Education of the republic of uzbekistan navoi state pedagogical institute faculty of english and literature

CHAPTER II. Contemporary British writers. Literature is a mirror of a 
nation.
2.1. English Authors: The 10 Best English Writers In Histor 
Throughout the canon of greats, British writers loom heavily around the top 
echelons. With a hybrid poetic language creating the perfect spindle to weave their 
magic, from the modernists to the Angry Young Men, The Culture Trip London 
takes a look at some of the greats from over the last 100 years; writers whose 
output has assured them an everlasting place among the greatest of all time.
6
 
 
Virginia Woolf 
One of the greatest of modernist writers, Woolf‘s timeless works effuse a 
certain crisp, clear, clarity of which most writers can only dream. As though her 
only peace of mind was attained through her visionary creativity, her tragic end 
often overshadows the absolute mastery of her art. From the 24-hour perfection of 
Mrs. 
Dalloway, through to the psychoanalytical meanderings of The Waves –
 Virginia Woolf
 rarely put a foot wrong in her 59 years gracing planet earth and 
influencing everyone thereafter.
Iris Murdoch 
A consummate writer whose elegant prose and literary philosophical style 
mirrored that of great classic writers such as Eliot and Proust
, Iris Murdoch
‘s 
heavily textured and layered novels explored relationships through sexual mores, 
good and evil and the pernicious subconscious ego of the human psyche which 
could rear its head when least expected. Along with other writers of her generation, 
she embraced the left, which impacted on her success as a writer, being refused a 
visa to visit the 
USA
. It wasn‘t until much later in her career that she was granted a 
6
―Oscar Wilde. Selections‖. М.:‖ Прогресс‖, 1979. (Article M.Urnov
). 

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visa – under supervision. In 1978, she won The Booker Prize for what has perhaps 
proved to be her most enduring novel, The Sea, The Sea, a searing yet subtle saga 
of overwhelming resentment, envy, love and loss – familiar themes in Murdoch‘s 
writing. In 1998, Under the Net, her first published novel, was chosen for Modern 
Library‘s 100 best English-language novels from the 20th century. 
Alan Sillitoe 
One of the ‗Angry Young Men‘ writers of the 1950s, Sillitoe is best known 
for his debut novel, the maverick social commentary Saturday Night And Sunday 
Morning, and the film adaptation of Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. 
Sillitoe dislike
d his ‗angry young man‘ tag, but its heritage is clear. A writer 
bestowed with that most perfect of creative gifts – zeitgeist – Sillitoe beckoned in 
the ‘60s with his soon-to-be hip colloquial realism. 
John Braine 
Another of the ‗Angry Young Men‘, Braine is best known for his 
novels Room At The Top and The Crying Game. His enormous imprint on 
contemporary modernism, as with Sillitoe, lies as much in his writing as it does in 
the 20th century‘s great artistic achievement – film. The 1959 big screen adaption 
of Room At The Top brought the book to a wider audience. Depicting the struggles 
and ambitions of Joe Lampton, a young man of humble origin, the film hit a nerve 
with its crippling, stultifying personal articulation and portrayal of post-war socio-
economic strife in Bradford, 
Braine‘s birthplace. Millions were watching. 
Peter Shaffer 
Shaffer, who recently passed aged 90, was one of Britain‘s leading 
playwrights. A 
writer of challenging, award-winning work including Five Finger 
Exercise, for which he won the coveted New York Drama Critics Circle Award for 

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Best Foreign Play, it is Equus and Amadeus for which he will always be known, as 
both were highly successful, award-winning, controversial plays that were made 
into equally successful, award-winning, controversial films. Equus delved into the 
mind of a disturbed 17-year-old boy guilty of committing an act of supreme cruelty 
by blinding six horses. Amadeus, on the other hand, takes as its subject the rivalry 
between Mozart and court composer Salieri, who, consumed by bitterness and 
jealousy, ultimately only succeeds at destroying himself in facing his own nemesis. 
Shelagh Delaney 
Born in Salford in 1938, Delaney managed to fail her 11 Plus four times 
before going on to become the poster girl for 1960‘s ‗kitchen sink realism‘ with 
her 1958 classic play, A Taste Of Honey. 
Although not realising it at the time, 
Delaney was giving a great everlasting two fingers to the tired old establishment 
clique that had ruled British showbiz for too long. She wrote her first play in ten 
days, inspired after seeing Terence Rattigan‘s Variations on a Theme and feeling 
she could better Rattigan. A writer of immense talent whose vision of Salford life 
was as real as its creator‘s astonishing ambition. 
Ian Fleming 
It was whilst working for the Naval Intelligence in the Second World War, 
and subsequently as a journalist, that 
Fleming 
fashioned the character of the secret 
service agent the world now knows as 007. Initially a keen birdwatcher, Fleming 
conceived Bond as ‗dull and uninteresting‘ in order to be an effective spy, naming 
him after the American ornithologist James Bond. The first Bond novel, Casino 
Royale, was viewed with indifference by its eventual publisher. It took the 
intervention of his brother, who shared the same publisher, to persuade the 
company to finally publish it. It was first released in hardback in 1952 and proved 
against expectation to be a success. Eleven Bond novels followed, and now about 
100 million copies have been sold worldwide. During this time, Fleming 

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engendered a much-imitated style of writing, developing Bond‘s character into the 
ruthless, joie de vivre, super-agent often reliant on his relationship with the CIA. It 
was, however, a relationship which, as a result of Fleming‘s growing 
disillusionment with America, tends to change in the later novels. In 1961, the film 
rights were bought by producers Harry Salzman and Cubby Broccoli – Dr No 
starring Sean Connery as Bond being the first to go into production, launching a 
hugely profitable industry which continues to this day. It is perhaps a lesser-known 
fact that Fleming also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and short story collections 
Anthony Burgess 
Born in 1917, 
John Anthony Burgess Wilson 
began his writing career in the 
1950s whilst working for the Colonial Office in Malaya with his novel Time for a 
Tiger. Possessed by a great flair for languages, he invented his own language, 
Nadsat – the Anglo-
Russian
 teen language – used in arguably his most renowned 
work, the dystopian A Clockwork Orange. Reputedly written in under a month ‗for 
money‘ and based on personal experiences endured during the Second World War, 
it catapulted Burgess into the literary limelight and remains to this day as one of 
the most contentious of novels. Director 
Stanley Kubrick
‘s subsequent highly 
personalised film adaptation caused outrage with its explicit content. Burgess, 
however, continued to claim that much of the novel was misunderstood. Apart 
from his substantial literary output, Burgess was also an accomplished composer, 
his inspiration being Claude Debussy. He is on record as wanting people to think 
of him as a ‗musician who writes novels, rather than a novelist who writes music‘. 
His vibrant, outspoken autobiography Little Wilson and Big God is a testament to 
a towering intellect and one of the most distinguished British literary figures of the 
latter part of the 20th century. 

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Kingsley Amis 
Having produced a considerable body of work throughout his life, 
Kingsley 
Amis
 is perhaps best noted for his debut novel, Lucky Jim. Published in 1954, the 
novel, a satire on new university academic life, challenges many of the norms of 
the time and made its author an overnight literary sensation. He aligned himself 
very much with the left, having embraced Communism whilst at 
Oxford
, as his 
early novels reflect – each possessing an inherently ironic acerbic wit and 
compassion. Such a style, however, began to change in the ‘70s. He moved 
inexorably to the right, producing work such as the controversial Russian Hide and 
Seek, whilst later returning to former themes with The Booker Prize-winning, 
The
 
Old Devils
. He also produced volumes of poetry (considering himself first and 
foremost a poet), verse and critical essays. Knighted in 1990, Amis was an 
undoubted major literary figure who ranks high amongst the English literary roll 
call of influential post-war writers. 
Margaret Drabble 
Bursting onto the literary scene in 1963 with her novel A Summer Bird 
Cage, 
Margaret Drabble
 has explored an analogous theme depicting mannered, 
conservative contemporary society, its triumphs, calamities, heartbreaks, 
restrictions and economic misfortunes, most usually through the eye of a female 
protagonist and has, to date, published 18 novels. Recurring themes such as 
encountering unexpected personal hardship, betrayal, corrosive stoicism and the 
lack of benevolence take centre stage. Critical studies of Wordsworth and Hardy 
are also amongst her literary output. As a writer who believes the pen to be 
mightier than the sword, she was vociferous in her attitude towards the 2003 
invasion of 
Iraq
, recalling 
Orwell
‘s warning of ‗the intoxication of power‘ and ‗the 
thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you 
want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever‘. 

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