1. Zadie Smith (1975)

British Writer

Fiction writer, professor, and essayist whose debut novel, White Teeth, was named by TIME magazine as one of the top 100 English-language fiction works. She has also been featured as...

2. John Cleland (1709)

British Writer

British writer best remembered for a 1748 novel entitled Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. His other works include Memoirs of a Coxcomb and The Surprises...

3. Sarah Fielding (1710)

British Writer

Remembered for writing the first-ever English-language novel for children, she published her famous work The Governess, or The Little Female Academy in 1749. She is also notable for a sentimental...

4. Tobias Smollett (1721)

British Writer

Eighteenth-century Scottish poet and picaresque novelist who famously wrote The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle. His other works include The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom.

5. Robert Fergusson (1750)

British Writer

Scots-language and English-language poet of the Scottish Enlightenment era. His poems include "Leith Races" and "The Farmer's Ingle."

6. William Hayley (1745)

British Writer

An English author, poet, and biographer of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, he is most remembered for his biography of William Cowper. His other notable works include A...

7. Frances Burney (1752)

British Writer

An English author recognized for her lengthy historical novels and memoirs, she also contributed to the fields of drama and poetry. Her best-known works include Evelina (1778), Camilla (1796), and...

8. Robert Bloomfield (1766)

British Writer

Late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century English poet who is most remembered for Rural Tales and The Farmer's Boy. His other works include The Banks of the Wye and Good Tidings.

9. Walter Savage Landor (1775)

British Writer

A British author and lyric poet, he is remembered for such works as Imaginary Conversations and Rose Aylmer. Over the course of his seven-decade literary career, he published not only...

10. Thomas Love Peacock (1785)

British Writer

An early nineteenth-century English author, he is best remembered for such satirical novels as Nightmare Abbey and Crotchet Castle. Also a poet, he published nearly a dozen verse works, including...

11. William Howitt (1792)

British Writer

Nineteenth-century British writer of works on history, religion, nature, and magic. His publications include History of Priestcraft in All Ages and Nations, The Man of the People, and Colonization and...

12. Catherine Crowe (1803)

British Writer

A nineteenth-century English author, she is best known for her debut novel, The Adventures of Susan Hopley (1841). The work was followed by other popular novels, including Men and Women,...

13. Hartley Coleridge (1796)

British Writer

British poet, biographer, literary critic, and teacher of the early nineteenth century. He is perhaps best remembered for his sonnets and for a lyrical play entitled Prometheus.

14. William Barnes (1801)

British Writer

A nineteenth-century English author, poet, and minister, he is most remembered for his 1879 work, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect. Over the course of his career, he...

15. Robert Stephen Hawker (1803)

British Writer

British poet and Anglican priest who published a famous 1825 work entitled The Song of the Western Men. His other works include Echoes from Old Cornwall and Tendrils.

16. Nicholas Michell (1807)

British Writer

Nineteenth-century Cornish poet and writer who published The Siege of Constantinople in 1831. His other literary works include An Essay on Woman, The Saxon's Daughter, and London in Light and...

17. Anthony Trollope (1815)

British Writer

Victorian novelist who is famous for his depiction of a fictional city called Barsetshire in six popular novels that include The Warden (1855), Doctor Thorne (1858), and The Last Chronicle...

18. Anna Sewell (1820)

British Writer

English novelist whose only published work, Black Beauty, is considered a classic of English children's literature. She was unable to enjoy the book's success due to the fact that she...

19. Matthew Arnold (1822)

British Writer

English poet who wrote the melancholy masterpiece, "Dover Beach," as well as "The Scholar-Gipsy" and "Thyrsis." He was also a writer of prose and literary, social, and religious criticism.

20. Henry Austin Dobson (1840)

British Writer

English poet, author, and biographer known for Vignettes in Rhyme, At the Sign of the Lyre, and other works. A posthumous collection of his complete works was published in 1923.

21. Thomas Hardy (1840)

British Writer

An important Victorian Realist author, he is remembered for Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, and other novels. Also a significant poet, he published Moments of Vision,...

22. Robert Bridges (1844)

British Writer

British poet, author, hymn writer, and medical doctor who served as United Kingdom Poet Laureate from 1913-1930. His works include Eros and Psyche (poetry collection), The Christian Captives (verse play),...

23. Elizabeth Daryush (1887)

British Writer

British poet known for syllabic poems such as "Still Life" and "Accentedal." Her poetry collections include Sonnets from Hafez and The Last Man.

24. Rebecca West (1892)

British Writer

Feminist intellectual, journalist and author whose most famous politically and historically-themed works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, The New Meaning of Treason, and A Train of Powder. She was...

25. Hugh MacDiarmid (1892)

British Writer

Modernist poet associated with the Scottish Renaissance and known for a long poem entitled "A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle." He published his debut work, Annals of the Five...

26. Saunders Lewis (1893)

British Writer

Welsh playwright, poet, critic, and nationalist activist who is known for such plays as Esther.

27. Louis Golding (1895)

British Writer

Twentieth-century English author who is remembered for his short stories, travel books, and fantasy fiction. His popular 1932 novel, Magnolia Street, was adapted into a film.

28. Edgell Rickword (1898)

British Writer

British war poet, journalist, editor, and literary critic known for his Communist Party affiliation. His poetry collections include Behind the Eyes and Invocation to Angels.

29. Barbara Cartland (1901)

British Writer

A prolific and commercially successful British author, she is known for her romance novels. Her more than 700 books sold nearly 800 million copies worldwide.

30. Richard Llewellyn (1906)

British Writer

Known for such novels-turned-Hollywood films as How Green Was My Valley and None but the Lonely Heart, this acclaimed English author earned the 1940 National Book Award for the former...

31. Christianna Brand (1907)

British Writer

Both a crime and children's author most notable for her series Nurse Matilda, the subject of what would become the Nanny McPhee films. Other novels of hers include her debut...

32. John Creasey (1908)

British Writer

Famous for publishing over 600 crime and science fiction novels, he created memorable characters such as The Toff and Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard. The latter character was the...

33. Leonard Strong (1908)

British Writer

American actor who is notable for playing Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai roles in several films including both Anna and the King of Siam and its remake The King and...

34. Malcolm Lowry (1909)

British Writer

Most famous for his acclaimed mid-twentieth century novel Under the Volcano, Lowry is also remembered for his early work Ultramarine, as well as for his posthumously-published novel October Ferry to...

35. Monica Edwards (1912)

British Writer

Best remembered for her Punchbowl Farm and Romney Marsh book series, this twentieth-century British children's novelist published such popular individual titles as Wish for a Pony, The Badgers of Punchbowl...

36. Northrop Frye (1912)

British Writer

Literary theorist and philosopher who was best remembered for being one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.

37. Ian Serraillier (1912)

British Writer

Famous for his 1956 children's novel The Silver Sword and for his Carnegie Medal-nominated work The Ivory Horn, this British writer penned mythology & legend-based works and poetry as well...

38. Norman Nicholson (1914)

British Writer

British poet and author known for the vernacular and religious character of such poems as "Old Man at a Cricket Match." He also wrote several religious verse dramas, including Birth...

39. Jack Clemo (1916)

British Writer

British poet and author whose works include Wilding Graft (novel) and The Clay Verge (poems). He also published a 1949 autobiography entitled Confessions of a Rebel.

40. Doris Lessing (1919)

British Writer

Known for such novels as The Grass is Singing and The Golden Notebook, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007. Her other notable works include The Good...

41. Keith Douglas (1920)

British Writer

English poet remembered for "Desert Flowers" and other war-themed poems. He is also known for Alamein to Zem Zem, a posthumously-published war memoir.

42. Arthur Hailey (1920)

British Writer

A British Canadian realist novelist, he is known for setting each work within a particular industry (i.e., banking, the airline business, etc.). His best-known works include In High Places, Airport,...

43. John Christopher (1922)

British Writer

Born Sam Youd and better known by his pen name John Christopher, this Guardian Prize-winning science fiction writer most notably penned the 1956 work The Death of Grass and the...

44. David Holbrook (1923)

British Writer

British author, poet, critic, and scholar, who became known for novels such as Going Off the Rails (2003) and Getting it Wrong with Uncle Tom (1998). His poetry volumes include...

45. Tom Pocock (1925)

British Writer

Notable as a journalist for the Daily Express, the Evening Standard, the Daily Mail, and The Times, he is also known for his historical works and biographies of prominent sailors...

46. John Wain (1925)

British Writer

A Twentieth-century British poet, author, journalist, and literary critic, he is most famous for his 1982 novel, Young Shoulders, which was awarded the Whitbread Prize. His other notable works include...

47. Tom Sharpe (1928)

British Writer

English author who was known for writing the Wilt series and the books Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape.

48. Anthony Price (1928)

British Writer

Known for such Silver and Gold Dagger Award-winning spy novels as The Labyrinth Makers and Other Paths to Glory, this British writer became famous for a series of nearly two...

49. Derek Walker (1929)

British Writer

Twentieth-century English architect and urban planner. He built the town of Milton Keynes, England and headed the Architecture department at the Royal College of Art.

50. Adrian Mitchell (1932)

British Writer

Acclaimed English poet, novelist, editor, playwright, and political activist for the British Left. His poetry collections include Ride the Nightmare, The Apeman Cometh, and Heart on the Left.