Kathleen Elsie "Kay" Dick (29 July 1915–19 October 2001) was the daughter of Irish actress Kate Frances Coleman. Kay never knew the identity of her father, an absence that haunted much of her life.

Her life began as unconventionally as she was to live it. Her mother left the maternity ward of Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London with 2s 6d in her purse, no husband and no home. She took her new-born infant directly to the Café Royal, as Kay delighted in telling people, to be “baptised” by her bohemian friends.

When Kay was seven, her mother married Paul Erick Dick, a Swiss banker, who adopted Kay and financed her education at boarding schools in Geneva and at the Lycée Français in London.

On leaving school she worked at Foyles bookshop in London’s Charing Cross Road before, at just 26 years old, becoming the first woman director of an English publishing company at P.S. King & Son. She later wrote for the New Statesman, edited collections of stories under the pen name Jeremy Scott, and became editor (under the pen name Edward Lane) of the acclaimed literary magazine The Windmill. It was here that, in 1946, she commissioned George Orwell’s now famous essay in defence of P. G. Wodehouse.

Kay Dick wrote seven novels and, under the pen name Jeremy Scott, edited several collections of short stories.

In 1960 she published Pierrot, an investigation into the commedia dell’arte.

A regular reviewer for The Times, the Spectator and Punch, Kay Dick also edited two notable collections of interviews with writers, Ivy and Stevie (1971) and Friends and Friendship (1974).

She spent many years researching the life of Colette but never completed the proposed biography. She also planned to write a literary study of the marriage of Jane and Thomas Carlyle.

Kay’s seafront flat in Arundel Terrace was lined with floor-to-ceiling book shelves housing the works of most of the 20th century’s notable writers. Many of Kay’s books were first editions given to her by authors grateful for editorial help. George Orwell, for example, inscribed her copy of Animal Farm with the words: “Kay – To make it and me acceptable”. L.P. Hartley wrote “with gratitude and admiration” in her copy of The Go-Between.

Kay Dick was a strikingly handsome woman with a crest of blonde hair, an eye glass, a cigarette always to hand, and a wardrobe of shirts from Jermyn Street.

For 22 years, from 1940 to 1962, she lived with her partner the novelist Kathleen Farrell, first in Great Missenden and then at 55 Flask Walk in Hampstead. Their friends included some of the most successful writers of the era, including Neville and June Braybrooke, Brigid Brophy (a fellow PLR campaigner), Gillian Freeman, Pamela Hansford Johnson, Francis King, Shena Mackay, Olivia Manning, Stevie Smith, C.P. Snow, Muriel Spark and Angus Wilson.

When her relationship with Kathleen broke down, Kay moved to Brighton’s Kemp Town neighbourhood where she became a familiar figure walking her dog along the seafront. A few years later, Kathleen bought a flat around the corner from Kay. The two remained close for the rest of their lives.

Kay was a generous host and entertained her friends with cream teas and cucumber sandwiches, always in quantities that belied her financial situation. She was also generous with her friendships, introducing people to one another, helping and encouraging emerging writers, and always championing the writer’s cause – most notably by campaigning tirelessly and successfully for the introduction of the Public Lending Right, which pays royalties to authors when their books are borrowed from public libraries.