Renowned Radio & TV Presenter, Journalist & Scottish History & Burns Speaker

Billy Kay is a writer and broadcaster. He was born in Galston, Ayrshire in 1951, and educated at Galston High School, Kilmarnock Academy and Edinburgh University.  His company Odyssey Productions produced documentaries on Scottish cultural history for BBC Radio Scotland. These won five international awards for series like The Complete Caledonian Imbiber.  Television series he has presented include Haud Yer Tongue for Channel 4 Schools and also Miners for BBC Scotland.

He has written two plays for radio and one for Dundee Rep, while his poetry and short stories appear in several anthologies.  Billy is also co-author, with Cailean Maclean of the book Knee Deep in Claret and his work promoting wine has been recognized with awards in Britain and France.

He is a passionate advocate of the Scots language and author of the classic work Scots: The Mither Tongue. In 2022 he recorded and released an audio version of the book on Audible.

Growing up in the heart of the Burns country, Billy is steeped in the Burns tradition of poetry, song and language – a definite advantage when it comes to reciting poems like Tam o’ Shanter and talking about the local, national and international connections in the bards work.

Along with traditional singers like Rod Paterson and Jock Tamson’s Bairns, Billy has also presented events based on Burns, Scottish culture and history at festivals such as Celtic Connections in Glasgow and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC.

Billy Kay is passionate about Scotland and its people’s phenomenal influence around the world, and is able to communicate that passion with a great deal of humour and love.

Audiences for his talks have ranged from the Scottish European Society in Brussels, to the ‘Varieties of Scottishness’ conference in Belfast. He has also spoken at the universities of Poznan in Poland, and Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Aberdeen in Scotland.

His book on the phenomenal global influence of the Scottish diaspora The Scottish World was published in 2006. A gifted communicator, Billy Kay has been invited to speak on Scottish culture at venues ranging from the Library of Congress in Washington DC to the Moscow Caledonian Club, and from the Great Hall of Stirling Castle to Universities in Heidelberg, Warsaw and Belfast.

In November 2023 he published his memoir in Scots, Born in Kyle, which he describes as a love letter to an Ayrshire childhood. It is also available on Audible.

Billy was given an honorary Doctorate by the University of the West of Scotland in 2009. He also received an Oliver Award by the Scots Independent newspaper in 2010. Later that year he became Honorary Preses of the Scots Language Society.

In 2015 the Association for Scottish Literary Studies made him an Honorary Fellow. This was in recognition and admiration of the valued and major contributions made to the support and enrichment of the tradition of Scottish literature. 2016 saw Billy inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame for his Services to Scots. In 2019 he was voted Scots Media Person of the Year at the Scots Language Awards in Glasgow.

Billy Kay also addressed the 263^rd Annual Banquet of the St Andrew’s Society of the State of New York. There, the Society gave him their Mark Twain Award for the promotion of Scotland internationally.  In addition to his native languages, Scots and English, Billy speaks French, German and Portuguese. He is married to Maria João de Almeida da Cruz Diniz and they have three children and four grandchildren.

Billy is a gifted, humorous and experienced speaker on most things Scottish. He is a popular host at prestigious events and has addressed distinguished audiences from Washington DC to Aberdeen. He is an excellent choice for all types of corporate and also private events. These include Burns Suppers and is happy to tailor his speeches and presentations to suit the client’s brief.

Why Hire Billy Kay?