Biteback Publishing today announced that Jeremy Robson has joined the company as Publisher, and will start a new Robson imprint under the Biteback banner.
In a surprise publishing move, Jeremy Robson has parted company with the Quarto Group and the JR Books list that he started there nearly five years ago. Said Robson: ‘I think a number of people imagined I was retiring, but that is not a word in my vocabulary at the present time’. Robson, who founded his original company, Robson Books, some thirty five years ago, is taking on the role of Publisher at Biteback Publishing, one of the country’s leading political publishers, where he will also start his own, more general, imprint to run alongside the evolving Biteback one.
Iain Dale, managing Director of Biteback commented: “When I heard that Jeremy was parting with Quarto I knew he would be the perfect fit for us. I have long admired the type of books he has published at Robson Books and JR Books and I expect that he will be even more successful as part of Biteback. He will have an overseeing role across our list and I hope to make full use of his wide ranging experience in our rather youthful company. His contacts in the industry, in the media and among authors are unrivalled and his experience in acquiring high profile new titles and selling rights internationally will be invaluable in the coming years.”
Robson is extremely up-beat about the new alliance. He says: ‘After several fruitful years with Quarto it became increasingly clear that corporate life did not sit easily on my shoulders. I welcome the chance to spread my wings again and look forward to working with Iain. We have known each other for quite a long time, and indeed I have published several of Iain’s books over the years, and worked closely with him when he owned the innovative Politico’s Bookshop, holding a number of launches there.
‘Iain’s dynamism and positive approach, and the way he has made Biteback a formidable political publisher in a very short time, is something I admire greatly. I look forward to creating my own more general list to twin with his, and to helping build the company into a major publishing force.’
A widely published poet and critic, Jeremy Robson began his publishing career at Harrap but honed his skills at a feisty independent Aldus Books, where he worked with such renowned figures as Mark Chagall and David Ben-Gurion. He set up Robson Books in 1974 with his wife Carole, where early bestsellers included The Goon Show Scripts, Alan Coren’s Collected Bulletins of Idi Amin, and Michael Caine’s Not Many People Know That!
In more recent times his wide-ranging and eclectic list has included a number of bestsellers by Maureen Lipman, Frederic Raphael’s Glittering Prizes trilogy, Alan Silliote’s Collected Short Stories, as well as books by Michael Winner, Humphrey Lyttelton, Joan Collins, Matthew Parris and the great pianist Alfred Brendel among many others. He is particularly proud of his last two JR publications—Michael Korda’s acclaimed biography of T.E. Lawrence, Hero, and First Lady of Fleet Street by Eilath Negev and Yehuda Koren, which was serialized in both The Times and Daily Mail.