PREDATORS of the animal world including great white sharks, lions and black bears are at the heart of a new book by a best-selling author.

Bite Club looks at the physical and mental injuries the giant animals can cause when they perceive people as a threat or food.

The impact of the attacks can often leave a mark on the victim, their families and the communities.

Author Douglas Wight, who has previously written memoirs of Roberto Sendoya Escobar, son of Pablo Escobar; snooker star John Virgo; and a successful biography of pop star Rita Ora, was quick to stress he had fortunately never been on the receiving end of such an attack.

He said: “When I first started discussing the idea of collating stories from people who’d experienced shark attacks with the publishers Ad Lib, I wasn’t too sure what type of book we’d produce.

“But as soon as I started speaking to survivors it was clear these compelling stories deserved to be told.

“And when I spoke to Dave Pearson, who set up his own Bite Club, a Facebook support group for survivors of all types of animal attacks in Australia, the scope widened significantly.”

In Bite Club, brave people from around the world who have come face-to-face with sharks or other deadly predators and lived to tell the tale share their stories.

The book also highlights a group of survivors who are supporting each other to navigate, recover and grow from what is, for many, their most traumatic experience ever.

Douglas, who lives in Dunbar with wife Lorna Hill, who founded Sharing A Story, and his two daughters, said: “In researching this book, I discovered the impact of extreme animal attacks goes way beyond the bite.

“These moving stories of courage often involved heroic acts of bravery, life or death decision-making and heart-breaking personal trauma.

“For several contributors – even those whose attacks happened many years ago – recounting their ordeal awakened emotions long since buried.

“Nearly everyone I spoke to suffered some kind of additional attack – whether it was from social media trolls, animal rights protestors, so-called experts challenging their accounts, even friends who feared repercussions – and the emotional trauma can be as terrifying as the initial bite.”

The 49-year-old researched a variety of stories ranging from a teenager who feared losing her legs when a lion pulled her into its cage to a woman who was attacked by a black bear inside her own home.

Douglas, who is also a member of the Dunbar RNLI crew, has been a journalist and writer for more than 20 years, with his books selling more than 100,000 copies.

The book, from Ad Lib Publishers, has already been released in the UK in paperback, eBook and audio, and will be released in the USA and Australia later in the year.

Duncan Proudfoot, editorial director, said: “This is a more thoughtful book on attacks by sharks and other predators than people might anticipate, sensitively exploring not just the trauma resulting from the attack, or encounter, itself, but often from subsequent media attention, which many victims of attacks understandably experience as re-traumatising.”