LITERATURE UK HISTORY

• Agatha Christie's detective stories are read all over the world and lan Fleming's books introduced James Bond
• Past winners of the Man Booker Prize

  • lan McEwan
  • Hilary Mantel
  • Julian Barnes
• Jane Austen


  English novelist, her books include Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, her novels are concerned with marriage and family relationships
• Charles Dickens


  Wrote a number of very famous novels, including Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, you will hear references in everyday talk to some of the characters in his books, such as Scrooge (a mean person) or Mr Micawber (always hopeful)
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


  Scottish doctor and writer, best known for his stories about Sherlock Holmes, who was one of the first fictional detectives
• Evelyn Waugh


  Wrote satirical novels, including Decline and Fall and Scoop, he is perhaps best known for Brideshead Revisited
• Sir Kingsley Amis


  English novelist and poet, he wrote more than 20 novels, the most well-known is Lucky Jim
• Graham Greene


  Wrote novels often influenced by his religious beliefs, including The Heart of the Matter, The Honorary Consul, Brighton Rock and Our Man in Havana
• JK Rowling


  Wrote the Harry Potter series of children's books, which have enjoyed huge international success, she now writes fiction for adults as well
• Poems which survive from the Middle Ages include Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and a poem called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, about one of the knights at the court of King Arthur
• Other poets, including William Wordsworth, were inspired by nature
• Sir Walter Scott wrote poems inspired by Scotland and the traditional stories and songs from the area on the borders of Scotland and England, he also wrote novels, many of which were set in Scotland
• Poetry was very popular in the 19th century
• Popular poets in the 19th century

  • William Blake
  • John Keats
  • Lord Byron
  • Percy Shelley
  • Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • Robert and Elizabeth Browning
• Poets that were inspired to write about their experiences in the First World War (later)

  • Wilfred Owen
  • Siegfried Sasson
• Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey - are where some of the best-known poets buried or commemorated
• British writers that won a Nobel Prize in Literature

  • Sir William Golding (novelist)
  • Seamus Heany (poet)
  • Harold Pinter (playwright)
• Poets that were inspired to write about their experiences in the First World War (recent)

  • Sir Walter de la Mare
  • John Masefield
  • Sir John Betjeman
  • Ted Hughes
• Ian Fleming's books introduced James Bond.
• The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien was voted the country's best-loved novel
• The Booker Price for fiction is awarded annually for the best fiction novel written by an author from the Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe. It has been awarded since 1968.
• Past winners of The Booker Prize

  • Ian McEwan
  • Hilary Mantel
  • Julian Barnes
• Thomas Hardy

  an author and poet. His best known novels focus on rural society include Far from the Madding Crowd and Jude the Obscure
• Robert Louis Stevenson

  his most famous books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• Charles Dickens

  wrote a number of very famous novels, including Oliver Twist and Great Expectations
• Jane Austen

  was an English novelist. Her Books include Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Her novels are concerned with marriage and family relationships
• Beowulf

  an Anglo-Saxon poem that tells of its hero's battles against monsters and is still translated into modern English
• John Milton

  one of many poets that wrote poems inspired by their religious views. He wrote Paradise Lost