Jon Croft

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Jonathan Maxwell Croft (born 1953) is a British publisher and founder of Absolute Press (from 2018 Bloomsbury Absolute). He is the elder brother of theatre director, writer and performer Giles Croft. Croft is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

Jon Croft, photographed in Bath

Early life and education

Croft was born in Bath, Somerset and was educated at Monkton Combe School and at University of Bristol, where he read Theology.

Early career

After leaving university Croft spent two years as a writer. At the encouragement of Griff Rhys Jones, at that time a radio producer at the BBC, he contributed occasional pieces to BBC Radio 4’s long running weekly satirical programme Week Ending. He also contributed stories for BBC radio and stories for Thames Television’s cult children’s television showRainbow, writing The King Who Had Hiccups, known as Succeeding, in 1981.

Absolute Press

In 1979 Croft founded Bath-based publisher Absolute Press, an award winning specialist food, drink and cookery publishing house.

Recipe collections from chefs

In 1980 Croft launched a series of cookery books featuring recipes gathered from leading UK restaurant chefs. The books were seen as innovative at the time and are now regarded as being instrumental in laying the foundation for the chef publishing model that was to follow. It is a model that influences publishing decisions to this day, and at which Absolute remains at the forefront.

Keith Floyd Years

In 1980 Croft visited Keith Floyd at his Bristol restaurant Floyd's to ask him to contribute recipes for a collection of recipes from leading West Country restaurants.

Croft commissioned Floyd’s first cookbook, Floyd’s Food which was published in 1982. Further books followed, co-published with BBC books, including Floyd on Fish and Floyd on Fire, which became breakout bestsellers.

From 1981 to 1987 Croft and Floyd worked closely with BBC Books and BBC television producer David Pritchard to change the way in which TV food programmes on British television and their tie-in cookery books were made and published. Croft also acted briefly as Floyd’s manager and then as his literary agent, whilst still running Absolute Press.

Absolute Classics

In 1988 Croft launched Absolute Classics, a series of foreign language plays, many of them neglected and overlooked classics, translated and adapted into English by leading English language playwrights. Conceived and commissioned with his brother Giles Croft, then Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill, the series proved a play publishing innovator. In 1989 and 1990 Absolute Classics was runner-up in The Sunday Times Small Publisher of the Year Awards. Playwrights whose translations and adaptations were published in the series included Nick Dear, David Hare, Ranjit Bolt, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Adrian Mitchell, Neil Bartlett, David Rudkin, Jatinder Verma, Charles Wood, Peter Hall and Olwen Wymark. Absolute Classics was sold to Oberon Books in 1996.

Outlines

In 1997 Croft launched Outlines, a short lived but well received series of short biographies of leading gay, bisexual and lesbian creative artists. The stated aim of the series was to explore how artists’ sexuality might inform their creative output. Titles published included Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay, We are Michael Field by Emma Donoghue, Quentin Crisp by Tim Fountain, David Hockney by Peter Adam, Armistead Maupin by Patrick Gale and Benjamin Britten by Michael Wilcox.

Bloomsbury Publishing

In 2011 Croft sold Absolute Press to the British Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury Publishing. An unusual publishing arrangement was put in place by Richard Charkin, then Executive Director at Bloomsbury, ensuring that Croft was retained as a Consultant Publisher to publish for the list and, with his own design and editorial team in Bath continuing to be employed by Croft, to produce the books on behalf of Bloomsbury for the Absolute list.

In 2012 Croft signed two Michelin star chef Tom Kerridge to Absolute, from which a string of bestselling cookery books from Kerridge followed, including Proper Pub Food, Best Ever Dishes, Lose Weight for Good, The Hand & Flowers Cookbook and Outdoor Cooking. Croft and Kerridge developed a professional and personal friendship that has seen them establish Kerridge over the last ten years as Bloomsbury’s most successful author after JK Rowling.

In 2019 Croft appeared on The Bookseller’s 100 most influential people in British publishing – the first specialist cookery publisher or editor to appear on the list.

Jon Croft Editions

In 2011 Croft founded Jon Croft Editions, a bespoke, custom book publishing company that has published cookery books for a number of leading restaurants and specialist food companies including Unilever, Hellmann's, Milsom Hotels, Mitch Tonks’s Rockfish restaurant group, Iceland supermarket, Bakedin, The Snaffling Pig Co and Martin Williams’s M Restaurants.

Chefs at Home

As the Covid-19 lockdown took hold in the UK, Croft and his team at Jon Croft Editions joined forces with industry charity Hospitality Action. A book was conceived, Chefs at Home, a collection of lockdown recipes from leading British chefs published to help raise funds for the charity. Publishing in March 2021, Chefs at Home entered the bestseller charts at number 8 in its first week of publication.

CKBK

Croft is the co-founder of the online cookery book subscription streaming service CKBK often referred to as ‘the Spotify for food’. Croft currently acts as an ambassador for the company.

References

This article "Jon Croft" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Jon Croft. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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