About Us

Our company was founded by Frances Lincoln in 1977. We published our first books two years later, and we have been creating illustrated books of the highest quality ever since, with special emphasis on gardening, walking and the outdoors, art, architecture, design and landscape.

In 1983 we started to publish illustrated books for children. Since then we have won many awards and prizes with both fiction and non-fiction children's books including the Independent Publishers' Guild Cultural Diversity Award in 2007. In 2008 we established the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children's Book Award to further our mission for publishing children's titles that celebrate cultural diversity in the widest possible sense. For more information about this award please click here.

Both lists have a strong multicultural element and a high reputation internationally. Our many publishing partners include Oxfam, The Royal Horticultural Society, The Victoria and Albert Museum and Amnesty International; we want all our books to reflect the richness and diversity of the world we live in today.

An illustrated stationery list appeared for the first time in 1992. Today we publish address books, desk diaries and journals in association with several major museums and institutions.

Frances Lincoln also represents a diverse group of adult and children’s book publishers in addition to its own lists. We’re proud to offer sales support to Alanna Books, Allen & Unwin Children’s Books, Little Bookroom, the Natural History Museum, NYRB Classics, The New York Review Children's Collection, NYRB Collections and The O'Brien Press in the UK. Each company we work with displays the finest quality in publishing across a wide range of interests. For more information please click here.

Frances Lincoln died, aged 55, in February 2001. Her husband, John Nicoll, took over the ownership and management of the company until 2011, when the shareholding of Frances Lincoln Ltd was acquired by The Quarto Group. Frances Lincoln is now the largest component of Quarto’s UK publishing unit, the Aurum Publishing Group, and we continue to publish over 100 new books a year for both adults and children. We moved to new offices in Islington, London at the end of 2012.