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British literature
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British literature refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, Channel
Islands, as well as to literature from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, prior to the formation of
the UK.[1] By far the largest part of British literature is written in the English language, but there are
bodies of written works in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais, Guernésiais
and other languages. Northern Ireland has a literary tradition in English, Ulster Scots and Irish. Irish
writers have also played an important part in the development of English-language literature.
Literature in the Celtic languages of the islands is the oldest surviving vernacular literature in
Europe. The Welsh literary tradition stretches from the 6th century to the 21st century. The oldest
Welsh literature does not belong to the territory we know as Wales today, but rather to northern
England and southern Scotland. But though it is dated to be from the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries, it
has survived only in 13th- and 14th-century manuscript copies.
Contents
■ 1 Latin literature
■ 2 Early Celtic literature
■ 3 Old English literature 449–1066
■ 4 Late medieval literature
■ 5 Early Modern English literature
■ 5.1 Elizabethan and Jacobean eras
■ 5.2 1660–1800
■ 6 Non English-language literatures from the 16th century to the 19th century
■ 7 19th century English language literature
■ 7.1 Romanticism
■ 7.2 The 19th century novel
■ 7.3 Victorian poets
■ 7.4 Ireland
■ 7.5 Wales
■ 7.6 Scotland
■ 8 English language literature since 1900
■ 9 Non English language literatures since 1900
■ 10 Literary prizes
■ 11 See also
■ 12 References
■ 13 External links
Latin literature
Main article: Latin literature in Britain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_writer 06-11-2010
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Chroniclers such as Bede, with his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, and Gildas, with his De
Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, were figures in the development of indigenous Latin literature,
mostly ecclesiastical, in the centuries following the withdrawal of the Roman Empire.
The Historia Brittonum composed in the 9th century is traditionally ascribed to Nennius. It is the
earliest source which presents King Arthur as a historical figure, and is the source of several stories
which were repeated and amplified by later authors.
Adomnán's most important work is the Vita Columbae, a hagiography of Columba, and the most
important surviving work written in early medieval Scotland. It is a vital source for knowledge of the
Picts, as well as an insight into the life of Iona Abbey and the early medieval Gaelic monk. The vita
of Columba contains a story that has been interpreted as the first reference to the Loch Ness Monster.
Early Celtic literature

For a comparatively small country, Ireland has made a large contribution to world literature in all its
branches. The Irish literature that is best known outside the country is in English, but the Irish
language also has the most significant body of written literature, both ancient and recent, in any
Celtic language, in addition to a strong oral tradition of legends and poetry.
The Ulster Cycle written in the 12th century, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of
the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly
counties Armagh, Down and Louth. The stories are written in Old and Middle Irish, mostly in prose,
interspersed with occasional verse passages. The language of the earliest stories is dateable to the 8th
century, and events and characters are referred to in poems dating to the 7th.[2]
In Medieval Welsh literature the period before 1100 is known as the period of Y Cynfeirdd ("The
earliest poets") or Yr Hengerdd ("The old poetry"). It roughly dates from the birth of the Welsh
language until the arrival of the Normans in Wales towards the end of the 11th century.
The stories of the Mabinogion appear in either or both of two Medieval Welsh manuscripts, the
White Book of Rhydderch (Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch) written ca. 1350, and the Red Book of Hergest
(Llyfr Coch Hergest) written about 1382–1410, although texts or fragments of some of the tales have
been preserved in earlier 13th century and later manuscripts. Scholars agree that the tales are older
than the existing manuscripts, but disagree over just how much older.
Gaelic literature in Scotland includes a celebration, attributed to the Irish monk Adomnán, of the
Pictish King Bridei's (671-93) victory of the Northumbrians at the Battle of Dunnichen (685).
Old English literature 449–1066

Main article: Old English literature
The earliest form of English literature developed after the settlement of the Saxons and other
Germanic tribes in England after the withdrawal of the Romans and is known as Old English or
Anglo-Saxon.
Cædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known. Cædmon's only known surviving work is
Cædmon's Hymn, probably dating from the late 7th century. The poem is one of the earliest attested
examples of Old English and is, with the runic Ruthwell Cross and Franks Casket inscriptions, one
of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry. It is also one of the
earliest recorded examples of sustained poetry in a Germanic language.
The epic poem Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English. A
hero of the Geats, Beowulf battles three antagonists: Grendel,
Grendel's mother, and a Dragon. The only surviving manuscript is
the Nowell Codex. The precise date of the manuscript is debated, but
most estimates place it close to the year 1000.
Chronicles contained a range of historical and literary accounts; one

notable example is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which contains
various heroic poems inserted throughout.
The Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity after their arrival

in England. A popular poem, The Dream of the Rood, was inscribed
upon the Ruthwell Cross. Judith is a retelling of the story found in
the Latin Bible's Book of Judith of the beheader of the Assyrian
general Holofernes. The Old English Martyrology is a Mercian
collection of hagiographies. Ælfric of Eynsham was a prolific 10th
Beowulf
century writer of hagiographies and homilies.
Late medieval literature

The linguistic diversity of the islands in the medieval period,
with each of the languages producing literatures at various
times which contributed to the rich variety of artistic
production, made British literature distinctive and innovative.[3]
Latin literature circulated among the educated classes. Gerald

of Wales's most distinguished works are those dealing with
Wales and Ireland, with his late 12th century two books in Latin
on his beloved Wales the most important: Itinerarium
Cambriae and Descriptio Cambriae which tell us much about
Welsh history and geography.
Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the development of

Anglo-Norman literature in the Anglo-Norman realm
introduced literary trends from Continental Europe such as the
chanson de geste. However, the indigenous development of
Anglo-Norman literature was precocious in comparison to Sir Bedivere casts King Arthur's
continental Oïl literature: Geoffrey Gaimar produced the sword Excalibur back to the Lady
earliest rhymed chronicle; Benedeit, the earliest adventure of the Lake. The Arthurian Cycle
narrative inspired by Celtic sources; Jordan Fantosme, the has influenced British literature
across languages and down the
earliest eyewitness historiography; Philippe de Thaun, the
centuries.
earliest scientific literature.[3]
Religious literature continued to enjoy popularity. Hagiographies continued to be written, adapted

and translated: for example, The Life of Saint Audrey, Eadmer's contemporary biography of Anselm
of Canterbury, and the South English Legendary.
The Roman de Fergus was the earliest piece of non-Celtic vernacular literature to come from
Scotland. As the Norman nobles of Scotland assimilated to indigenous culture they commissioned
Scots versions of popular continental romances, for example: Launcelot o the Laik and The Buik o
Alexander.
While chroniclers such as William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon attempted to weave
such historical information they had access to into coherent narratives, other writers took more
creative approaches to their material.[4]
Geoffrey of Monmouth was one of the major figures in the development of British history and the
popularity for the tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle Historia Regum
Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) of 1136, which spread Celtic motifs to a wider audience,
including accounts of Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, wizard Merlin, and sword Caliburnus (named
as Excalibur in some manuscripts of Wace).
Culhwch and Olwen is a Welsh tale about a hero connected with Arthur and his warriors, and is the
longest of the surviving Welsh prose tales. It is perhaps the earliest extant Arthurian tale and one of
Wales' earliest extant prose texts.
The 12th century Jersey poet Wace is considered the founder

of Jersey literature and contributed to the development of the
Arthurian legend in British literature. His Brut showed the
interest of Norman patrons in the mythologising of the new
English territories of the Anglo-Norman realm by building on
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History, and introduced King
Arthur's Round Table to literature. His Roman de Rou placed
the Dukes of Normandy within an epic context.[4]
Wace, the earliest known Jersey The Prophecy of Merlin is a 12th-century poem written in
poet, developed the Arthurian Latin hexameters by John of Cornwall, which he claimed was
legend and chronicled the Dukes of based or revived from a lost manuscript in the Cornish
Normandy language. Marginal notes on Cornish vocabulary are among
the earliest known writings in the Cornish language.[5]
At the end of the 12th century, Layamon's Brut adapted Wace to make the first English language
work to discuss the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It was also the first
historiography written in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba is a short chronicle of the Kings of Alba. It was written in
Hiberno-Latin but displays some knowledge of contemporary Middle Irish orthography and probably
put together in the early 13th century by the man who wrote de Situ Albanie. The original text was
without doubt written in Scotland, probably in the early 11th century, shortly after the reign of
Kenneth II, the last reign it relates.
Early English Jewish literature developed after the Norman Conquest with Jewish settlement in
England. Berechiah ha-Nakdan is known chiefly as the author of a 13th century set of over a hundred
fables, called Mishle Shualim, (Fox Fables), which are derived from both Berachyah's own
inventions and some borrowed and reworked from Aesop's fables, the Talmud, and the Hindus.[6]
The collection also contains fables conveying the same plots and morals as those of Marie de France.
The development of Jewish literature in mediaeval England ended with the Edict of Expulsion of
1290.
Matthew Paris wrote a number of works in the 13th century. Some were written in Latin, some in
Anglo-Norman or French verse. His Chronica Majora is an oft-cited historical source.
In the later medieval period a new form of English now known as Middle English evolved. This is
the earliest form which is comprehensible to modern readers and listeners, albeit not easily. Middle
English Bible translations, notably Wyclif's Bible, helped to establish English as a literary language.
Romances appear in English from the 13th century, with King Horn and Havelock the Dane, based
on Anglo-Norman originals such as the Romance of Horn.[3]
William Langland's Piers Plowman is considered by many critics to be one of the early great works
of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
(most likely by the Pearl Poet) during the Middle Ages. It is also the first allusion to a literary
tradition of the legendary English archer, swordsman, and outlaw Robin Hood.
The most significant Middle English author was Geoffrey Chaucer

who was active in the late 14th century. Often regarded as the
father of English literature, Chaucer is widely credited as the first
author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular
English language, rather than French or Latin. The Canterbury
Tales was Chaucer's magnum opus, and a towering achievement of
Western culture. The first recorded association of Valentine's Day
with romantic love is in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules 1382,[7]
and sending Valentine's Day cards became hugely popular in
Britain in the late 18th century, a practice that has since spread to
other nations.[8][9]
The multilingual audience for literature in the 14th century can be

illustrated by the example of John Gower, who wrote in Latin,
Geoffrey Chaucer, father of Middle English and Anglo-Norman.
English literature
Women writers were also active, such as Marie de France in the
12th century and Julian of Norwich in the early 14th century. Julian's Revelations of Divine Love
(circa 1393) is believed to be the first published book written by a woman in the English language.
[10]
Margery Kempe (c. 1373 – after 1438) is known for writing The Book of Margery Kempe, a work
considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language, which chronicles, to some
extent, her extensive pilgrimages to various holy sites in Europe and Asia.
Dafydd ap Gwilym's main themes were love and nature. The influence of wider European ideas of
courtly love, as exemplified in the troubadour poetry of Provençal, is seen as a significant influence
on Dafydd's poetry. He was an innovative poet who was responsible for popularising the metre
known as the "cywydd" and first to use it for praise. But perhaps his greatest innovation was to make
himself the main focus of his poetry. By its very nature, most of the work of the traditional Welsh
court poets kept their own personalities far from their poetry. Dafydd's work is full of his own
feelings and experiences.
Since at least the 14th century, poetry in English has been written in Ireland and by Irish writers
abroad. The earliest poem in English by a Welsh poet dates from about 1470. The Latin and English
poem Flen flyys written around 1475, is chiefly famous for containing in coded form the first known
written usage in English of a particular profane term in the English language.
Among the earliest Lowland Scots literature is Barbour's Brus (14th century). Whyntoun's Kronykil
and Blind Harry's Wallace date from the (15th century). From the 13th century much literature based
around the royal court in Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews was produced by writers such
as Henrysoun, Dunbar, Douglas and Lyndsay. The works of Chaucer had an influence on Scottish
writers.
In the Cornish language Passhyon agan Arloedh ("The Passion of our Lord"), a poem of 259 eight-
line verses written in 1375, is one of the earliest surviving works of Cornish literature. The most
important work of literature surviving from the Middle Cornish period is An Ordinale Kernewek
("The Cornish Ordinalia"), a 9000-line religious drama composed around the year 1400. The longest
single surviving work of Cornish literature is Bywnans Meriasek (The Life of Meriasek), a play
dated 1504, but probably copied from an earlier manuscript.
Le Morte d'Arthur, is Sir Thomas Malory's 15th century compilation of some French and English
Arthurian romances, was among the earliest books printed in England, and was influential in the
later revival of interest in the Arthurian legends.
Sir Thomas More coined the word "utopia", a name he gave to

the ideal, imaginary island nation whose political system he
described in Utopia, written in Latin and published in 1516.
The landmark work in the reign of James IV of Scotland was

Gavin Douglas's Eneados, the first complete translation of a
major classical text in an Anglian language, finished in 1513. Its
reception however was overshadowed by the Flodden defeat that
same year, and the political instability that followed in the
kingdom. Another major work, David Lyndsay's Ane Pleasant
Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, later in the century, is a surviving
example of a dramatic tradition in the period that has otherwise
largely been lost. At the end of the 16th century, James VI of
Scotland founded the Castalian Band, a group of makars and
musicians in the court, based on the model of the Pléiade in
France. The courtier and makar Alexander Montgomerie was a
leading member. However this cultural centre was lost after the
1603 Union of the Crowns when James shifted his court to Thomas More book Utopia,
London. From 1603, London was the unrivalled cultural capital illustration of imaginary island,
of the isles. 1516
Early Modern English literature

Elizabethan and Jacobean eras
Main articles: Elizabethan literature and Jacobean era literature
The English Renaissance dated from the early 16th century to

the early 17th century. The sonnet form and other Italian literary
influences arrived in English literature. The sonnet was
introduced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th
century.
In the later 16th century English poetry was characterised by

elaboration of language and extensive allusion to classical
myths. The most important poets of this period included
Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney.
English Renaissance theatre was among the most important

literary achievements of the English Renaissance. William
Shakespeare, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the
English language, wrote over 35 plays in several genres,
William Shakespeare's career including tragedy, comedy and history. Other major playwrights
straddled the change of Tudor of the time included Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and
and Stuart dynasties and Thomas Kyd.
encompassed English history and
the emerging imperial idea of the At the Reformation, the translation of liturgy and Bible into
17th century vernacular languages provided new literary models. The Book of
Common Prayer and the Authorized King James Version of the
Bible have been hugely influential. The King James Bible as one
of the biggest translation projects in the history of English up to this

time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. It represents the
culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English from the
original languages that began with the work of William Tyndale
(previous translations into English had relied on the Vulgate). It
became the standard Bible of the Church of England, and some
consider it one of the greatest literary works of all time.
Philosopher Sir Francis Bacon wrote the utopian novel New Atlantis,
and coined the phrase "Knowledge is Power".
The prolific Jacobean playwright and poet Thomas Middleton's The

Revenger's Tragedy, is an early example of illegitimacy in fiction.
Other Jacobean playwrights include John Fletcher and John
Webster. John Milton, religious epic
poem Paradise Lost
English poets of the early 17th century are crudely classified by the published in 1667.
division into Cavalier poets and metaphysical poets, the latter being
much concerned with religion. The division is therefore along a line
approximating to secular/religious. Major poets of the 17th century included John Donne, Andrew
Marvell, and George Herbert. Thomas Carew was among poets who wrote country house poems.
John Milton's 1644 Areopagitica, is an influential and impassioned philosophical defence of the
principle of a right to freedom of speech, written in opposition to licensing and censorship, as an
eloquent defence of press freedom. Milton's religious epic Paradise Lost was first published in 1667.
1660–1800
Main articles: Restoration literature, Augustan poetry, and Augustan literature
The position of Poet Laureate was formalised during this period.
Diarists John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys depicted everyday London

life and the cultural scene of the times. Their works are among the
most important primary sources for the English Restoration period,
and consists of eyewitness accounts of many great events, such as
the Great Plague of London, and the Great Fire of London.
The publication of The Pilgrim's Progress in 1678, established the

theologian John Bunyan as a notable writer.
A seminal book in piracy, A General History of the Pyrates 1724,

was published in London, and contained biographies of several
Samuel Pepys, took the diary notorious English pirates such as Blackbeard and Calico Jack.[11]
beyond mere business
transaction notes, into the The early 18th century is known as the Augustan Age of English
realm of the personal literature. The poetry of the time was highly formal, as exemplified
by the works of Alexander Pope.
The English pictorial satirist and editorial cartoonist William Hogarth emerged In the 18th century,
who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic
portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". Much of his work
poked fun at contemporary politics and customs; illustrations in such style are often referred to as
"Hogarthian".[12]
Although documented history of Irish theatre began at least as early

as 1601, the earliest Irish dramatists of note were William Congreve,
one of the most interesting writers of Restoration comedies, and
Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, two of the most
successful playwrights on the London stage in the 18th century.
The Graveyard Poets were a number of pre-Romantic English poets

of the 18th century characterised by their gloomy meditations on
mortality, 'skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms' in the context of
the graveyard. To this was added, by later practitioners, a feeling for
the 'sublime' and uncanny, and an interest in ancient English poetic
forms and folk poetry. They are often considered precursors of the
Gothic genre, and poets include; Thomas Gray, William Cowper,
Christopher Smart, Thomas Chatterton, and Edward Young.
The question of identifying the first novel in English is a subject of

academic discussion. The English novel developed during the 18th
Daniel Defoe 1719 castaway
century, partly in response to an expansion of the middle-class novel Robinson Crusoe, with
reading public. One of the major early works in this genre was the Crusoe standing over Man
seminal castaway novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The Friday after freeing him
18th century novel tended to be loosely structured and semi-comic. from the cannibals
Henry Fielding's Tom Jones is considered a comic masterpiece.
Samuel Richardson is known for his three epistolary novels:
Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded 1740, Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady 1748 and The History
of Sir Charles Grandison 1753. Novelists from the mid-to-late 18th century include; Laurence
Sterne, Samuel Johnson, and Tobias Smollett, who influenced Charles Dickens.[13]
Although the epics of Celtic Ireland were written in prose and not
verse, most people would probably consider that Irish fiction proper
begins in the 18th century with the works of Jonathan Swift, notably
Gulliver's Travels 1726, and Oliver Goldsmith, with his best known
novel The Vicar of Wakefield 1766.
Edward Cave created the first general-interest magazine with The

Gentleman's Magazine. He was the first to use the term "magazine"
on the analogy of a military storehouse of varied material.
John Newbery made children's literature a sustainable and profitable

part of the literary market, and he published his most popular story
Jonathan Swift The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes in 1765.
Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, invented the

Gothic fiction genre, that combines elements of horror and romance. The pioneering gothic novelist
Ann Radcliffe introduced the brooding figure of the gothic villain which developed into the Byronic
hero. Her most popular and influential work The Mysteries of Udolpho 1794, is frequently cited as
the archetypal Gothic novel. Vathek 1786 by William Beckford, and The Monk 1796 by Matthew
Lewis, were further notable early works in both the gothic and horror literary genres.
Non English-language literatures from the 16th century to the

19th century
The earliest datable text in Manx (preserved in 18th century manuscripts), a poetic history of the Isle
of Man from the introduction of Christianity, dates to the 16th century at the latest.
The first book to be printed in Welsh was published in 1546. From

the Reformation until the 19th century most literature in the Welsh
language was religious in character. Morgan Llwyd's Llyfr y Tri
Aderyn ("The Book of the Three Birds") (1653) took the form of a
dialogue between an eagle (representing secular authority,
particularly Cromwell); a dove (representing the Puritans); and a
raven (representing the Anglican establishment).
Chaucerian, classical and French literary language continued to

influence Scots literature up until the Reformation. The Complaynt
of Scotland shows the interplay of language and ideas between the
kingdoms of Scotland and England in the years leading up to the
Union of the Crowns.
The earliest surviving examples of Cornish prose are Pregothow

Treger (The Tregear Homilies) a set of 66 sermons translated from Robert Burns inspired many
English by John Tregear 1555–1557. Nicholas Boson (1624–1708) vernacular writers across the
wrote three significant texts in Cornish, Nebbaz gerriau dro tho Isles
Carnoack (A Few Words about Cornish) between 1675 and 1708;
Jowan Chy-an-Horth, py, An try foynt a skyans (John of Chyannor,
or, The three points of wisdom), published by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, though written earlier; and
The Dutchess of Cornwall's Progress, partly in English, now known only in fragments. The first two
are the only known surviving Cornish prose texts from the 17th century.[14]
Ellis Wynne's Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc ('Visions of the Sleeping Bard'), first published in
London in 1703, is regarded as a Welsh language classic. It is generally said that no better model
exists of such 'pure' idiomatic Welsh, before writers had become influenced by English style and
method.
The first printed work in Manx dates from 1707: a translation of a Prayer Book catechism in English
by Bishop Thomas Wilson. The Book of Common Prayer and Bible were translated into Manx in the
17th and 18th centuries. A tradition of carvals, religious songs or carols, developed. Religious
literature was common, but secular writing much rarer.
In Scotland, after the 17th century, anglicisation increased, though Lowland Scots was still spoken
by the vast majority of the population. At the time, many of the oral ballads from the borders and the
North East were written down. Writers of the period include Robert Sempill (c.1595–1665), Lady
Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie.
In the Scots-speaking areas of Ulster there was traditionally a

considerable demand for the work of Scottish poets, often in locally
printed editions. Alexander Montgomerie's The Cherrie and the Slae
in 1700, shortly over a decade later an edition of poems by Sir
David Lindsay, nine printings of Allan Ramsay's The Gentle
shepherd between 1743 and 1793, and an edition of Robert Burns'
poetry in 1787, the same year as the Edinburgh edition, followed by
reprints in 1789, 1793 and 1800. Among other Scottish poets
published in Ulster were James Hogg and Robert Tannahill.
In the 18th century, Scottish writers such as Ramsay, Robert

Fergusson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott continued to use
Lowland Scots. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels.
Sir Walter Scott, 1822 The Habbie stanza was developed as a poetic form.
Iolo Morganwg, founder of the Gorsedd, first came to public notice in 1789 when he produced
Barddoniaeth Dafydd ab Gwilym, a collection of the poetry of the 14th-century Dafydd ap Gwilym.
Included in this edition was a large number of previously unknown poems by Dafydd that he claimed
to have discovered; these poems are regarded as Williams' first literary forgeries.[15] In 1794 he
published some of his own poetry, which was later collected in the two-volume Poems, Lyric and
Pastoral. Essentially his only genuine work, it proved quite popular.[15]
The first printed Jèrriais literature appears in the first newspapers following the introduction of the
printing press at the end of the 18th century. The earliest identified dated example of printed poetry
in Jèrriais is a fragment by Matchi L'Gé (Matthew Le Geyt 1777–1849) dated 1795.
Some 60 to 70 volumes of Ulster rhyming weaver poetry were

published between 1750 and 1850, the peak being in the decades 1810
to 1840. These weaver poets, such as James Orr, looked to Scotland
for their cultural and literary models and were not simple imitators but
clearly inheritors of the same literary tradition following the same
poetic and orthographic practices; it is not always immediately
possible to distinguish traditional Scots writing from Scotland and
Ulster.
Ulster Scots poetry,
The importance of translation in spreading the influence of English Robert Huddlestone (1814
literature to other cultures of the islands can be exemplified by the –1887) in paving, Writers'
abridged Manx version of Paradise Lost by John Milton published in Square, Belfast
1796 by Thomas Christian. The influence also went the other way as
Romanticism discovered inspiration in the literatures and legends of
the Celtic countries of the islands. The Ossian hoax typifies the growth of this interest.
Increased literacy in rural and outlying areas and wider access to

publishing through, for example, local newspapers encouraged
regional literary development as the 19th century progressed. Some
writers in lesser-used languages and dialects of the islands gained a
literary following outside their native regions, for example William
Barnes in Dorset, George Métivier (1790–1881) in Guernsey and
Robert Pipon Marett in Jersey. George Métivier published Rimes
Guernesiaises, a collection of poems in Guernésiais and French in
1831 and Fantaisies Guernesiaises in 1866. Métivier's poems had
first appeared in newspapers from 1813 onward, but he spent time
in Scotland in his youth where he became familiar with the Scots
literary tradition although he was also influenced by Occitan
George Métivier (1790– literature. The first printed anthology of Jèrriais poetry, Rimes
1881), Guernsey's "national Jersiaises, was published in 1865. Philippe Le Sueur Mourant's
poet" tales of Bram Bilo, an innocent abroad in Paris, were an immediate
success in Jersey in 1889 and went through a number of reprintings.
Denys Corbet published collections of poems Les Feuilles de la
Forêt (1871) and Les Chànts du draïn rimeux (1884), and also brought out an annual poetry
anthology 1874–1877, similar to Augustus Asplet Le Gros's annual in Jersey 1868–1875.[16]
Ulster Scots was used in the narrative by Ulster novelists such as W. G. Lyttle (1844–1896). By the
middle of the 19th century the Kailyard school of prose had become the dominant literary genre,
overtaking poetry. This was a tradition shared with Scotland which continued into the early 20th
century.[17] Ulster Scots also regularly appeared in Ulster newspaper columns auch as those of "Bab
M'Keen" from the 1880s.[18] Scottish authors; Robert Louis Stevenson, William Alexander, J. M.
Barrie, and George MacDonald, also wrote in Lowland Scots or used it in dialogue.
Ewen MacLachlan translated the first eight books of Homer's Iliad into
Scottish Gaelic. He also composed and published his own Gaelic Attempts
in Verse (1807) and Metrical Effusions (1816), and contributed greatly to
the 1828 Gaelic–English Dictionary.
The so-called "Cranken Rhyme" produced by John Davey of Boswednack,

one of the last people with some traditional knowledge of the language,
[19][20]
may be the last piece of traditional Cornish literature. Later Cornish
revivalists produced literary works: John Hobson Matthews wrote several
poems, such as the patriotic "Can Wlascar Agam Mamvro" ("Patriotic
Song of our Motherland"). Robert Morton Nance created a body of verse,
such as "Nyns yu Marow Myghtern Arthur" ("King Arthur is not Dead").
John Ceiriog Hughes desired to restore simplicity of diction and emotional

sincerity and do for Welsh poetry what Wordsworth and Coleridge did for J. M. Barrie, 1890
English poetry. The first major novelist in the Welsh language was Daniel
Owen, author of works such as Rhys Lewis (1885) and Enoc Huws (1891).
Edward Faragher (1831–1908) has been considered the last important native writer of Manx. He
wrote poetry, reminiscences of his life as a fisherman, and translations of selected Aesop's Fables.
19th century English language literature

Romanticism
Major political and social changes at the end of the 18th century,
particularly the French Revolution, prompted a new breed of
writing known as Romanticism. William Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge began the trend for bringing
emotionalism and introspection to English literature, with a new
concentration on the individual and the common man. The
reaction to urbanism and industrialisation prompted poets to
explore nature, for example the Lake Poets. The third major
Lake poet, Robert Southey, enjoys lasting popularity, although
perhaps his most enduring contribution to literary history is the
immortal children's classic, The Story of the Three Bears, the
basis of the original Goldilocks story.
Around the same period, the iconoclastic printer William Blake,

largely disconnected from the major streams of elite literature of
the time, was constructing his own highly idiosyncratic poetic
creations, while the Scottish nationalist poet Robert Burns was
collecting and adapting the folk songs of Scotland into a body of
national poetry for his homeland. William Blake's "The Tyger,"
published in his Songs of
The major "second generation" Romantic poets included George Innocence and of Experience is a
work of Romanticism
Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron. They flouted social convention
and often used poetry as a political voice. Amongst Lord Byron's
best-known works are the brief poems She Walks in Beauty, When We Two Parted, and So, we'll go
no more a roving, in addition to narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. Another
key poet of the Romantic movement was John Keats, whose poems such as Ode to a Nightingale
expound on his aesthetic theory of negative capability, and remain among the most celebrated by any
author of the period. To Autumn is the final work in a collection of poems known as "Keats's 1819
odes". Percy Shelley, famous for his association with Keats and Byron, was the third major romantic
poet of the second generation. Critically regarded as among the finest

lyric poets in the English language, Shelley is most famous for such
widely anthologized verse works as Ozymandias, and long visionary
poems which include Prometheus Unbound. Shelley's groundbreaking
poem The Masque of Anarchy calls for nonviolence in protest and
political action. It is perhaps the first modern statement of the principle
of nonviolent protest.[21] Mahatma Gandhi's passive resistance was
influenced and inspired by Shelley's verse, and Gandhi would often
quote the poem to vast audiences.[21][22]
The 19th century novel

Lord Byron
At the same time, Jane Austen was writing
highly polished novels about the life of the
landed gentry, seen from a woman's point of view, and wryly focused on
practical social issues, especially marriage and money. Austen's Pride
and Prejudice 1813, is often considered the epitome of the romance
genre, and some of her other most notable works include; Sense and
Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Emma
Walter Scott's novel-writing career was launched in 1814 with Waverley,

often called the first historical novel, and was followed by Ivanhoe. His
popularity in England and further abroad did much to form the modern
stereotype of Scottish culture. Other novels by Scott which contributed to
the image of him as a Scottish patriot include Rob Roy. Scott was the Jane Austen
highest earning and most popular author up to that time.
Mary Shelley is best known for her novel Frankenstein 1818, infusing
elements of the Gothic novel and Romantic movement. Frankenstein's
chilling tale suggests modern organ transplants, tissue regeneration, that
remind readers of the moral issues raised by today's medicine.
John William Polidori wrote The Vampyre 1819, creating the literary
vampire genre. His short story was inspired by the life of Lord Byron
and his poem The Giaour. Another major influence on vampire fiction
is Varney the Vampire 1845, where many standard Vampire features
originated — Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the
neck of his victims, has hypnotic powers, superhuman strength, and
was also the first example of the "sympathetic vampire", who loathes
Mary Shelley his condition but is a slave to it.[23]
From the mid-1820s until the 1840s, fashionable novels depicting the lives of the upper class in an
indiscreet manner, identifying the real people whom the characters were based, dominated the
market. It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading form of literature
in English. Most writers were now more concerned to meet the tastes of a large middle-class reading
public than to please aristocratic patrons. The 1830s saw a resurgence of the social novel, where
sensationalized accounts and stories of the working class poor were directed toward middle class
audiences to incite sympathy and action towards pushing for legal and moral change. Elizabeth
Gaskell's North and South contrasts the lifestyle in the industrial north of England with the wealthier
south.
Sir John Barrow's descriptive 1831 account of the Mutiny on the Bounty immortalised the Royal
Navy ship HMS Bounty and her people. The legend of Dick Turpin was popularized when the 18th
century English highwayman's exploits appeared in the novel Rookwood in 1834.
Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s,

confirming the trend for serial publication. Dickens wrote vividly
about London life and struggles of the poor, often, as in Oliver
Twist, employing a popular style which would prove accessible to
readers of all classes. The festive tale A Christmas Carol he called
his "little Christmas book". Great Expectations is a quest for
maturity. A Tale of Two Cities is set in London and Paris. Dickens
early works are masterpieces of comedy, such as The Pickwick
Papers. Later his works became darker, without losing his genius
for caricature.
The emotionally powerful works of the Brontë sisters: Charlotte's Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were
released in 1847 after their search to secure publishers. William Makepeace Thackeray's satirised
British society in Vanity Fair 1847, while Anthony Trollope's novels portrayed the lives of the
landowning and professional classes of early Victorian England.
Although pre-dated by John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River in 1841, the history of the
modern fantasy genre is generally said to begin with George MacDonald, influential author of The
Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes 1858. William Morris was a popular English poet who
wrote several fantasy novels during the latter part of the 19th century.
Literature for children was published during the Victorian period,

some of which has become globally well-known, such as the works
of Lewis Carroll, notably Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, while
Anna Sewell wrote the classic animal novel Black Beauty.
Wilkie Collins epistolary novel The Moonstone 1868, is generally

considered the first detective novel in the English language. The
Woman in White is regarded as one of the finest sensation novels.
The novels of George Eliot, such as Middlemarch, were a milestone

of literary realism, and combine high Victorian literary detail with
an intellectual breadth that removes them from the narrow confines
Lewis Carroll they often depict. Novels of Thomas Hardy and others, dealt with
the changing social and economic situation of the countryside.
Penny dreadful publications were an alternative to mainstream works,

and were aimed at working class adolescents, introducing the infamous
Sweeney Todd. The premier ghost story writer of the 19th century was
Sheridan Le Fanu. His works include the macabre mystery novel Uncle
Silas 1865, and his Gothic novella Carmilla 1872, tells the story of a
young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire.
Bram Stoker, author of seminal horror work Dracula, featured as its
primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula, with the vampire hunter
Abraham Van Helsing his arch-enemy. Dracula has been attributed to a
number of literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction,
gothic novel and invasion literature.
H. G. Wells, who alongside Jules Verne, is referred to as "The Father of

Science Fiction", invented a number of themes that are now classic in
Bram Stoker
the science fiction genre. The War of the Worlds 1898, describing an
invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting
machines equipped with advanced weaponry, is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth.
The Time Machine is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel using a
vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The

term "time machine" coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to
such a vehicle.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes

is a brilliant London-based "consulting
detective", famous for his intellectual
prowess, skillful use of astute observation,
deductive reasoning and forensic skills to
solve difficult cases. Holmes' archenemy
Professor Moriarty, is widely considered to
H. G. Wells be the first true example of a supervillain,
while Sherlock Holmes has become a by-
word for a detective. Conan Doyle wrote
four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Holmes, from 1880 up
to 1907, with a final case in 1914. All but four Conan Doyle stories
are narrated by Holmes' friend, assistant, and biographer, Dr. John H.
Watson. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
was born in Scotland of
The Lost World literary genre was inspired by real stories of Irish parents but his
archaeological discoveries by imperial adventurers. H. Rider Haggard Sherlock Holmes stories
wrote one of the earliest examples, King Solomon's Mines in 1885. have typified a fog-filled
Contemporary European politics and diplomatic manoeuvrings London for readers
informed Anthony Hope's swashbuckling Ruritanian adventure novels worldwide
The Prisoner of Zenda 1894, and Rupert of Hentzau, 1898.
F. Anstey's comic novel Vice Versa 1882, sees a father and son magically switch bodies. Satirist
Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat 1889, is a humorous account of a boating holiday on the
river Thames. Grossmith brothers George & Weedon's Diary of a Nobody 1892, is also considered a
classic work of humour.
In the latter years of the 19th century, precursors of the modern picture book were illustrated books
of poems and short stories produced by English illustrators Randolph Caldecott, Walter Crane, and
Kate Greenaway. These had a larger proportion of pictures to words than earlier books, and many of
their pictures were in colour. Some British artists made their living illustrating novels and children's
books, include Arthur Rackham, Cicely Mary Barker, W. Heath Robinson, Henry J. Ford, John
Leech, and George Cruikshank. One of the earliest and most influential books with the format that
modern picture books retain is Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
An important forerunner of modernist literature, Joseph Conrad wrote the novel Heart of Darkness
1899, a symbolic story within a story or frame narrative about an Englishman Marlow's foreign
assignment, that is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the
Western canon.
Victorian poets
Leading poetic figures of Victorian era include; Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, Robert
Browning (and his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning), and Matthew Arnold, whilst multi-disciplinary
talents such as John Ruskin and Dante Gabriel Rossetti were also famous for their poetry. The poetry
of this period was heavily influenced by the Romantics, but also went off in its own directions.
Particularly notable was the development of the dramatic monologue, a form used by many poets in
this period, but perfected by Browning, most of his poems were in the form of dramatic monologues.
Nonsense verse, such as by Edward Lear, taken with the work of Lewis Carroll, is regarded as a
precursor of surrealism.
Towards the end of the century,

English poets began to take an
interest in French Symbolism and
Victorian poetry entered a
decadent fin-de-siècle phase.
Two groups of poets emerged,
the Yellow Book poets who
adhered to the tenets of
Rudyard Kipling's If— (1895), Aestheticism, including
often voted Britain's favourite Algernon Charles Swinburne,
poem.[24][25] Oscar Wilde and Arthur Symons
and the Rhymer's Club group that
included Ernest Dowson, Lionel
Johnson and William Butler Yeats. Poetry of A. E. Housman Lord Tennyson
consisting of wistful evocation of doomed youth in the English
countryside, grew in popularity in early 20th century.
Ireland
In the 19th century, the Irish playwright Dion Boucicault was an
extremely popular writer of comedies. However, it was in the last
decade of the century that the Irish theatre finally came of age
with the emergence of George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.
All of these writers lived mainly in England and wrote in English,
with the exception of some works in French by Wilde.
The Celtic Revival (c. 1890), was begun by William Butler Yeats,
Augusta, Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge, Seán O'Casey,
James Joyce and others. The Revival stimulated new appreciation
of traditional Irish literature. The movement also encouraged the
creation of works written in the spirit of Irish culture, as distinct
from British culture.
Wales
Anglo-Welsh literature is a term used to describe works written in
the English language by Welsh writers, notably Dylan Thomas, Oscar Wilde, 1882
especially if they either have subject matter relating to Wales or
(as in the case of Anglo-Welsh poetry in particular) are influenced by the Welsh language in terms of
patterns of usage or syntax. It has been recognized as a distinctive entity only since the 20th century.
The need for a separate identity for this kind of writing arose because of the parallel development of
modern Welsh literature, i.e. literature in the Welsh language.
Scotland
Scottish literature in the 19th century, following the example of Walter Scott, tended to produce
novels that did not reflect the realities of life in that period.
Robert Louis Stevenson's short novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 1886, depicts the dual
personality of a kind and intelligent physician who turns into a psychopathic monster after imbibing
a drug intended to separate good from evil in a personality. His Kidnapped is a fast-paced historical
novel set in the aftermath of the '45 Jacobite Rising, and Treasure Island 1883, is the classic pirate
adventure.
The Kailyard school of Scottish writers presented an idealised

version of society and brought elements of fantasy and folklore
back into fashion. J. M. Barrie created Peter Pan, a boy who can
fly, magically refuses to grow up in a never-ending childhood in
Neverland, is one example of this mix of modernity and nostalgia.
English language literature since 1900

The major lyric poet of the first
decades of the 20th century was
Thomas Hardy. Following the
classic novels Tess of the
d'Urbervilles and Far from the
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885 Madding Crowd, Hardy then
concentrated on poetry after the
harsh response to his last novel, Jude
the Obscure.
The most widely popular writer of the

early years of the 20th century was
arguably Rudyard Kipling, a highly
versatile writer of novels, short stories
and poems, often based on his Thomas Hardy
experiences in British India. To date the
youngest ever recipient of the Nobel
Prize for Literature, Kipling's novels include The Jungle Book, The
Man Who Would Be King and Kim, while his inspirational poem If—
is a national favourite. Like William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus
that has inspired such people as Nelson Mandela when he was
incarcerated,[26] If— is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism,
Rudyard Kipling regarded as a traditional British virtue. Erskine Childers' The Riddle of
the Sands 1903, defined the spy novel. The Scarlet Pimpernel 1905,
by Emma Orczy, is a precursor to the "disguised superhero". In 1908, Kenneth Grahame wrote the
children's classic The Wind in the Willows, while the Scouts founder Robert Baden Powell's first
book Scouting for Boys was published. John Buchan penned the adventure novel The Thirty-Nine
Steps 1915. The medieval scholar M. R. James wrote highly regarded ghost stories in contemporary
settings. Strongly influenced by his Christian faith, G. K. Chesterton was a prolific and hugely
influential writer with a diverse output.
From around 1910, the Modernist Movement began to influence English literature. While their
Victorian predecessors had usually been happy to cater to mainstream middle-class taste, 20th
century writers such as James Joyce often felt alienated from it, so responded by writing more
intellectually challenging works or by pushing the boundaries of acceptable content.
Major poets of this period in Britain included the American-born T. S. Eliot and Irishman W. B.
Yeats. Free verse and other stylistic innovations came to the forefront in this era.
The experiences of the First World War were reflected in the work of war poets such as Wilfred
Owen, Rupert Brooke, Isaac Rosenberg, Edmund Blunden and Siegfried Sassoon. Following the
Arab Revolt, T. E. Lawrence "Lawrence of Arabia" wrote his autobiographical account in Seven
Pillars of Wisdom.
Important novelists between the two World Wars include Irish writer James Joyce, alongside English
authors D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, C. S. Forester and P. G. Wodehouse
Joyce's complex works included Ulysses, arguably the most important

work of Modernist literature, that is referred to as "a demonstration
and summation of the entire movement".[27] It is an interpretation of
the Odyssey set in Dublin, and culminates in Finnegans Wake.
D. H. Lawrence wrote with

understanding about the social life of
the lower and middle classes, and the
personal life of those who could not
adapt to the social norms of his time. D. H. Lawrence, 1906
Sons and Lovers 1913, is widely
regarded as his earliest masterpiece.
There followed The Rainbow 1915, and its sequel Women in Love
1920. Lawrence attempted to explore human emotions more deeply
than his contemporaries and challenged the boundaries of the
acceptable treatment of sexual issues, most notably in Lady
Chatterley's Lover 1928.
Virginia Woolf was an influential

James Joyce, 1918 feminist, and a major stylistic innovator
associated with the stream-of-
consciousness technique. Her novels included Mrs Dalloway 1925, To
the Lighthouse 1927, Orlando 1928, The Waves 1931, and A Room of
One's Own 1929, that contains her famous dictum; "A woman must
have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction".[28]
E. M. Forster's A Passage to India 1924, reflected challenges to

imperialism, while his earlier works such as A Room with a View and
Howards End, examined Edwardian society in England. Robert Graves
is best known for his 1934 novel I Claudius.
The popularity of novelists who wrote in a more traditional style, such Virginia Woolf
as Nobel Prize laureate John Galsworthy, whose novels include The
Forsyte Saga, and Arnold Bennett, author of The Old Wives' Tale,
continued in the interwar period. At the same time the Georgian poets maintained a more
conservative approach to poetry by combining romanticism, sentimentality and hedonism,
sandwiched between the Victorian era, with its strict classicism, and Modernism, with its strident
rejection of pure aestheticism.
Novels featuring a gentleman adventurer were popular between the wars, exemplified by the series
of H. C. McNeile with Bulldog Drummond 1920, and Leslie Charteris, whose many books
chronicled the adventures of Simon Templar, alias The Saint
Aldous Huxley's futuristic novel Brave New World 1932, anticipates developments in reproductive
technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment
of the ideals that form the basis of futurism. James Hilton's Lost Horizon 1933, is best remembered
as the origin of Shangri-La, the mythical utopian monastery in the mountains of Tibet. His other
notable book is Goodbye Mr. Chips. Author and playwright Daphne Du Maurier wrote the mystery
novel Rebecca in 1938, followed by short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now. W. Somerset
Maugham's most notable work is Of Human Bondage, that is strongly autobiographical and is
generally agreed to be his masterpiece. Novelist A. J. Cronin often drew on his experiences
practising medicine. The Citadel 1937, was groundbreaking with its treatment of the contentious
theme of medical ethics, and is credited with laying a foundation for the introduction of the NHS in
the UK a decade later.
Evelyn Waugh satirised the "bright young things" of the 1920s and
1930s, notably in A Handful of Dust, and Decline and Fall, while his
magnum opus Brideshead Revisited 1945, deals with theology.
Classics of children's literature consisted of A A Milne's collection of

books about a fictional bear he named Winnie-the-Pooh, who inhabits
Hundred Acre Wood. Prolific children's author Enid Blyton
chronicled the adventures of a group of young children and their dog
in The Famous Five. T. H. White wrote the Arthurian fantasy The
Once and Future King, the first part being The Sword in the Stone
1938. Mary Norton wrote The Borrowers, that feature tiny people who
borrow from humans. Inspiration for Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel
The Secret Garden, was the Great Maytham Hall Garden in Kent.
Hugh Lofting created the character Doctor Dolittle who appears in a
Aldous Huxley
series of twelve books, while the novelist Dodie Smith wrote The
Hundred and One Dalmatians featuring the villainous Cruella de Vil.
Agatha Christie was a crime writer of novels, short stories and

plays, best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her
successful West End theatre plays. Christie's works, particularly
featuring the detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, have given
her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most
important and innovative writers in the development of the genre.
Christie's novels include, Murder on the Orient Express 1934,
Death on the Nile 1937 and And Then There Were None 1939.
Another popular writer during the Golden Age of detective fiction
was Dorothy L. Sayers. The novelist Georgette Heyer created the
historical romance genre.
Agatha Christie
The Auden Group, sometimes
called simply the Thirties poets,
was a group of British and Irish writers active in the 1930s that
included; W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Cecil Day-Lewis, Stephen
Spender, Christopher Isherwood, and sometimes Edward Upward
and Rex Warner.
One of the most significant English writers of this period was

George Orwell. An essayist and novelist, Orwell's works are
considered among the most important social and political
commentaries of the 20th century. Dealing with issues such as
poverty in The Road to Wigan Pier and Down and Out in Paris and
London, totalitarianism in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm,
and colonialism in Burmese Days. Orwell's works were often semi-
autobiographical and in the case of Homage to Catalonia, wholly.
Malcolm Lowry is best known for Under the Volcano George Orwell
From the early 1930s to late 1940s, an informal literary discussion group associated with the English
faculty at the University of Oxford, were the "Inklings". Its leading members were the major fantasy
novelists; C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Lewis is known for his fiction, especially The Screwtape
Letters 1942, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy, while Tolkien is best known as the
author of The Hobbit 1937, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement
which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art (the term itself derives from an
expressionist painting by John Bratby), novels, film and television plays, whose 'heroes' usually
could be described as angry young men. It used a style of social

realism which often depicted the domestic situations of working
class Britons to explore social issues and political controversies.
In drama of the post war period, the drawing room plays typical of
dramatists like Terence Rattigan or Noel Coward were challenged
in the 1950s by the Angry Young Men, exemplified by John
Osborne's iconic play Look Back in Anger. Arnold Wesker and
Nell Dunn also brought social concerns to the stage.
In thriller writing, Ian Fleming

created the character James Bond
007 in January 1952, while on
holiday at his Jamaican estate,
Goldeneye. Fleming chronicled
Bond's adventures in twelve
novels, including Casino Royale
1953, Live and Let Die 1954, Dr.
J. R. R. Tolkien No 1958, Goldfinger 1959,
Thunderball 1961, and nine short
story works. In contrast to the larger-than-life spy capers of Bond,
John le Carré was an author of spy novels who depicted a shadowy Ian Fleming
world of espionage and counter-espionage, and his best known
novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold 1963, is often regarded
as one of the greatest in the genre. Frederick Forsyth writes thriller novels, including The Day of the
Jackal 1971, The Odessa File 1972, The Dogs of War 1974 and The Fourth Protocol 1984. Ken
Follet writes spy thrillers, his first success being Eye of the Needle 1978, followed by The Key to
Rebecca 1980, as well as historical novels, notably The Pillars of the Earth 1989, and its sequel
World Without End 2007. Elleston Trevor is remembered for his 1964 adventure story The Flight of
the Phoenix, while the thriller novelist Philip Nicholson is best known for Man on Fire.
Graham Greene's works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world.
Notable for an ability to combine serious literary acclaim with broad popularity, his works include
four Catholic novels, Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The End
of the Affair.
The "father of Wicca" Gerald Gardner began propagating his own version of witchcraft in the 1950s.
Having claimed to have been initiated into the New Forest coven in 1939, Gardner published his
books Witchcraft Today 1954 and The Meaning of Witchcraft 1959, the foundational texts for the
religion of Wicca. Ronald Welch's Carnegie Medal winning novel Knight Crusader is set in the 12th
century and gives a depiction of the Third Crusade, featuring the Christian leader and King of
England Richard the Lionheart.
The leading poets of the middle and later 20th century included the
traditionalist John Betjeman, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes and the
Northern Irish Catholic Seamus Heaney, who lived in the Republic
of Ireland for much of his later life. In the 1960s and 1970s,
Martian poetry aimed to break the grip of 'the familiar', by
describing ordinary things in unfamiliar ways, as though, for
example, through the eyes of a Martian. This drive to make the
familiar strange was carried into fiction by Martin Amis.
The British Poetry Revival was a wide-reaching collection of

groupings and subgroupings that embraces performance, sound and
Ted Hughes concrete poetry. Leading poets associated with this movement
include J. H. Prynne, Eric Mottram, Tom Raworth, Denise Riley
and Lee Harwood. The Mersey Beat poets were Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and Roger McGough.
Their work was a self-conscious attempt at creating an English equivalent to the Beats. Many of their
poems were written in protest against the established social order and, particularly, the threat of
nuclear war.
Nobel Prize laureate William Golding's allegorical novel Lord of the Flies 1954, discusses how
culture created by man fails, and uses as an example a group of British schoolboys stuck on a
deserted island who try to govern themselves, but with disastrous results.
Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange 1962,

displays the prevention of the main character Alex's exercise of
his free will through the use of a classical conditioning
technique. Burgess creates a new speech in his novel that is the
teenage slang of the not-too-distant future.
In crime fiction, the murder mysteries of Ruth Rendell and P. D.

James are popular. Anthony Powell's twelve-volume cycle of
novels A Dance to the Music of Time, is a comic examination of
movements and manners, power and passivity in English Anthony Burgess
political, cultural and military life in the mid-20th century.
War novels include Alistair MacLean thriller's The Guns of Navarone 1957, Where Eagles Dare
1968, and Jack Higgins' The Eagle Has Landed 1975. Patrick O'Brian's nautical historical novels
feature the Aubrey–Maturin series set in the Royal Navy, the first being Master and Commander
1969.
Comic novelist Kingsley Amis is best known for his academic satire Lucky Jim 1954. John
Wyndham wrote post-apocalyptic science fiction, with his most notable works being The Day of the
Triffids 1951, and The Midwich Cuckoos 1957. Iris Murdoch's novels dealt with sexual relationships,
morality, and the power of the unconscious, as displayed in Under the Net 1954. George Langelaan's
The Fly 1957, is a science fiction short story, while Peter George's Red Alert 1958, is a Cold War
thriller. Mervyn Peake wrote the Gormenghast series, a trilogy based in Gormenghast castle. Michael
Moorcock was the prime instigator of the science fiction "New Wave" in 1964. John Fowles' wrote
The French Lieutenant's Woman in 1969.
Roald Dahl rose to prominence with his children's fantasy novels,

often inspired from experiences from his childhood, that are notable
for their often unexpected endings, and unsentimental, dark humour.
Dahl was inspired to write Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 1964,
featuring the eccentric candymaker Willy Wonka, having grown up
near two chocolate makers in England who often tried to steal trade
secrets by sending spies into the other's factory. His other works
include, James and the Giant Peach 1961, Fantastic Mr. Fox 1971,
The Witches 1983, and Matilda 1988.
Nigel Tranter wrote historical novels of celebrated Scottish warriors;

Robert the Bruce in The Bruce Trilogy, and William Wallace in The
Wallace 1975, works noted by academics for their accuracy.
Angela Carter's magical realism novels include, The Infernal Desire

Roald Dahl
Machines of Doctor Hoffman 1972, and Nights at the Circus 1984.
Science fiction novelist Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, is based on his various short
stories, particularly The Sentinel. His other major novels include Rendezvous with Rama 1972, and
The Fountains of Paradise 1979. Brian Aldiss is Clarke's contemporary.
Richard Adams wrote the heroic fantasy Watership Down in 1972.

Evoking epic themes, it recounts a group of rabbits' odyssey, who
are anthropomorphised, seeking to establish a new home.
Salman Rushdie achieved notability with Midnight's Children 1981,

that was awarded both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and
Booker prize later that year, and was named Booker of Bookers in
1993. His most controversial novel The Satanic Verses 1989, was
inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. The Nobel laureate V. S.
Naipaul wrote A Bend in the River.
Arthur C. Clarke
Boarding schools in literature are centred on older pre-adolescent
and adolescent school life, and are most commonly set in English
Boarding schools. Popular school stories from this period include Ronald Searle's St Trinian's, Jill
Murphy's The Worst Witch and Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
Ruth Manning-Sanders collected and retold fairy tales, and her first work A Book of Giants, contains
a number of famous giants, notably Jack and the Beanstalk. Novelist Susan Cooper's The Dark Is
Rising, is a five-volume fantasy saga set in and around England and Wales. Raymond Briggs
children's picture book The Snowman 1978, is shown every Christmas on British television in
cartoon form and on the stage as a musical. The Reverend. W. Awdry and son Christopher's The
Railway Series features Thomas the Tank Engine. Margery Sharp's most famous books are The
Rescuers series, based on a heroic mouse organisation. The third Children's Laureate Michael
Morpurgo published War Horse in 1982. The prolific children's author Dick King-Smith's novels
include The Sheep-Pig 1984, and The Water Horse. Diana Wynne Jones is noted for writing the
young adult fantasy novel Howl's Moving Castle 1986.
Terry Pratchett is best known for his Discworld series of comic

fantasy novels, that begins with The Colour of Magic 1983, and
includes Mort 1987, Hogfather 1996, and Night Watch 2002.
Pratchett's other most notable work is the 1990 novel Good Omens.
Douglas Adams wrote the five-volume science fiction comedy series

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and also wrote the humorous
fantasy detective novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
Clive Barker horror novels include The Hellbound Heart 1986, and
works in fantasy, Weaveworld 1987, Imajica and Abarat 2002.
Terry Pratchett, 2004 J. G. Ballard's autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun 1984, is
based on his boyhood experiences in a Shanghai internment camp.
Kazuo Ishiguro wrote historical novels in the first-person narrative style, whose works include, The
Remains of the Day 1989, Never Let Me Go 2005. A. S. Byatt is best known for Possession 1990,
with Sebastian Faulks Birdsong 1993, and Louis de Bernières Captain Corelli's Mandolin 1993.
Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting 1993, gives a brutal depiction of Edinburgh life.
Science fiction novelist Iain M. Banks created a fictional anarchist, socialist, and utopian society the
Culture, and novels that feature in it include Excession 1996, and Inversions 1998. Nick Hornby's
works include High Fidelity 1995, and About a Boy 1998, with Nicholas Evans The Horse Whisperer
1995.
Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary 1996, and its sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
1999, chronicle the life of Bridget Jones, a thirtysomething single woman in London. Alex Garland's
works include The Beach 1996, Giles Foden wrote the Last King of Scotland 1998, and Joanne
Harris's most notable work is Chocolat 1999. Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, begins with
Stormbreaker 2000.
Philip Pullman is best known for the fantasy trilogy His Dark
Materials, that comprises Northern Lights 1995, The Subtle Knife
1997, and The Amber Spyglass 2000. It is a coming-of-age story with
many epic events. Neil Gaiman is an esteemed writer of science
fiction, fantasy short stories and novels, whose notable works include
Stardust 1998, Coraline 2002, The Graveyard Book 2009, and The
Sandman series. Alan Moore's works include Watchmen, V for
Vendetta set in a dystopian future UK, The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen, and From Hell, speculating on the identity and motives of
Jack the Ripper.
Ian McEwan's Atonement 2001, refers to the process of forgiving or

pardoning a transgression, and alludes to the main characters' search
for atonement in interwar England. His 2005 novel Saturday, follows
an especially eventful day in the life of a successful neurosurgeon.
Neil Gaiman
Zadie Smith's Whitbread Book Award winning novel White Teeth
2000, mixes pathos and humour, focusing on the later lives of two wartime friends in London. The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 2003 by Mark Haddon, is written in the first-person
perspective of a 15-year-old boy with autism living in Wiltshire. The first novel from Susanna
Clarke is the historical fantasy Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 2004, that investigates the nature of
"Englishness" and the boundary between reason and madness. Notable works of the 2007 Nobel
Prize recipient Doris Lessing include, The Grass is Singing, and The Golden Notebook. Hilary
Mantel's Booker prize winning novel Wolf Hall 2009, is set in the Tudor court of King Henry VIII.
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series, is a collection of seven

fantasy novels that chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard
Harry Potter, the idea for which Rowling conceived whilst she was on
a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. The series begins with
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 1997, and ends with the
seventh and final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2007.
In the 1950s, the bleak absurdist play Waiting for Godot, by the Irish
playwright Samuel Beckett profoundly affected British drama. The
Theatre of the Absurd influenced playwrights of the later decades of
the 20th century, including Harold Pinter, whose works are often
characterized by menace or claustrophobia, and Tom Stoppard.
Stoppard's works are however also notable for their high-spirited wit
and the great range of intellectual issues which he tackles in different
plays. Michael Frayn is among other playwrights noted for their use of
J. K. Rowling, 2006 language and ideas.
Formerly an appointment for life, the appointment of the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom is
now made for a fixed term of 10 years, starting with Andrew Motion in 1999 as successor to Ted
Hughes.[29] Carol Ann Duffy succeeded Motion in the post in May 2009.[30] A position of national
laureate, entitled The Scots Makar, was established in 2004 by the Scottish Parliament. The first
appointment was made directly by the Parliament in that year when Edwin Morgan received the
honour[31][32] The post of National Poet of Wales (Welsh: Bardd Cenedlaethol Cymru) was
established in May 2005.[33] The post is an annual appointment with the language of the poet
alternating between English and Welsh.
Non English language literatures since 1900

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Welsh
literature began to reflect the way the Welsh language was
increasingly becoming a political symbol. Two important
literary nationalists were Saunders Lewis and Kate Roberts.
Islwyn Ffowc Elis was a popular novelist in Welsh (also a
winner of the crown at the 1947 National Eisteddfod), who
produced novels in a range of genres new to Welsh literature,
such as science fiction in Wythnos yng Nghymru Fydd and Y
Blaned Dirion. Contemporary novelists in Welsh include
Mihangel Morgan and Fflur Dafydd.
With the revival of Cornish there have been newer works

written in the language. In the first half of the 20th century
poetry was the focus of literary production, A. S. D. Smith's
epic poem Trystan hag Isolt reworked the Tristan and Iseult
legend. Peggy Pollard's 1941 play Beunans Alysaryn was
modelled on the 16th-century saints' plays.
In the early 20th century in Scotland, a renaissance in the use

of Lowland Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh
MacDiarmid. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young,
Sidney Goodsir Smith, Robert Garioch and Robert McLellan.
The revival produced verse and other literature, including the
plays for which Robert McLellan is best known.[34]
A somewhat diminished tradition of vernacular Ulster Scots

poetry survived into the 20th century in the work of poets
such as Adam Lynn, author of the 1911 collection Random
Rhymes frae Cullybackey, John Stevenson (died 1932),
A statue of Hedd Wyn in writing as "Pat M'Carty", and John Clifford (1900–1983)
Trawsfynydd
from East Antrim.[35]
The end of the First World War saw a decline in the quantity of poetry published in Jèrriais and
Guernésiais in favour of short-story-like newspaper columns in prose, some being collected in book
or booklet form – this being a common genre in the Norman mainland. For example, a collection of
Thomas Henry Mahy's Dires et Pensées du Courtil Poussin, was published in 1922. The imported
eisteddfod tradition in the Channel Islands encouraged recitation and performance, a tradition that
continues today. The German military occupation of the Channel Islands 1940–1945 encouraged
increased use of the vernacular languages among those who remained, but the German censorship
permitted little original writing to be published. Within the restrictions, Les Chroniques de Jersey,
the only surviving French language newspaper in the Islands, republished considerable quantities of
older Jèrriais literature for purposes of morale and the assertion of identity. The post-Liberation
social changes meant, however, that vernacular literature has never regained the situation it had
enjoyed previously.
The first novel in Scottish Gaelic was John MacCormick's Dùn-Àluinn, no an t-Oighre 'na
Dhìobarach, which was serialised in the People's Journal in 1910, before publication in book form
in 1912. The publication of a second Scottish Gaelic novel, An t-Ogha Mòr by Angus Robertson,
followed within a year.[36] Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna was a Scottish Gaelic poet who served in the
First World War, and as a war poet described the use of poison gas in his poem Òran a' Phuinnsuin
("Song of the Poison"). His poetry is part of oral literature, as he himself never learnt to read and
write in his native language. As part of the Scottish Gaelic Renaissance, Sorley MacLean's work in
Scottish Gaelic in the 1930s gave new value to modern literature in

that language. Iain Crichton Smith was more prolific in English but
also produced much Gaelic poetry and prose, and also translated
some of the work of Sorley Maclean from Gaelic to English, as
well as some of his own poems originally composed in Gaelic.
Much of his English language work was related to, or translated
from, Gaelic equivalents. Contemporary writers in Scottish Gaelic
include Aonghas MacNeacail, and Angus Peter Campbell who,
besides two Scottish Gaelic poetry collections, has produced two
Gaelic novels: An Oidhche Mus Do Sheol Sinn (2003) and Là a'
Deanamh Sgeil Do Là (2004).
Highly anglicised Lowland Scots is often used in contemporary

Scottish fiction, for example, the Edinburgh dialect of Lowland
Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. But'n'Ben A-Go-Go is a
2000 cyberpunk novel entirely in Scots by Matthew Fitt, notable for Christopher Whyte (Crisdean
using as many of the different varieties of Scots as possible, MhicIlleBhain) is a Scottish
Gaelic poet, who won in 2002
including many neologisms – imagining how Scots might develop
a Saltire Society Research
by 2090. In Northern Ireland, James Fenton's poetry, at times lively, Book of the Year award for
contented, whistful, is written in contemporary Ulster Scots.[17] The his edition of Sorley
poet Michael Longley (born 1939) has experimented with Ulster Maclean's Dàin do Eimhir
Scots for the translation of Classical verse, as in his 1995 collection
The Ghost Orchid.[18] Philip Robinson's (born 1946) writing has
been described as verging on "post-modern kailyard".[18] He has produced a trilogy of novels, as well
as story books for children, and two volumes of poetry.[37]
There is some production of modern literature in Irish in Northern Ireland.
In contemporary Cornish poetry, Tony Snell's work is heavily influenced by the early poetry of
Wales and Brittany, and it was he who adapted the Welsh traethodl to Cornish. The bard Pol Hodge
is another example of a poet writing in Cornish. A few novels have been published in Cornish since
the last decades of the 20th century, including Melville Bennetto's An Gurun Wosek a Geltya (The
Bloody Crown of the Celtic Countries) in 1984; subsequently Michael Palmer published Jory (1989)
and Dyroans (1998).[38]
Since the 1970s a number of books of Jèrriais literature have been published, including two
collections of writings by George F. Le Feuvre: Jèrri Jadis and Histouaithes et Gens d'Jèrri.[39]
A collection of short stories P'tites Lures Guernésiaises (in Guernésiais with parallel English
translation) by various writers was published in 2006.[40]
In March 2006 Brian Stowell's Dunveryssyn yn Tooder-Folley (The vampire murders) was published
- the first full-length novel in Manx.[41]
Original literature continues to be promoted by institutions such as the Eisteddfod or the Mod, and
by publishing organisations such as Ùr-sgeul and the Welsh Books Council. In Welsh poetry, Alan
Llwyd came to prominence when he achieved the rare feat of winning both the Crown and the Chair
at the 1973 National Eisteddfod and then repeated the feat in 1976. He also wrote the script for the
Oscar-nominated Welsh-language film Hedd Wyn (1992) about the life of poet Hedd Wyn, who was
killed in World War I.
Translations are an important feature of the literatures of the regional languages of the islands, for
example: Alice in Wonderland has been translated into Manx as Contoyryssyn Ealish ayns Cheer ny
Yindyssyn by Brian Stowell (published in 1990) and into Cornish as Alys in Pow an Anethow by
Nicholas Williams (published in 2009), and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was translated into
Jèrriais, from the English version by Edward FitzGerald, during the German Occupation by Frank Le
Maistre,[42] and into Scots by Rab Wilson (published in 2004). Alexander Hutchison has translated
the poetry of Catullus into Scots, and in the 1980s Liz Lochhead produced a Scots translation of
Tartuffe by Molière.
Literary prizes
Main article: List of British literary awards
Recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature from the isles include Rudyard Kipling (1907), W. B.
Yeats (1923), George Bernard Shaw (1925), John Galsworthy (1932), T. S. Eliot (1948), Bertrand
Russell (1950), Winston Churchill (1953), Samuel Beckett (1969), William Golding (1983), Seamus
Heaney (1995), V. S. Naipaul (2001), Harold Pinter (2005) and Doris Lessing (2007).
Literary prizes for which writers from the United Kingdom are eligible include:
■ Man Booker Prize

■ Commonwealth Writers' Prize
■ International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
■ Carnegie Medal in Literature
■ Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbread Awards)
■ Orange Prize for Fiction
■ Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
See also
■ British poetry
■ Bardic poetry
■ Cornish literature
■ English literature
■ Middle English literature
■ Early Modern English
■ English poetry
■ English drama
■ English novel
■ List of English novelists
■ Irish literature
■ Irish fiction
■ Irish poetry
■ List of Irish writers
■ Jèrriais literature
■ Manx literature
■ Scottish literature
■ List of Scottish writers
■ History of the Scots language
■ Scottish Gaelic literature
■ Literature of Shetland
■ Welsh-language literature
■ Welsh literature in English
■ Welsh poetry
■ List of Welsh language poets
■ Traditional Welsh poetic metres

■ Celtic literature
■ Gaelic literature
■ Languages in the United Kingdom
■ Women's writing in English
■ British Library
■ Big Read (BBC 2003 poll)
■ List of literary movements
References
1. ^ "British literature – Books tagged British literature" (http://www.librarything.com/tag/british%
20literature&more=1) . LibraryThing. http://www.librarything.com/tag/british%20literature&more=1.
Retrieved 2010-01-23.
2. ^ Garret Olmsted, "The Earliest Narrative Version of the Táin: Seventh-century poetic references to Táin
bó Cúailnge", Emania 10, 1992, pp. 5–17
3. ^ a b c Language and Literature, Ian Short, in A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World, edited
Christopher Harper-Bill and Elisabeth van Houts, Woodbridge 2003, ISBN 0851156738
4. ^ a b Wace's Roman de Brut – A History of the British, Weiss, Exeter 1999, ISBN 0-85989-734-6
5. ^ Encyclopedia of Literature, Volume 1 By Joseph T. Shipley (page 176) here [1]
(http://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=jtmASIRhosAC&pg=PA176&dq=John+of+Cornwall's+Seven+Kings&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false)
6. ^ Adventures in Philosophy: A Brief History of Jewish Philosophy
(http://www.radicalacademy.com/adiphiljewish2.htm#Berachyah)
7. ^ Oruch, Jack B., "St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February," Speculum, 56 (1981): 534–65.
Oruch's survey of the literature finds no association between Valentine and romance prior to Chaucer. He
concludes that Chaucer is likely to be "the original mythmaker in this instance." Colfa.utsa.edu
(http://colfa.utsa.edu/chaucer/ec23.html)
8. ^ Ummah.net (http://www.ummah.net/Al_adaab/dawah/valentines.html)
9. ^ Emotionscards.com (http://www.emotionscards.com/museum/vals.html)
10. ^ Julian of Norwich (http://books.google.com/?
id=IPCwHOwX_BgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=julian+of+norwich+showings) . Paulist Press. 1978.
ISBN 9780809120918. http://books.google.com/?
id=IPCwHOwX_BgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=julian+of+norwich+showings.
11. ^ A general history of the robberies & murders of the most notorious pirates. By Charles Johnson
(http://books.google.com/books?id=5ou7Bm11IgEC&pg=PR7&dq=Charles+Johnson+
(1724),+A+General+History+of+the+Robberies+and+Murders+of+the+Most+Notorious+Pyrates&cd=1#v=onep
20Johnson%20(1724)%2C%20A%20General%20History%20of%20the%20Robberies%20and%
20Murders%20of%20the%20Most%20Notorious%20Pyrates&f=false) Introduction and commentary by
David Cordingly. Conway Maritime Press (2002).
12. ^ The British Museum. Beer Street, William Hogarth - Fine Art Print
(http://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/invt/brimus068?stylecat=art_prints) . Retrieved 12 April
2010.
13. ^ Robert DeMaria (2001). British Literature 1640–1789: An Anthology. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-
631-21769-X
14. ^ The Cornish writings of the Boson family: Nicholas, Thomas and John Boson, of Newlyn, circa 1660 to
1730, Edited with translations and notes by O. J. Padel (Redruth: Institute of Cornish Studies, 1975)
ISBN 0903686090
15. ^ a b Jones, Mary (2004). "Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo
Morgannwg" (http://www.maryjones.us/jce/iolo.html) . From Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia. Retrieved June
11, 2009.
16. ^ La Grève de Lecq, Roger Jean Lebarbenchon, 1988 ISBN 2-905385-13-8
17. ^ a b The historical presence of Ulster-Scots in Ireland, Robinson, in The Languages of Ireland, ed.
Cronin and Ó Cuilleanáin, Dublin 2003 ISBN 185182698X
18. ^ a b c Ulster-Scots Writing, ed. Ferguson, Dublin 2008 ISBN 9781856820748
19. ^ Ellis, p. 129.
20. ^ Koch, pp. 492–493.
21. ^ a b http://www.morrissociety.org/JWMS/SP94.10.4.Nichols.pdf
22. ^ Thomas Weber, "Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor," Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 28–29.
23. ^ Skal, David J. (1996). V is for Vampire. p.99. New York: Plume. ISBN 0-452-27173-8.
24. ^ Emma Jones (2004) The Literary Companion (http://books.google.com/books?id=WELwa9Sds-
EC&pg=PA25&dq=IF+VOTED+BRITAIN'S+FAVOURITE+POEM&hl=en&ei=_QQ5TKWqG5OLnAekhpW
Robson, 2004.
25. ^ Mike Robinson (2004) Literature and tourism (http://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=ePsxlk3tTOsC&pg=PA61&dq=IF+VOTED+BRITAIN%
27S+FAVOURITE+POEM&hl=en&ei=_QQ5TKWqG5OLnAekhpWFBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&r
26. ^ Elleke Boehmer (2008). Nelson Mandela: a very short introduction. p. 157. Oxford University Press,
2008. "'Invictus', taken on its own, Mandela clearly found his Victorian ethic of self-mastery given
compelling expression within the frame of a controlled rhyme scheme supported by strong, monosyllabic
nouns. It was only a small step from espousing this poem to assuming a Victorian persona, as he could
do in letters to his children. In ways they predictably found alienating, he liked to exhort them to ever-
greater effort, reiterating that ambition and drive were the only means of escaping an 'inferior position' in
life".
27. ^ Beebe, Maurice (Fall 1972). "Ulysses and the Age of Modernism". James Joyce Quarterly (University
of Tulsa) 10 (1): p. 176.
28. ^ The Cambridge companion to Virginia Woolf. By Sue Roe, Susan Sellers. p.219. Cambridge
University Press, 2000.
29. ^ Carol Ann Duffy is the new Poet Laureate (http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/duffy09/) at The
Poetry Society
30. ^ Manchester Metropolitan University, Profile: Professor Carol Ann Duffy
(http://www.hlss.mmu.ac.uk/english/staff/profile.php?id=146) . Retrieved November 2, 2009.
31. ^ Edwin Morgan announced as the first Scots Makar, 2004
(http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2004/02/5075)
32. ^ ASLS: A National Poet for Scotland (http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/Poet_for_Scotland.html)
33. ^ Academi (http://www.academi.org/national-poet-of-wales/)
34. ^ Scots: The Language of the People, Carl MacDougall, Edinburgh 2006, ISBN 1-84502-084-7
35. ^ Ferguson (ed.) 2008, Ulster-Scots Writing, Dublin, p. 21 ISBN 9781856820748
36. ^ THE FORGOTTEN FIRST: JOHN MACCORMICK’S DÙN-ÀLUINN
(http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/4586/1/09kidd.pdf)
37. ^ http://www.ulsterscotslanguage.com/en/texts/biography/philip-robinson/
38. ^ Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-440-7
39. ^ George d'la Forge: Guardian of the Jersey Norman heritage – A study of the life and writings of
George Francis Le Feuvre (1891–1984), Annette Torode, Jersey, 2003, ISBN 1-904210-10-5
40. ^ P'tites Lures Guernésiaises, edited Hazel Tomlinson, Jersey 2006, ISBN1903341477
41. ^ Isle of Man Today article on Dunveryssyn yn Tooder-Folley
(http://www.iomonline.co.im/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1143&ArticleID=1397570)
42. ^ Eune Collection Jèrriaise, Société Jersiaise, Jersey 2007 ISBN 0-901897-41-8
External links
■ The 50 greatest British writers since 1945
(http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3127837.ece)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_literature"
Categories: British literature | European literature | History of literature in the United Kingdom
■ This page was last modified on 1 November 2010 at 00:15.

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British literature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 sur 27

Early Celtic literature

Old English literature 449–1066

Chronicles contained a range of historical and literary accounts; one

The Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity after their arrival

Late medieval literature

Latin literature circulated among the educated classes. Gerald

Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the development of

Religious literature continued to enjoy popularity. Hagiographies continued to be written, adapted

The 12th century Jersey poet Wace is considered the founder

The most significant Middle English author was Geoffrey Chaucer

The multilingual audience for literature in the 14th century can be

Sir Thomas More coined the word "utopia", a name he gave to

The landmark work in the reign of James IV of Scotland was

Early Modern English literature

The English Renaissance dated from the early 16th century to

In the later 16th century English poetry was characterised by

English Renaissance theatre was among the most important

of the biggest translation projects in the history of English up to this

The prolific Jacobean playwright and poet Thomas Middleton's The

The position of Poet Laureate was formalised during this period.

Diarists John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys depicted everyday London

The publication of The Pilgrim's Progress in 1678, established the

A seminal book in piracy, A General History of the Pyrates 1724,

Although documented history of Irish theatre began at least as early

The Graveyard Poets were a number of pre-Romantic English poets

The question of identifying the first novel in English is a subject of

Edward Cave created the first general-interest magazine with The

John Newbery made children's literature a sustainable and profitable

Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, invented the

Non English-language literatures from the 16th century to the

The first book to be printed in Welsh was published in 1546. From

Chaucerian, classical and French literary language continued to

The earliest surviving examples of Cornish prose are Pregothow

In the Scots-speaking areas of Ulster there was traditionally a

In the 18th century, Scottish writers such as Ramsay, Robert

Some 60 to 70 volumes of Ulster rhyming weaver poetry were

Increased literacy in rural and outlying areas and wider access to

The so-called "Cranken Rhyme" produced by John Davey of Boswednack,

John Ceiriog Hughes desired to restore simplicity of diction and emotional

19th century English language literature

Around the same period, the iconoclastic printer William Blake,

poet of the second generation. Critically regarded as among the finest

The 19th century novel

Walter Scott's novel-writing career was launched in 1814 with Waverley,

Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s,

Literature for children was published during the Victorian period,

Wilkie Collins epistolary novel The Moonstone 1868, is generally

The novels of George Eliot, such as Middlemarch, were a milestone

Penny dreadful publications were an alternative to mainstream works,

H. G. Wells, who alongside Jules Verne, is referred to as "The Father of

vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes

Towards the end of the century,

The Kailyard school of Scottish writers presented an idealised

English language literature since 1900

The most widely popular writer of the

Joyce's complex works included Ulysses, arguably the most important

D. H. Lawrence wrote with

Virginia Woolf was an influential

E. M. Forster's A Passage to India 1924, reflected challenges to

Classics of children's literature consisted of A A Milne's collection of