Famous writers of Great Britain

Famous writers of Great Britain

Britain arguably has more famous writers than any other country, their works spanning every period of history and many literary styles.

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They’ve written some of the most recognised lines, dreamt up characters whose fame goes beyond the novels of which they’re the subject, and imagined plots that have captivated readers for centuries. Stretching back over a thousand years, the British literary tradition is vast and shows no signs of coming to a halt. Here’s our guide to a mere handful of Britain’s most famous writers and their most celebrated works.

The Beowulf Poet

Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf has only recently been published.

We don’t even know the name of the first famous writer on this list, but his or her composition is one of the most famous poems of all time. The Anglo-Saxon epic known as Beowulf was written sometime between the 7th century and the early 11th, though its exact dating is unknown. The 3,128-line tale – set in Scandinavia – depicts a world of heroes, kings and monsters, shedding a unique light on a period of history that we know comparatively little about. Its most famous scholar was J.R.R. Tolkien, who was influenced by Beowulf in his creation of his own mythological world, Middle Earth.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer is considered by many to be the Father of English Literature and the greatest poet of the Middle Ages. Born around 1343, he’s most famous for The Canterbury Tales, a series of stories (mostly in verse) based around a group of pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas Becket. The pilgrims have a story-telling competition, resulting in each of the tales being called by the character telling them – The Knight’s Tale, The Miller’s Tale, and so on. Chaucer was instrumental in developing the use of the vernacular Middle English, during a period when most works of literature were being written in Latin or French.

William Shakespeare

Sir John Gilbert’s ‘The Plays of William Shakespeare’ shows an assortment of scenes and characters, including Henry VIII, Hamlet and Ophelia, Falstaff and the Merry Wives and Lear in the storm.

It’s hard to know where to begin when describing the works of possibly the most famous writer of all time, William Shakespeare. Also known simply as “The Bard”, Shakespeare’s works are so numerous, so universally admired, and his characters so memorable, that his output has never been equalled. The Elizabethan playwright, born in 1564, continues to captivate audiences with tales of star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet, make audiences ache with laughter at the antics of his mischievous knight Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, make us recoil in horror at the violence of Titus Andronicus, and inspire romance with his beautiful sonnets. His 37 plays are still performed all over the world every single day, most notably by The Royal Shakespeare Company, headquartered in Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, which counts among its acclaimed productions some of the world’s most famous actors.

William Wordsworth

Another famous poet named William was born in 1770 and helped develop a new literary movement called Romanticism, which saw a new focus on nature and emotion. Famously penning the words “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, Wordsworth is most strongly associated with the Lake District region of England, the beautiful landscape of which was a big inspiration for him. Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until he died in 1850, and he’s also noted for The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem published after his death.

Jane Austen