We are a Lincolnshire based, family run, book publishing enterprise and although small are continually increasing the range of our output.

Richard Kay Publications (RKP) began in 1970 when (Dr) Richard Allday wrote a small booklet Manifesto for the Nation which he wanted to have published before the general election.  After approaching several publishers and being turned away he decided to publish it himself.  Soon after this a newly formed History of Boston Project was looking for a series of booklets about differing aspects of Boston to be published and they came to my father – the rest they say is history! Now, more than 40 years on, we have over 70 titles all of which have some connection to Lincolnshire.

All our titles are non-fiction (or ‘faction’ – real stories of people’s lives – as they remember them) though one or two use fiction as a vehicle for dialect.  I believe all our books have some connection with Lincolnshire – though in a very few cases merely the author’s residence.  Most of our titles are historical (local, national and international), dialect (both academic and oral tradition) or biographical (Life in Lincolnshire and Vernacular History Series).

We have some contemporary issues and a few miscellaneous titles.  The books range from the light-hearted and humorous Lincolnshirics and Fungus the Lincolnshire Cat to the massive and momentous Transcriptions of the Minutes of the Corporation of Boston – in six volumes from 1545 to 1781.  These Transcripts are nominally published by The History of Boston Project but are distributed by us – please enquire for further details as these retail at over £100 per copy.

Following the disbanding of Lincolnshire and Humberside Arts – we do have some of their remainder stock, predominantly poetry with a few dialect recordings on vinyl. Please contact us for more information/prices as these are 30+ years old and therefore appreciably in less than perfect condition.

RKP has also published three historical maps of Boston and The Wash and a series of prints (suitable for framing) from our Nature-Lovers’ Year Book.

Our publications are available through bookshops or online at www.KayBooksOnline.co.uk

What’s Happening?
2012 was an eventful year for RKP: Dad celebrated his 87th birthday and decided it was time to pass the business onto the next generation; it was the 400th anniversary of Rev. John Cotton beginning his ministership in Boston Stump (St Botolph’s) and; the year of the publication of our largest book to date.

‘Spirituall Concupiscence’: John Cotton’s English Years 1584-1633 is our first title to be published simultaneously in Boston, Lincolnshire and Boston, Massachusetts.  Whilst there are many good books available examining the history of the Christian Church in the UK and of the Puritan struggle this is the first full-length study of John Cotton who from 1612-1633 served as the pastor to St Botolph’s Church where he established himself as one of the most eloquent and influential puritan clergy in the early seventeenth century.

2013
Several very popular titles had become Out of Print over the last year or two so we are pleased to report:

May: The 6th printing of Lincolnshire Dialects is underway
June: The Lincolns will be back in the shops
Sept: Saturday Night Soldiers will be readily available again.

2014
Swineshead at War launched. This small, 70 page, A5 book is a study of the Swineshead War Memorial; originally an alphabetical index identifying each name, their rank and date of death it grew with local people coming forward to offer their stories, photographs and memorabilia.  It now encompasses a gleaned history of how the village was affected by the two World Wars and where possible a little about each individual including many photographs.

2015
Richard Kime Allday, my father and founder of Richard Kay Publications (and Kay Books) – died peacefully on 5th November.

2017
Little Will and Clink Carrot by Peter Gaston will be released on January 26th as a paperback. This story, of The Everton Family, wonderfully depicts the way life was in Lincoln from late Victorian times. It follows Little Will’s life, adventures and tribulations from his birth in 1875 and continues with parts 2 and 3 For Better, For Worse and Old Mens’ Dreams, Young Mens’ Visions. The combined trilogy (rooted in fact) follows his life from around 1887 to his death in the Manchester area in the 1950s.

Some plans for the future…
To trial some of our more novel-like books to appear as EBooks and if popular we may work our way across all our titles as we are selling more abroad where the postage can be more than the cover price of the book!

We are working on a downloadable catalogue but at present the only way to see our titles in print is by entering “Richard Kay” into the search bar in our online shop Kay Books Online

Any suggestions for future development or other queries – please feel free to contact us through our email or the contact page at Kay Books Online