Lisa Wilkinson

you need to get onto this, quick, smart.

And he called the publisher.

He literally had three books on the boil at the time.

His publisher had all of them mapped out about exactly when they were going to be released.

And they said to him, look, you know, it's a great idea, Pete, sounds amazing, but you've got all of these other commitments.

I just don't know how you're going to fit it in because you're right, it's an amazing story, but you need to get onto it.

And then a female publisher who Pete has worked very closely with over the years, Vanessa Radnidge, called me and she said, Lisa, I've heard this story.

Everybody here at Hachette is talking about it.

I don't think this is a Pete book.

I think this is a you book.

And I said, Vanessa, I love you, but I'm sort of tied up with a few other things at the moment.

What was your initial reaction?

I thought I couldn't do it because I've seen the hard work that Pete puts into his books.

And he has two amazing researchers that he works with.

And I said, look, Vanessa, just leave it with me for a sec because this is a massive project and I'll just have to think about it.

A couple of hours later, news broke around the world once again, once again a Titanic story that the Ocean Gate submersible had gone missing and it was headline news around the world for two weeks.

So Vanessa called me when that news broke and she said, Lisa,

you would have seen the headlines.

I said, yes, Vanessa, I have seen the headlines.

She said, are you convinced yet?