Well, 2011 was a huge year for Absolute Press, one where a few major things changed but all the right things stayed the same. We finished on a real high, with some wonderful feedback and awards for several of our titles. Some of these books had been years in the making, which made this recognition all the more sweet. A few highlights in particular included Galvin: A Cookbook de Luxe receiving an award for the UK’s ‘Best French Cuisine’ book from the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards. For brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin, this came right on the back of being named the AA’s ‘Chefs’ Chef Of The Year 2011′, thus finishing their year with a cracker of a double present. Hashi, Reiko Hashimoto’s brilliant book on Japanese cuisine, was named one of the best books of the year by Aileen Reed in the Sunday Telegraph; and it was also nice to see a fantastic spread around Everything But The Oink, in the December edition of Observer Food Monthly (it also made BBC Good Food‘s round-up of best books for Christmas). There were World Gourmand Cookbook Awards for two of our other books. One of these was for Cook With Kids, the debut book from Rob Kirby and produced in support of the School at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Rob’s book scooped the UK’s ‘Best Fundraising Book (Europe)’ award. The book enjoyed some great sales too, reprinting within just a few months, and Rob was on the BBC Breakfast sofa three times during December to puff the book and give advice on Christmas dinners. And there was also recognition for the beautiful book of illustrations from Berger & Wyse, the resident food cartoonists at the Guardian. This was probably in many a foodie’s Christmas stocking, and Gourmand saw fit to award it the UK award for ‘Best Cookbook Illustrations’. Finally, honourable mention should also go to Indian Superfood, which enjoyed back-to-back reprints in astonishingly quick fashion last year. A veritable storm of excitement blew up after Simon Mayo recommended the book on his Radio 2 Drive Time show and as soon as one printing was completed another had to be ordered! It broke into the Top 4 Bestsellers list at Amazon for a short period, something of which we were all immensely proud. And these were just the brief highlights of an incredibly busy and rewarding year…

(And 2012 already looks to be every bit as promising, but we will be posting more about that very soon indeed…!)