Richard Atkinson joins Penguin Press as publishing director

Former Bloomsbury publisher Richard Atkinson is joining Penguin Press as publishing director in September.

Atkinson will report to Penguin Press m.d. Stefan McGrath in the newly created role, joining the team on 2nd September.

Atkinson has extensive experience of working in illustrated nonfiction publishing and worked at Bloomsbury for 12 years until last November. Rising to senior commissioning editor across Bloomsbury’s Cookery and Absolute Lists, he worked with a range of authors including TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

“Richard has a passion for combining strong writing and visual content with distinctive packaging, and has overseen the publication of numerous hugely successful cookery titles, The Flavour Thesaurus, The Fat Duck Cookbook and the River Cottage series among them,” Penguin Press said. “He has worked across many other subject areas too, including maths, popular science, architecture, music and gardening - he was responsible for both Alex’s Adventures in Numberland and The Cloudspotter’s Guide.”

It was revealed in January that www.thebookseller.com/news/atkinson-departs-bloomsbury-after-12-years-937246">Atkinson had left Bloomsbury and was on a research trip in Jamaica for his family memoir Mr Atkinson's Rum Contract which is due to be published by 4th Estate in 2020.