The motivation to write The Lightning Discharge was in large part derived from my own involvement in lightning research. That research was strongly influenced by almost 25 years of collaborative studies with E.P. Krider of the University of Arizona (21 co-authored journal articles) and recently by collaborative work at the University of Florida with W.H. Beasley and with E.M. Thomson. Most of the data taking for these studies has taken place at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida with the much appreciated help of W. Jafferis.