1. Jane Austen (1775)

English Novelist

English author of such classic novels as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. Her widely read books became popular not only for their air of English countryside romance,...

2. Charles Dickens (1812)

English Novelist

Renowned 19th-century English author whose best known works include Oliver Twist, Bleak House, and A Christmas Carol. He created some of the most memorable characters in fiction, became known for...

3. Hugh Lofting (1886)

English Novelist

British children's author who created the famous Doctor Dolittle character. Lofting was the 1923 recipient of the prestigious Newbery Medal.

4. Anthony Powell (1905)

English Novelist

English novelist most well known for his twelve volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published over the course of twenty four years. He was featured in the...

5. Eleanor Hibbert (1906)

English Novelist

An English author who wrote under multiple pen names, she had sold more than 100 million copies of her popular novels by the time of her death. Her works include...

6. John Braine (1922)

English Novelist

Twentieth-century English writer whose best-known novels include Room at the Top, The Crying Game, and The Jealous God, all published during the 1950s and '60s. His later works include These...

7. Nina Bawden (1925)

English Novelist

British children's author and novelist whose best known works include The Witch's Daughter, Carrie's War, and The Peppermint Pig. She was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize in 1987, and...

8. Frederick Forsyth (1938)

English Novelist

The recipient of the 2012 Crime Writers Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger honor, this British author penned such popular thrillers as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, and The...

9. Terry Pratchett (1948)

English Novelist

Comic fantasy author who sold over 65 million books worldwide in his lifetime. His best known works include The Carpet People, Snuff, and the Carnegie Medal-winning work, The Amazing Maurice...

10. Martin Amis (1949)

English Novelist

Best known for such acclaimed novels as London Fields, The Information, and Money, he became famous for his grotesquely satirical literary portraits of Western capitalism.

11. Philippa Gregory (1954)

English Novelist

British historical fiction author most well known for her 2001 novel The Other Boleyn Girl. The book won Romantic Novel of the Year in 2002 and was made into a...

12. Paul Adam (English novelist) (Unknow)

English Novelist

Paul Adam is a British writer of novels for both adults and younger readers. Adam moved to Sheffield before the age of one. He studied law at Nottingham University then...

13. Georgette Heyer (1902)

English Novelist

Georgette Heyer /ˈheɪ. ər/ was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921 when she turned a story for her younger brother into the...

14. Ruth Rendell (1930)

English Novelist

Ruth Barbara Rendell Baroness Rendell of Babergh CBE is an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell’s best-known creation Chief Inspector Wexford is the hero of many popular...

15. Beryl Bainbridge (1932)

English Novelist

Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge DBE was an English writer from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction often set among the English working classes. Bainbridge won...

16. Rosalind Belben (1941)

English Novelist

Rosalind Belben is an English novelist. She was born in 1941 in Dorset where she now lives. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her novel Our...

17. Anne Mather (1946)

English Novelist

Anne Mather is the pseudonym used by Mildred Grieveson a popular British author of over 160 romance novels. She also signed novels as Caroline Fleming and Cardine Fleming. Mildred Grieveson...

18. Lindsey Davis (1949)

English Novelist

Lindsey Davis is an English historical novelist best known as the author of the Falco series of historical crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire.

19. Robert Goddard (novelist) (1954)

English Novelist

Robert William Goddard is an English novelist.

20. Kim Newman (1959)

English Novelist

Kim Newman is an English journalist film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod...

21. Diane Setterfield (1964)

English Novelist

Diane Setterfield is a British author whose 2006 debut novel The Thirteenth Tale became a New York Times No. 1 best-seller. It is written in the Gothic tradition with echoes...

22. Peter F. Hamilton (1960)

English Novelist

Peter F. Hamilton is a British author. He is best known for writing space opera. As of the publication of his tenth novel in 2004 his works had sold over...

23. Niel Bushnell (1970)

English Novelist

Niel Bushnell is an English writer and artist from Hartlepool. He is the author of the children's fantasy Sorrowline the first book in The Timesmith Chronicles series published in the...

24. Nicola Monaghan (1971)

English Novelist

Nicola Monaghan is an English novelist and author of The Killing Jar Starfishing and The Okinawa Dragon. Monaghan was listed in The Independent’s New Year 2006 list of rising talent...

25. Laurence Alma-Tadema (1865)

English Novelist

Laurence Alma-Tadema was an English novelist and poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked in many genres. Eldest daughter of the Dutch painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema and...

26. D. H. Lawrence (1885)

English Novelist

David Herbert Lawrence was an English novelist poet playwright essayist literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising...