Happy St George's Day! To celebrate the patron saint of England, here's a highly subjective and divisive list of English authors, all of which this correspondent believes to be greatly influential in their writing.
1. Ian McEwan - The Booker winner divides his fans, but always keeps his integrity by creating sublime novels and flawless writing. His portrayal of English life is stiff-upper-lippedly perfect in its tone and scope.
2. Agatha Christie - The world's bestselling author (at least I think so - citation needed!) created the archetypal English Murder Mystery using her great protagonists Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, and the most curiously English Belgian detective you'll find in literature, Hercule Poirot. Also (favouritism warning), she was born and raised in my home town.
3. John Wyndham - The master of the weird and disturbing, I love Wyndham's books for their imagination, darkness and presentation of and England that time has forgotten. Recommended: Chocky and The Midwych Cuckoos.
4. Douglas Adams - A great satirist of England and its foibles, Adams wrote the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, an inter-spacial, inter-temporal trilogy in five parts, seen through the eyes of an Englishman who just so happens to be the last human male in the universe.
5. JK Rowling - Okay, this may be the most divisive one on the list. JKR is not the world's greatest writer, but she's a darn fine storyteller and has done more to lift the bookselling industry and get people reading in the last twenty years than the rest of the literati put together. Don't agree? Tell me why in the comments.
6. Lewis Carroll - AKA Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the Alice books are probably the most influential children's books in history, inspiring and confusing generations since their inception in 1865.
Okay, who did I miss? Let me know in the comments or on twitter.
Toodle pip.
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