About us

Biteback Publishing is Britain’s leading publisher of political and current affairs titles. We also publish espionage, general non fiction, sport and some classic political fiction. Our sister imprint, The Robson Press, launched in the autumn of 2011 and has a remit to publish celebrity biography, humour and accessible history. In 2012 the two imprints will publish more than 140 titles.

Biteback’s founder and Managing Director, Iain Dale, explains why he started the company back in mid 2009 and what he hopes to achieve.

Back in 1998 it had been a year since I had started a political bookstore in Westminster called Politico’s. I had noticed that lots of customers were asking for political books which didn’t exist. So we started Politico’s Publishing. I had no experience in publishing, but it can’t be rocket science, I thought. I was right. In our first year we published 4 books, then 12, then 25 and by 2003 we were publishing 35 books. We were doing well. But we had no working capital. The whole operation was started on a shoestring, with only £20k of seed funding – the profits from a video I had made of the greatest party political broadcasts of all time. Really. We only had three members of staff. I knew that if the company was to progress I had to either find new investment money or sell it. Unfortunately I chose the latter course and sold it to Methuen. It’s probably the biggest mistake I have made in my business career. It was done for all the right reasons, but Methuen proceeded to run it into the ground. The company no longer exists.

Now wind forward to July 2009, six years later. A year earlier I had launched Total Politics Magazine, a monthly political title through my new publishing company , Biteback Media. We carried a book review section. I had noticed over the previous few years that very few political titles were being published. All the major publishers were concentrating on titles which would sell in excess of 10,000 copies. If they weren’t confident of that level of sales the book wouldn’t be taken on. The mantra of “political books don’t sell” was one which even the medium sized and smaller publishers seemed to have taken to their hearts. So, in short, I spotted a gap in the market and decided to do something about it. I decided t launch Biteback Publishing.

Three months later, with two staff recruited, we launched our first batch of books, and we haven’t looked back. These were the words I used in the Bookseller when we launched…

“This is an exciting new venture. There is a huge gap in the current affairs publishing market which needs filling. At a time when interest in politics is growing, few publishers seem to be publishing political titles, even though sales of non-fiction books are holding up in the recession. No business can claim to be recession-proof, but interest in current affairs, economics, and political history is likely to increase in an economic downturn.”

We decided right from the start not just to concentrate on Westminster politics. We recruited my old colleague from Politico’s days, Sean Magee, and our first two members of staff had been known to me from Methuen. Mick Smith joined as a commissioning editor for books on espionage. Since then we have expanded to a point where we now employ fifteen people and this year we will be publishing 140 books. Our biggest decision came last May, when we decided to launch a new ore general imprint. I have known Jeremy Robson for fifteen years. Indeed, he published my first book way back in 1997. We wanted to publish books outside our political comfort zone and decided he was the person to enable us to do that. The Robson Press was quickly launched and published its first set of books in the autumn of 2011.

“It is both exciting and challenging to be starting a new general list alongside Biteback’s highly successful political one. It is particularly gratifying that a number of the authors I’ve had the good fortune to publish over the years have rallied to the flag, and that agents, US publishers and the media have been so generously supportive. We launch our first Robson Books Press list in this Autumn with a range of what we believe to be arresting and entertaining titles, featuring a number of famous names. We will be backing their publication with nation-wide publicity campaigns, serialization and features in national papers, and by author appearances and signings. Exciting times indeed!”

We have small advisory board to keep us on the straight and narrow. It consists of:

Professor Peter Hennessy, Queen Mary, University of London
Peter Riddell, Institute of Government
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent
Professor Philip Cowley, University of Nottingham
Professor Bruce Hoffman, Georgetown University, Washington DC
Professor John A. Hall, McGill University, Montreal
Biteback Publishing is a subsidiary of Biteback Media, which in turn is wholly owned by Political Holdings Limited.

If you have any questions about Biteback or have any feedback on our activities, please do get in touch.

Meet the team

Iain Dale

Iain Dale is one of Britain’s leading political commentators and bloggers and a presenter on LBC Radio. He is contributing editor for GQ Magazine, writes for the Daily Telegraph, and pens a fortnightly diary for the Eastern Daily Press. He presents Radio 4’s What the Papers Say and is Managing Director of TOTAL POLITICS magazine and Biteback Publishing. Iain has written or edited more than twenty books including Margaret Thatcher: A Tribute in Words & Pictures, the Little Book of Boris, 500 of the Most Acerbic, Witty & Erudite Things Ever Said About Politics and Memories of the Falklands.
James Stephens

James is the Sales and Marketing Director and Deputy Chief Executive of Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. He has been with Biteback Publishing since it began in July 2009, and has been extremely gratified to watch and participate in its growth, from humble beginnings, into the publishing behemoth it is today. He has worked in publishing for the last eleven years, prior to which he spent far too long in higher education in England and Italy. He supports Arsenal Football Club and is often kept awake with nightmares about running into Michael Smith in a dark alley, and about not being name-dropped by Sean Magee.
Ella Bowman

Ella is Press Officer at Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. Ella grew up in Surrey, but spent her formative years in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she unsuccessfully tried to learn the guitar, although she did achieve a silver award in the Maths Challenge, as well as learning Spanish and French. An Alumnus of Goldsmiths College, University of London, Ella studied English and American Literature, taking a particular interest in the postmodern aesthetic and American crime fiction. A recent employee of Biteback, Ella creates hype around Biteback titles by gently coercing the media into helping the books sell themselves. Along with gaining coverage Ella is assistant to Suzanne, publicity manager extraordinaire. Ella’s loves are cycling, reading, going on long walks with her camera, Nutella and sunshine. You can follow Ella on twitter @EllaMatildaB
Lewis Carpenter

Lewis is Publishing Assistant at Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. Lewis is a Biteback naïf, having started in his role on the editorial team in November last year. Lewis was born in Sharjah, UAE, brought up in a still-mainly-desert Dubai and then lived between the UK and Hong Kong before returning permanently to Kent at the age of fifteen. Having read Classics at Trinity College Dublin he gained an MA in Comparative Literature from King’s College London and decided to embark on the quest of finding a publishing job in London. After a stint interning at Atlantic Books Lewis arrived at Biteback’s gracious threshold where he has enjoyed hugely the Friday afternoon quiz, as well as developing his all round editorial skills. Lewis enjoys cricket and football above all but will try his hand at most things, including such popular sports as fives and the Cresta run. He is a big fan of Chicago and Delta Blues, is not averse to being dragged to the theatre and is attempting to learn Norwegian in his spare time.
Sam Carter

Sam is Editorial Director of Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. Born in London, he spent most of his childhood in East Sussex. He read Modern History at University College, Oxford, and has enjoyed a career in London publishing, tinkering with fiction and non-fiction of all genres, after a happy decision to call time on a law career. Prior to joining Biteback, he worked for Methuen, Old Street Publishing and Simon & Schuster. He joined Biteback as a commissioning editor in 2010 with a brief to establish our reputation as one of Britain’s premier political publishers and to expand the list beyond the political niche. He is interested in narrative non fiction, history, big think books and biographies. He is an obsessive cricketer and member of the newly revived Authors XI, and will be contributing a chapter (alongside bountiful runs) to Bloomsbury’s book of the project, to be published in 2013. He is a keen cook, bridge player and adores all things Italian.
Sean Magee

Sean is Editor-at-Large at Biteback Publishing. Once described in The Guardian as 'a London publishing institution', Sean has previously been a commissioning editor with several imprints, notably Basil Blackwell, Cassell, Victor Gollancz and Politico’s, publishing the likes of Michael Foot, Lisa Jardine, Peter Hennessy, David Owen and Peter Riddell. In addition, he has worked on book projects with such luminaries as Clement Freud, Michael Mansfield QC, David Blunkett, Joan Sims (whose autobiography he ghosted) and Rolf Harris.

He is the author of many books on horseracing – including the definitive account of the great steeplechaser Arkle, the history of Ascot racecourse, and Lester’s Derbys with Lester Piggott – and is currently writing the official 70th anniversary history of Desert Island Discs for Bantam Press/BBC. He was declared “Name-Dropper of the Year” in the Bookseller magazine in 2002, retaining the title in 2003 – and ever since has described himself as “award-winning author”.
Michael Smith

Michael is Editor-at-Large and the editor of our Dialogue Espionage Classics list. Michael is a number-one-bestselling author in his own right and an award-winning journalist who has worked for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. He commissions books on a wide range of subjects but is most interested in history, crime, reportage and, of course, books on intelligence and spies. He is also one of the judges for the prestigious St Ermin’s Hotel Intelligence Book of the Year prize. Michael’s own books include Six: A History of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1939 and The Secrets of Station X: How the Bletchley Park Codebreakers Helped Win the War. Michael is also a successful screenwriter and an Arsenal supporter but we don’t hold that against him!
Namkwan Cho

Namkwan is Designer for Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. Namkwan loves book covers and has been designing them for the past 5 years. He studied graphic design at Falmouth College of Arts, where he discovered his love for book design, and then went on to work for SMITH design, London, where he helped design and illustrate the critically acclaimed books 'Infidel' and 'The Sound of Two Songs'. Namkwan joined Biteback Publishing in 2011 as head of design. His main interests are instrumental music, the art of Shepard Fairey and military non-fiction.
Jessica Feehan

Jessica is Editorial Assistant at Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. She was lucky enough to be given her first job in publishing as assistant to Jeremy Robson in 2009, joining him at Biteback Publishing in 2011. She read English and Related Literature – mainly pre-1800, mostly Renaissance, a smattering of Classical French – at the University of York, and now gets to indulge her obsession with old-school fiction in the evenings whilst working on contemporary non-fiction by day: the best of both worlds. Outside the office, Jessica likes book club, ballet, baking and alliteration.
Jeremy Robson

Jeremy is Publisher of The Robson Press. After a short spell in journalism, Jeremy cut his teeth as an editor with Aldus Books, working with such figures as David Ben-Gurion, Marc Chagall, and Carl Jung. Then, after a spell with Vallentine, Mitchell and the Woburn press, where he published the Goons Show Scripts, a massive bestseller, he launched his own company, Robson Books, publishing a great variety of high-profile authors and personalities across a wide range of subjects – music, biography, sport, humour, politics, current affairs, self-help, travel, military, etc. He has a strong personal interest in poetry, and his own work has been widely published. He set up The Robson Press, as an imprint of Biteback, in May 2011.
Suzanne Sangster

Suzanne is Publicity Manager at Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. She has worked in publishing for over 20 years, most recently for DK. She has also run a successful freelance business. Suzanne has worked with numerous authors over the years including Robert Lindsay, Stef Penney, Louise Rennison, Sir Peter Blake, Duncan Hamilton and Mike Atherton. She has also worked on a number of high profile book industry events, including the Galaxy British Book Awards and The London Book Fair. In her spare time Suzanne loves reading, cooking and socializing. As a mother of three teenagers, she enjoys coming to work to maintain her sanity!
Katy Scholes

Katy is Marketing Manager of Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. She studied Politics, IR and American Studies at the University of Nottingham before moving to the West Bank to learn Arabic and volunteer for various organisations. In early 2009 Katy began work in London with sister company, Total Politics Magazine, before moving over to Biteback Publishing in 2010. She likes reading political biographies, literary non-fiction, classics and poetry. Katy has, on separate occasions, shared a room with Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Lana Del Rey, although they may not have known that at the time and, granted, some of the rooms had many thousands of other people in them. She steals clementines from colleagues and supports Fulham Football Club. The two are unrelated.
Holly Smith

Holly is Online Editor at Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press. Holly joined the company in February 2012 after starting out as an intern at Biteback’s sister, Total Politics magazine, and refusing to leave. Holly graduated from Sheffield University, where she studied politics, in 2011. She oversees all online content for Biteback Publishing and The Robson Press, including social media. A musicals obsessive, in her spare time she sings, works on her upcoming one-woman show ‘Diet Coke and Me’, and attempts to fit yet more clothes into her ever-growing wardrobe. Her ambitions include making Biteback’s online content the best that it can be and writing a good, right-wing pop song. You can follow Holly on twitter @hollysmith2206
Hollie Teague

Hollie is Editor at Biteback Publishing and the Robson Press. Originally a Devon dweller, she studied politics at Cardiff University before trotting the globe with her backpack for many, many months. She arrived in London – and began life as part of Biteback Publishing’s editorial team – in 2010 and now spends her days immersed in a world of manuscripts, red pens and spreadsheets. A self-confessed geek, she likes superheroes, wizards and time-travellers.