Faavourite British authors

Come Britsters ... who's your favourite British author ... and why?

Tarotman

A complete answer to your question is quite impossible as it depends on so many things: my mood; the weather; the time of day; all sorts of variables.

I suppose if I had to be tied down to one author who I have consistently enjoyed over the years then it would have to be Arthur C. Clarke because he is quite simply the best sf writer in the known universe. His prose might lack in - say - emotional excitement but you can have too much of a good thing. For serioius, steadfastly accurate predictions, perfectly described scientific wonders then you cannot beat Sir Arthur.

I have a deep and abiding love of British comedy, especially the stuff that starts with simple social situations and becomes completely surreal. Wodehouse and E F Benson are the classic masters, with a more modern nod in the directions of Tom Holt and Jasper Fforde. Jerome K Jerome and his Three Men In a Boat, the minor characters in Charles Dickens. There's a flavour of it in some British SF too - the dry humour that surfaces in John Wyndham, Iain Banks and more recently Charles Stross. It's rare you find an SF author having a character quote the parrot sketch, several centuries into the future, but so refreshing ...

dowd

Yes to the british comedy, esp Wodehouse, Jerome etc.

One humorous UK writer - now sadly deceased - who tends to get forgotten is Jack Trevor Story - a Jack of all trades who wrote westerns, Sexton Blake stories, science fiction and much else. One or two of his books were filmed, notably The Trouble With Harry, which became a Hitchcock film - though poor old Jack let the rights go for £150 and never benefitted much !

There is a good web site, run by a man called Guy Lawler - haven`t got details to hasnd, but it`s the only JTS fan site there is, and very easy to find.

..... continued from previous message - sorry all, I forgot to do the `touchstone` busines - I`m new to this - here we go - Jack Trevor Story, The trouble With harry, Sexton Blake.

Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy...Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes.. for now.

Amandameale, regarding McEwan, did you prefer Atonement or his later Saturday? I'm a fan of him, too, and think my vote is for the former.

hazelk: That's difficult because they are quite different. For some reason Saturday grabbed me right from the start -perhaps it was McEwan's use of language. I also thought that the structure of Saturday was perfect. That said, I can see why one might prefer Atonement which was more free in language and setting. Too hard Hazel.

I've got to put a plug in for Penelope Fitzgerald. Sadly unnoticed, not even mentioned in 1001 Books. Won National Book Critics Award, Booker Prize, Shortlisted twice more for the Booker. Started writing in her late 50s' published 10 novels before she died each short, succinct and a miracle of style.

As someone else said, this is tough; different authors for different moods and purposes. However:

George Orwell for style and content. Dickens out of affection. Wodehouse for humour. Conan Doyle for ripping yarns. Graham Greene for all previous reasons rolled into one.

I have a bizarre weakness for Anthony Trollope ... other Brit faves: Henry Green, Martin Amis and Kingsley Amis, Magnus Mills ...

From the current century I'd have to say Ian McEwan, eminently readable without being trite. Certain scenes in Enduring Love and Atonement gave me real frissons. I also admire Nick Hornby: I latched on to Fever Pitch as soon as it came out and not just because I support AFC.
From the 20th century, I love Arnold Bennett's novels whether set in the Potteries or in Clerkenwell Riceyman Steps - the latter a little masterpiece.
From the 19th c. - Dickens particularly along with some of Austen and Bronte C.

For living writers, probably J. G. Ballard, it's hard to imagine another author who could make Shepperton so interesting.

Hazelk - good to see someone nominating Arnold Bennett, he is so often overlooked now. (Possibly due to writers like Woolf attacking him as old hat, too middle class). The Old Wives Tale is a great novel.

#13:jargoneer: totally agree about The Old Wives Tale. Clayhanger excellent too.

William Temple - one of the first science fiction authors I read, and instrumental in getting me interested in the genre. Took me 20 years to track down the third book in his Martin Magnus trilogy ;-)

For thrillers/ crime John Le Carre (Perfect Spy, Constant Gardener) Graham Greene (Quiet American), Ian Rankin (Naming the Dead) Robert Harris (Enigma, Pompeii) and the latest incarnation of Kate Atkinson (One Good Turn) which is also very funny.

For british women writers Austen, George Eliot, V.Woolf, Penelope Lively, Margaret Drabble, Kate Atkinson, Maggie O'Farrell.

A.S. Byatt! You can take her books on the proverbial desert island and still have sustenence after several readings. Begin with Virgin in the Garden then "Still Life", Babel Tower and "The Whistling Women".

I quite agree about E F Benson -particularly his "Mapp & Lucia" series - and Charles Dickens' more minor characters (eg Barkis & Peggotty in "David Coppefield").

I also like John Mortimer's Rumpole books, David Lodge's "Therapy", and "The Compleet Molesworth" by Geoffrey Willans & Ronald Searle, and "The Diary of a Provincial Lady" by E M Delafield.

The perfect antidote for a dull-weather day.

I have a selection of favourites also. Peter Ackroyd, Martin Amis, Beryl Bainbridge and Anthony Burgess spring to mind immediately. Both Ackroyd and Burgess manage to wear their erudition and learning lightly and I consider all four to be wonderful. From the poetry side of things, I'm very fond of John Betjeman and Roger McGough in particular.

Scarlett Thomas is fabulous! I can't pinpoint why I like her work so much. I have only read Bright Young Things and The End of Mr Y so I have plenty of more books to read by her. There's something about her writing that just grips me.

David Mitchell - he writes with such imagination and is one of my favourite authors. Just hope there is a new book soon!

Having just read The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall and loved it, I'll certainly be looking out for more by this author. Plus another recent corker was Sinema: The Northumberland Massacre by Rod Glenn

Its lovely to look through everyone's ideas and spot things you've not read and add them to my list. I have been checking out the global reading group and perhaps concentrating too much on authors from other countries and not read much from the UK recently. It is so difficult to choose an overall favourite, but Magnus Mills comes to mind, for his wit and concise style, Three for the King is always a good one to start with. I come from the north of England and have a fondness for the moors and so will re-read Wuthering Heights occasionally to enjoy the wildness of the landscape and Emily Bronte and her wonderful writing. Agree with the earlier comment about Penelope Fitzgerald too.

George Eliot, Louis de Bernieres, Sarah Waters, Philip Pullman, Nicola Barker, Iris Murdoch, Thomas Hardy, Jasper Fforde, Daphne du Maurier, David Mitchell, Charles Dickens, Roger Jon Ellory, John Fowles, Toby Litt, Jane Austen, Graham Joyce, Stephen Fry, E M Forster, D H Lawrence, Susanna Clarke, Muriel Spark, Nevil Shute, Patrick Hamilton, Robert Shearman, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Mark Haddon, Claire Tomalin, Fay Weldon, L P Hartley - oops, didn't really mean to go on like that, but getting together a list like this does make you realise how much we have to be proud of, despite all those great American writers we all love! And that's without touching on Ireland or any of those fantastic 'one-offs' like Cold Comfort Farm, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, Billy Liar, New Grub Street etc (I don't mean necessarilly the only book their authors wrote, but the ones really stood head and shoulders about their authors' usual oeuvre). It's not a bad line-up, is it?