Barry McKay is quite literally a man of letters. He’s a bibliopolist and a student of bibliography; that’s a bookseller who studies the history of printing and making books. Barry’s home and office is in Kingstone House in Appleby, inside which every wall is covered with books, from modern editions of textbooks on the arts of the book to ancient tomes with worn leather bindings and gilt tooling – and a Roman stylus and wooden tablet filled with wax. This place really is a bibliophile’s heaven.

Sue Allen, Cumbria Life June/July 2008

Barry McKay plays football without pads on and sells books the same way.

John Ballinger [He meant rugby union football but what can one expect from the former colony]

Barry McKay is one of the most important voices in recent scholarship on 18^th and 19^th century chapbooks.

Kathy Whalen

When I saw your cultivated stroke play I was sorry you were not further up the order.

Peter Miller (Captain of the PBFA Cricket XI) On my batting v. the ABA, 4 July 1989

You can give a book an edge.

Dianna Patterson.

Barry McKay you are an insufferable son of a bitch and a foreign imbecile, you are also very funny. But you are a son of a bitch.

Marc Drogin.

And the utterly memorable:

You're an antiquarian bookseller,
I didn't know there were that many books about fish.

Finally, a moment please for the lady who received a book as a gift and said:

A book, how nice, thank you but I’ve got one.