Peter Cox (author) - Involvement With Linda McCartney

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 Quorn, TVP (textured vegetable protein), 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.