.
Wilton Square Books
In 2025, Will Atkinson and Dan Hiscocks established Wilton Square Books with the initial aim of ensuring that the best work previously published or commissioned by Unbound and Neem Tree Press had a continuing life.
Once this aim had been fulfilled, we set about publishing books that enhance our understanding of the world and the people within it. This means the fiction is broadly literary with a story, the non-fiction is about ideas and things, published in a thoughtful, intelligent and culturally engaged manner.
Today, Wilton Square Books is home to a mix of those ex-Unbound and Neem Tree books and authors, alongside work we have originated ourselves.
Some of our high-profile authors include C M Kosemen, Timothy O’Grady, Clare Clark, Alice Fraser, Nigel Planer, Emily Woof, Richard Negus, Robert Ashton and many others.