Campbell Armstrong
(Born 1944, Glasgow City)
Armstrong wrote around two dozen novels, many set in his home town of Glasgow. He also wrote his memoirs, published in 2000 called All That Really Matters.
Ian Cochrane
(Born 1941 in Moylarg, Antrim)
Cochrane is an Irish novelist known for his often dark honour and jokey titles like Ladybird in a Loony-bin and Jesus on a Stick.
James Brian Jacques
(Born 1939 in Liverpool, Merseyside)
A write of childrens novels in the Redwall series among others. Many of the characters in his books where based on the people that Jacques had met.
Dennis Potter
(Born 1935 in Berry Hill, Gloucestershire)
Potter was a writer of fiction such as Pennies from Heaven, The Singing Detective and Blue Remembered Hills. He mixed reality and fiction with popular culture.
Ted Walker
(Born 1934 in Lancing, West Sussex)
He was a journalist, writer of short stories, poet and broadcaster. His poem the Fox on a Barn Door is about his view of the countryside of Sussex.
Bryan Stanley Johnson
(Born 1933 in London, London)
The writer of Christie Malrys Own Double-Entry in 1973, a dystopian meta-fiction about a disalutions man rans his life using the Double-Entry book keeping system.
Leslie Thomas
(Born 1931 in Newport, Newport)
Leslie Thomas was a British author who wrote many novels and is particularly well known for his comic novel The Virgin Soldiers. In December 2004 he was made officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.
Brian Friel
(Born 1929 in Omagh, Tyrone)
Friel was considered a great. He was a prolific and award winning dramatist. Some of his well known works include: Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Dancing at Lughnasa and the three act play Translations.
Jane Grigson
(Born 1928 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire)
Jane Grigson was an English cookery writer. She wrote her first book Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery in 1967 and went on to write many more cookery books.
John Royden Maddox, Sir
(Born 1925 in Penllergaer, Swansea)
An honorary member of the Royal Society, Maddox wrote a number of works on science. Most recently published was What Remains to Be Discovered,other works include Beyond the Energy Crisis, The Doomsday Syndrome and Revolution in Biology.
Joan Aiken
(Born 1924 in Rye, East Sussex)
She became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1999, for her services to literature. Her well know early works include The Whispering Mountain and Black Hearts in Battersea. Over the year she has written, plays and poems, period and modern novels, supernatural and magic works, non-fiction and worked with illustrators on picture books.. In all she wrote more than a hundred piece, and readers of her works gained many new friends.
Dick King-Smith
(Born 1922 in Bitton, Gloucestershire)
He is perhaps best known for writing The Sheep-Pig. Not heard of it? Well in America it was known as Babe, the Gallant Pig and adapted for film in 1995 as just Babe.
Dame Muriel Sarah Spark
(Born 1918 in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh)
She was named one of Britains greatest writers. One of her early works was The Comforters, in which the main character begins to realise that she is a character in a novel.
Antonia Forest
(Born 1915 in Hampstead, London)
Forest was a writer of books aimed at a young audience, you may as a child have read her most famous works about the Marlows.
Hammond Innes
(Born 1913 in Horsham, West Sussex)
Innes was a prolific novelist with around thirty titles to his name. He also wrote childrens books and non fiction on travel.
Conroy Maddox
(Born 1912 in Ledbury, Herefordshire)
A collagist, painter and writer. From 1935 on wards he was a part of the Surrealist movement.
Mary Wesley
(Born 1912 in Englefield Green, Surrey)
She was without doubt a very popular writer of fiction, Wesley had her last novel Part of the Furniture published in 1997 at age at age 85. It was about a girls life story moving to the West Country and finding her independence and not being just part of the furniture.
Brian ONolan
(Born 1911 in Strabane, Tyrone)
A twentieth century Irish novelist. Some of his notable works include, The Hard Life, The Dalkey Archive, At Swim-Two-Birds, He used the pseudonym Flann OBrien.
Wilbert Awdry
(Born 1911 in Ampfield, Hampshire)
Writer of the well loved and very popular Thomas the tank engine along with many other stories in the railway series of books. He is perhaps better known as the Reverend W. Awdry.
Kenneth Muir, Prof
(Born 1907, London)
A scholar and prolific author of works on Elizabethan, Shakespearean and other theatre.
Eleanor Hibbert
(Born 1906 in Canning Town, London)
A prolific writer of romantic, historical and Gothic fiction with around 200 novels written under many pseudonyms.
Catherine Cookson
(Born 1906 in South Sheilds, Tyne and Wear)
An English author of mainly historical fiction, Catherine Cookson became the most widely read novelist in the UK. Her first novel was Kate Hannigan which was published in 1950 and she went on to write almost 100 books. Many of her novels were transferred to film, stage and radio. She received an OBE in 1985 which was elevated to a DBE in 1993.
Noel Coward, Sir
(Born 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex)
Noel Coward was an English playwright, actor, singer, composer and director. From his teens onwards he had more than 50 plays published, composed hundreds of songs, created musical theatre works and wrote poetry and short stories. A few examples of his plays are This Happy Breed, Blythe Spirit and Relative Values
Ralph Bates
(Born 1899 in Swindon, Wiltshire)
He wrote nine novels between 1933 and 1950, his last one being The Dolphin in the Wood.
Clive Staples Lewis
(Born 1898 in Belfast, Antrim)
Perhaps best known for writing the Chronicles of Narnia C.S.Lewis was a scholar and novelist born in Belfast.
William Soutar
(Born 1898 in Perth, Perth and Kinross)
A noted literary figure in Scotland, who wrote in both Braid Scots which helped to make him popular in Scotland and in English.
Elinor Brent-Dyer
(Born 1894 in South Sheilds, Tyne and Wear)
She was an English childrens writer, whose first novel Gerry Goes to School appeared in 1922. She wrote adventure and school stories and was known for the Chalet School series. In her lifetime she wrote over 100 books.
Dorothy Whipple
(Born 1893 in Blackburn, Lancashire)
Whipple was a popular author, writing around eighteen novels. Two of which were made into film just after the Second World War 1945/46 - They Were Sisters highlighting marital abuse - They Knew Mr. Knight dealing with crime and dealing with coming out of prison.
Mary Thomas
(Born 1889 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire)
She is the writer of the Mary Thomas Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, Book of Knitting Patterns), Embroidery Book, Knitting Book and Teach Yourself Embroidery. Dispute publishing all her works back in the 1930s, she is well respected now. Just goes to show that some thing do not need to change.
William Forbes Marshall
(Born 1888 in Sixmilecross, Tyrone)
Marshall was a prolific author, broadcaster and Presbyterian Minister from Sixmilecross. He had a great knowledge of Mid Ulster English and wrote Ulster Sails West, about Ulster people settling in America.
Edwin Muir
(Born 1887 in Deerness, Orkney Islands)
Edwin Muir was a poet, novelist and translator. He published seven volumes of poetry and wrote three novels and is remembered for his intensely felt and realistic poetry.
Virginia Woolf
(Born 1882 in Kensington, London)
Virginia was her middle name and Woolf her married name. She came from a wealthy family and home schooled. She wrote a number of novels, The Voyage out, Night and Day, Jacobs Room, Mrs Dalloway, To The Lighthouse, Orlando, The Waves, The Years and lastly Between the Acts. She was also a writer of short stories and a critic amongst other literary works.
John Edward Masefield
(Born 1878 in Ledbury, Herefordshire)
Appointed Poet Laureate by George V in 1930 and remained so until 1967. Masefield wrote plays, novels, poetry, autobiographies and non-fiction.
Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, Sir
(Born 1874 in Woodstock, Oxfordshire)
Churchill was a prolific painter and writer. You can see many of his works at Chartwell in Kent, where he lived and worked for many years. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
George William Russell
(Born 1867 in Lurgan, Armagh)
Russell was a writer, poet, artist and more. He wrote two novels, The Interpreters and The Avatars. There is a bust of Russell in Merrion Square in Dublin. There is also a plaque on 84 Merrion Square that reads, George William Russell AE 1867 – 1935 Poet Mystic Painter Co-operator worked here.
Beatrix Potter
(Born 1866 in Kensington, London)
She was an illustrator, author, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her childrens books such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit in which she featured animal characters. In her career she published over 23 books. Due to her love of The Lake District, in 1905 she bought Hill Top Farm, Near Sawrey. Her books are still very popular and continue to sell all over the world and her stories have been retold in film, animation,dance and song.
Anthony Hope Hawkins, Sir
(Born 1863 in Clapton, London)
He is a rather well known author due to his novel The Prisoner of Zenda. and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau. Zenda was adapted as a film in 1937. He had to self publish his first novel - A Man of Mark. There is a blue plaque to him in Bedford Square, London.
Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir
(Born 1859, Edinburgh)
A rather famous Scottish writer. Perhaps best known for crime fiction novels about a detective named, Sherlock Holmes. He was a prolific writer of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, historical novels and plays.
John OKane Murray
(Born 1847, Antrim)
Physician and author of books on Irish poets and poetry, lessons in English literature, biographies and history.
Mary Gleed Tuttiett
(Born 1846 in Newport, Isle of Wight)
In 1886, she wrote her best known work The Silence of Dean Maitland under her pen name of Maxwell Gray. The novel is set on the Isle of Wight and was dramatised as a black and white silent film called Sealed Lips in 1912. The film is set in a fictional Isle of Wight, where the dean commits murder but allows his wrongly accused friend to go to prison for his crime.
Marion Adams-Acton
(Born 1846 in Brodick, North Ayrshire)
She often wrote under the pseudonym of Jeanie Hering and was a prolific writer of fiction. She also wrote non-fiction, mostly about dogs.
Catherine (Kate) Greenaway
(Born 1846 in Hoxton, London)
Kate was popular and prolific illustrator and writer of books for children. Some of her well known illustrations can be found in works like, Poly in The Queen of the Pirate Isle by the America novelist Bret Harte or the Pied Piper in the version by Robert Browning.
Walter Crane
(Born 1845 in Liverpool, Merseyside)
A prolific artist who worked with pottery, stained glass, illustration and more. He was well know as an author of childrens books. He was both a disciple and friend to William Morris.
George Ashdown Audsley
(Born 1838 in Elgin, Moray)
He is well known as the designer of the Wanamaker Organ but was also an illustrator, architect and writer.
James Augustus Henry Murray, Sir
(Born 1837 in Denholm, Scottish Borders)
Murray was the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary between 1879 and his death in 1915. It is interesting to note that he left school at 14 because his parents could not afford the school feel.
Leslie Stephen
(Born 1832 in Kensington Gore, London)
The prolific English author and father to Virginia Woolf. He was also a keen climber and from 1865–1968 he was the president of the Alpine Club
Lewis Carroll
(Born 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire)
The world famous author of Alices Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871).
George Meredith
(Born 1828 in Portsmouth, Hampshire)
Meredith received seven nominations for the Noble Prize for literature. His first novel was The Shaving of Shagpat - a bit like The Arabian Nights (English version 1706). His perhaps most famous piece of poetry was The Lark Ascending which inspired Ralph Vaughan Williams to write his classic work of the same name.
Anna Bronte
(Born 1820 in Thornton, West Yorkshire)
An English Poetess and writer of fiction. Anna was perhaps most famous for her second and final novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Robert Surtees
(Born 1805 in Durham, Durham)
Robert Surtees was an English novelist and sporting writer. He began writing for the Sporting Magazine before he started out on his own on the New Sporting Magazine in 1831. He went on to write novels and create comic personalities. One example of his work is Mr Sponges Sporting Tour which was written in 1853.
Henry Taylor
(Born 1800 in Bishop Middleham, Durham)
Taylor was a dramatist and poet. He became quite famous and had been compared to Shakespeare. For further reading his plays included Isaac Comnenus, The Virgin Widow, St. Clements Eve and Philip van Artevelde.
Mary Shelley
(Born 1797 in Somers Town, London)
Shelley was the creator of Frankenstein, one of the great early Gothic novels. She was married to Percy Shelley, one of the finest poets.
William Carleton
(Born 1794 in Clogher, Tyrone)
Carleton was a prolific Irish novelist. Writing between 1829 and 1862. There was a book written about him in 1896 called The Life of William Carleton.
Patrick Bronte
(Born 1777 in Rathfriland, Down)
The father of the famous Bronte sisters, Patrick was a poet and writer. He actually changed his name from Brunty.
John Cheyne
(Born 1777 in Leith, Edinburgh)
He was a well respected doctor who wrote a number of books on the Larynx (voice box) and childhood diseases.
Charles Lamb
(Born 1775 in Inner Temple, London)
He is best known for Essays of Elia, where he is Elia. The essays first appeared in The London Magazine (est 1732 and the old literary periodical) in 1820 before being published together in 1823.
Walter Savage Landor
(Born 1775 in Warwick, Warwickshire)
Landon was a writer and poet. Perhaps best known for one work - Imaginary Conversations - which had five volumes - each with conversations between ancient Romans and Greeks.
James Hogg
(Born 1770 in Selkirk, Scottish Borders)
Writing both in English and Scots, Hogg wrote poetry, short stories, satirical sermons, essays and an unautorised biography of Sir Walter Scott.
William Beckford
(Born 1760 in Soho, London)
Writer of novel the Gothic novel, Vathek. Which he originally wrote in French. The Novel was inspired by The Arabian Nights and Voltaire.
Thomas Bewick
(Born 1753 in Mickley, Northumberland)
An engraver, writer and illustrator.
William Hayley
(Born 1745 in Chichester, West Sussex)
Schooled at Eton and Cambridge, Hayley was the biographer of William Cowper the English poet.
Simon Yorke
(Born 1743 in Erddig, Wrexham)
A writer who focused on genealogy.
Thomas Otway
(Born 1652 in Trotton, West Sussex)
The Orphan and Venice Preserved were some of his best known works.
John Bunyan
(Born 1628 in Elstow, Bedfordshire)
As a writer Bunyan was most famous for The Pilgrims Progress, although he did write many dozens more works.
William Shakespeare
(Born 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire)
Perhaps one of the most famous writers of all time. Shakespeare is often called the Bard of Avon. We do not know his actual birthday, so have used his baptism date instead.
