British Literature: 20th Century

Writer, born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, EC England, UK.

Science-fiction writer and novelist, born in East Dereham, Norfolk, E England, UK.

British writer, scientist, and underwater explorer noted for his stories of space exploration. His works include 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

British writer. His best-known work, Brave New World (1932), paints a grim picture of a scientifically organized utopia.

English novelist and writer on social and political problems; one of the first authors of science fiction; author of The War of the Worlds (1898) and The Time Machine (1895).

Writer, born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, SC England, UK.

Born in South Africa, where his father was a bank manager, Tolkien came to England at the age of three.

English novelist, essayist, and poet. He wrote numerous short stories featuring a Catholic priest, Father Brown, who solves crimes by drawing on his knowledge of human nature.

Agatha Christie was one of the most celebrated writers of detective stories, many of which have been made into films, TV series, and plays.

British writer known for her detective stories, usually featuring the amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey.

The English socialist and feminist Vera Brittain has an enduring reputation as the author of one of the most moving accounts of the individual experience of war in Testament of Youth (1933).

British soldier, scholar, and translator.

US poet born in England, noted for his lyrical technique.

Poet, broadcaster, and writer on architecture, born in London, UK.

Northern Irish poet and critic; poetry collections include The Haw Lantern (1987); Nobel prize for literature 1995.

Poet, born in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, N England, UK.

Irish-born British poet whose works, published in Blind Fireworks (1929) and other collections, treat social issues in a detached, often ironic manner.

English poet, dramatist, songwriter, and performer.

Welsh poet, born in Swansea.

Novelist and poet, born in London, UK.

English novelist and journalist. His works are characterized by their sharp black humour and depict the absurdity and excesses of modern society.

Novelist, born near Hanley, Staffordshire, C England, UK.

English novelist, critic, and composer.

By the time of her early death Angela Carter had established herself as one of the most individual voices in British contemporary fiction.

British writer and editor whose most important novels, The Good Soldier (1915) and the tetralogy Parade's End (1924-1928), examine the bonds of conjugal and adulterous relationships.

English novelist, short-story writer, and critic.

English novelist and dramatist.

English novelist. His work is often principally concerned with the fundamental corruption and evil inherent in human nature.

Poet and novelist, born in London, UK.

British writer particularly known for his novels, such as The Power and the Glory (1940), which reflect his ardent Catholic beliefs.

British writer whose fiction concerns the struggle for human fulfillment within a dehumanizing industrialized society. His novels include Sons and Lovers (1913), Women in Love (1920), and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928). He also wrote literary criticism and psychoanalytical works.

Novelist, born in Poole, Dorset, S England, UK.

Scottish author Born in Glasgow, he was educated at Glasgow University and served in the Royal Navy (1941-46).

Novelist, playwright, and short-story writer, born in Paris, France.

British novelist, born near London as Richard Patrick Russ.

Pen-name of Eric Arthur Blair, an English writer.

Novelist, born in London, UK. He studied at Oxford, worked in publishing and journalism before WW2, and by 1936 had published four satirical novels, beginning with Afternoon Men (1931).

British novelist and writer; her novels include Memento Mori (1959), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Takeover (1976), A Far Cry from Kensington (1988), Symposium (1990), and Reality and Dreams (1996).

English novelist. His early satirical novels include Decline and Fall (1928), Vile Bodies (1930), A Handful of Dust (1934), and Scoop (1938).

née Stephen English author.

British writer known for his humorous novels and stories that feature the aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves.

English author, actor, and composer; noted for comedies such as Blithe Spirit (1941) and Private Lives (1930).

Playwright, novelist, and translator, born in London, UK.

British dramatist. His plays include Look Back in Anger (1956), containing the prototype of the angry young man, Jimmy Porter, The Entertainer (1957), and Inadmissible Evidence (1964).

Playwright, born in London, UK, of a Russian father and Hungarian mother.

English dramatist. His plays, such as The Caretaker (1960), The Homecoming (1965), Landscape (1968), and Ashes to Ashes (1996), are noted for their equivocal and halting dialogue.

British playwright, born in Czechoslovakia: his works include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1967), Travesties (1974), Hapgood (1988), and Invention of Love (1997).