Feature: Jeremy Robson
Published: 16 June, 2011
by GERALD ISAAMAN
PUBLISHER Jeremy Robson has gone up in the world – from his first-floor office in Greenland Street, Camden Town, up to the 10th floor of the Westminster Tower amid the world of politics in the Houses of Parliament.
The surprise move for the founder of Robson Books and, subsequently, JR Books has come about by an offer to launch a new general book imprint for Biteback, the successful political publishing house set up last year.
“And I now have this office with amazing views across London,” Jeremy, who was brought up in Hampstead and still lives there with his wife, Carole, tells me. “It is quite an undertaking to launch what we now call the Robson Press in these difficult times, but I’m always game for a challenge.”
Indeed, his career has had highs and lows since he initially set out to be a journalist after giving up a law degree course before joining the publishers Harrap, then Aldus Books and finally the Jewish publishing house of Vallentine, Mitchell.
“Those were the days when I found myself working with Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion and Marc Chagall,” he recalls. “Carole and I even spent some of our honeymoon with Ben-Gurion.”
He and Carole founded Robson Books in 1974, which, after 30 years became part of the Chrysalis empire. But, following a management buy-out, he decided to leave. It was then that an old school friend, Laurence Orbach, persuaded him to set up again as part of his international Quarto Publishing Group, which he did five years ago with the launch of JR Books in Camden Town.
Why has he left?
“Corporate life did not sit easily on my shoulders,” Jeremy explains.
“After a wonderful start, too many people started to get involved in the publishing decisions. I felt I was starting to let authors down and that life was getting too restrictive.”
Subsequently, another old friend, Iain Dale, a frustrated parliamentary candidate, political blogger and broadcaster who started Total Politics magazine, set up Biteback Publishing.
He began looking for someone to run a general books imprint outside of politics and oversee the expanding business.
Iain, managing director of Biteback, decided Jeremy was the perfect fit for his fledgling company. “I hope to make full use of Jeremy’s wide-ranging experience in our rather youthful company,” he explains. “His contacts in the industry, in the media and among authors are unrivalled.”
Certainly Jeremy’s expertise has had some big hits with JR Books, particularly in the world of showbiz and entertainment. His authors include Leslie Caron, Robert Vaughn, George Hamilton, Maureen Lipman, Ron Moody, Steven Berkoff, Michael Winner, the novelist Frederic Raphael and even Norman Tebbit.
Some of them, now friends, may well follow him to his new imprint, which, he says, is comforting after all his years building up a high-profile publishing reputation.
And there is another new challenge, too.
Jeremy is also a published poet and during his early days a promoter of the poetry and jazz concerts initially staged in Hampstead Town Hall, which brought him into contact with the likes of the late Sir John Betjeman and the Welsh poet Dannie Abse.
The muse has now returned. “After too many years I’ve started to write poetry again, and that has astonished and thrilled me in a way I can’t describe,” he says.
“Maybe a new collection will be published next year.”