Peter Cox (author)
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author of more than 20 books, including You Don't Need Meat, was the first chief executive of the Vegetarian Society
Vegetarian Society
The Vegetarian Society is a British registered charity established on 30 September 1847 to "support, represent and increase the number of vegetarians in the UK."-History:...
and is now a literary agent
Literary agent
A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...
working in London and New York.
Biography
Cox was born in Carlisle, Cumbria, EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and brought up in Whitehaven
Whitehaven
Whitehaven is a small town and port on the coast of Cumbria, England, which lies equidistant between the county's two largest settlements, Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness, and is served by the Cumbrian Coast Line and the A595 road...
until a nuclear accident at nearby Sellafield (the world's worst prior to Chernobyl
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
) precipitated an abrupt family move to the North Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
coast. He grew up in a remote and essentially 19th century feudal village, Walcott-On-Sea
Walcott, Norfolk
Walcott is a small village and civil parish on the North Norfolk coast in England between Mundesley and Happisburgh.The name derives from the Celtic word Walecote, which means village by the wood. The village is north east of Norwich, south east of Cromer and north east of London...
where mains drainage, running water and even electricity were lacking for many years.
Educated at the Norwich School
Norwich School
Norwich School may refer to:*Norwich School of painters*Norwich School , an independent fee-paying school in Norwich, England...
, an argument with his headmaster put university out of the question and he started work as a self-employed photographer. When the North Sea gas and oil boom occurred, Cox undertook a growing amount of large-format industrial photography. His company grew to employ 25 people and became a full-service advertising agency, with clients such as the FMC Corp.
FMC Corp.
FMC Corporation is a chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. FMC employs over 4,800 people world wide, and had gross revenues of US$3.115 billion in 2008.-The Bean Spray Pump Company:...
, Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
Business Systems and other large regional clients. The business was sold when Cox was 29. He then moved to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in 1985 to became the first chief executive of the Vegetarian Society
Vegetarian Society
The Vegetarian Society is a British registered charity established on 30 September 1847 to "support, represent and increase the number of vegetarians in the UK."-History:...
of the United Kingdom, a post he held for six weeks.
Vegetarianism
Cox initiated a number of major changes at the Vegetarian Society including a higher public profile, an expanded membership, vigorous ongoing debates with the Meat and Livestock CommissionMeat and Livestock Commission
The Meat and Livestock Commission, , was set up by the UK Government under the Agriculture Act 1967 with Government money with the remit to promote the sale of red meat...
, the establishment of the Cordon Vert cookery school with television personality Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
Sarah Joy Brown is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for originating the role of Carly Corinthos, which she portrayed on the American daytime drama General Hospital from 1996 to 2001, and which earned her three Daytime Emmy Awards. In 2008, she returned to General Hospital in a...
, and a new magazine. Cox’s reforms were not universally appreciated and internal disagreements brought about his resignation, whereupon he founded and edited the short-lived magazine Today’s Vegetarian (Future Publishing) and, most importantly, was introduced to Paul
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
by Chrissie Hynde
Chrissie Hynde
Christine Ellen "Chrissie" Hynde is an US musician best known as the leader of the rock/new wave band the Pretenders. She is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and has been the only constant member of the band throughout its history.-Early life and career:Hynde is the daughter of a part-time...
, another pop singer and prominent vegetarian.
In 1986 Cox wrote a bestselling book entitled Why You Don’t Need Meat (Thorsons Publishers). It gained major public attention and won the Booksellers’ Association Award for the Best Non-Fiction Publicity Campaign of the Year. The book was essentially a polemic that presented the health, environmental and ethical reasons for a meat-free diet. An early appearance on BBC television’s “Wogan” was seen by millions of people and propelled the book to the no. 1 position on the paperback charts, selling 100,000 copies in the UK alone (it was subsequently published in the United States, France, Germany, Japan and many other countries).
Involvement with Linda McCartney
Meanwhile, Linda McCartney and Cox had become friends and had agreed to write a recipe book with the aim of making meat-free recipes more mainstream and less unconventional. At the time, products such as QuornQuorn
Quorn is the leading brand of mycoprotein food product in the UK and Ireland. The mycoprotein used to produce Quorn is extracted from a fungus, Fusarium venenatum, which is grown in large vats....
, TVP (textured vegetable protein
Textured vegetable protein
Textured or texturized vegetable protein , also known as textured soy protein , soy meat, or soya meat is a meat analogue or meat extender made from defatted soy flour, a by-product of extracting soybean oil...
), VegeBurger and many other meat analog substances were just starting to become widely available. Despite the previous success of Cox’s Why You Don’t Need Meat, no publisher was initially interested in what eventually became Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, some claiming that recipe books without meat ingredients would not sell. Finally, the newly-formed Bloomsbury Publishing published the book. The book rose to the hardback bestseller charts and sold several million copies worldwide.
The success of the book prompted Paul and Linda McCartney to consider establishing a vegetarian food company. Cox initially undertook consultancy for Paul McCartney on the company’s structure and focus, but finally refused the offer of becoming the company’s managing director, preferring to stay in the publishing world. It was at this point that he also decided to become vegan.
Cox continued to write and co-write, with his wife Peggy Brusseau, numerous books, including many bestsellers such as The Quick Cholesterol Clean Out (Century), The New Why You Don’t Need Meat, (Bloomsbury), Peter Cox’s Guide to Vegetarian Living (Bloomsbury), The Realeat Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Living (Bloomsbury), Superliving! (Vermillion), Secret Ingredients (Bantam), LifePoints (Bloomsbury), The LifePoints Diet (Bloomsbury), LifePoints for Kids (Bloomsbury), The LifePoints Counter (Bloomsbury), The LifePoints Cookbook (Bloomsbury), You Don’t Need Meat (St. Martin’s Press), several of which were serialized in British national newspapers.
The “Linda Tapes”
Media interest in Sir Paul McCartney’s divorce from Heather Mills resulted in much speculation concerning the contents of tape recordings made by Linda McCartney and Cox during their time together. Despite reports to the contrary, Cox has denied selling them and has called most press speculation wildly inaccurate.Literary agent
Cox gradually started working with authors, developing their book proposals and initially selling them through an external literary agency. This arrangement was superseded when Cox established his own agency. Clients include the worldwide bestselling children’s author Michelle PaverMichelle Paver
Michelle Paver is a British-based novelist and children's writer, author of the six-book series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, set in the pre-agricultural Stone Age.- Biography :...
, US Senator Orrin Hatch, Nicholas Booth, television journalist and former MP Martin Bell
Martin Bell
Martin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...
OBE, science writer Brian Clegg
Brian Clegg
Brian Clegg is an English author and popular science writer. He has written a range of popular science books, covering topics including light, infinity, quantum entanglement and surviving the impact of climate change, and biographies of Roger Bacon and Eadweard Muybridge.-Biography:Born in...
, children’s authors Joe Donnelly
Joe Donnelly
Joseph Simon "Joe" Donnelly, Sr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Donnelly announced Monday May 9 that he would run for the United States Senate seat that is held by Republican Richard Lugar.-Early life, education and career:Joe Donnelly...
, M. G. Harris
M. G. Harris
M. G. Harris is the author of the successful book series, The Joshua Files.- Early life:M. G. Harris was born in Mexico City but moved to Manchester very early in her childhood. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a scientist and ran an Internet business...
and Amanda Lees, and former editor of The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
newspaper David Yelland. Cox is now managing director of Redhammer Management, a literary agency recognized by the Association of Authors’ Agents.
Other
Cox was an expert witness for the defence in the notorious “McLibel” trial. He was a close observer of the events of the 11th September 2001 in New York and has written about what he saw. He founded the internet writers’ community Litopia, is agent-in-residence there and currently hosts the Litopia podcast for writers.External links
- Peter Cox's blog
- Litopia - writer's web site run and owned by Peter Cox
- Redhammer Management Ltd - a literary agency owned and managed by Peter Cox