British Writers: A - C

This project is a place to gather together profiles of British born writers of all genres. Those with bold links have profiles on Geni. Links that are not bold are to other sources.

Names are arranged alphabetically and spread across 6 projects to handle the numbers. (The arrowed buttons below are linked to the other pages).

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A

• Kia Abdullah (b.1982) British novelist, writer and columnist.
• Israel Abrahams (b. London,1858 - 1925) who wrote a number of classics on Judaism, most notably, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896).
• J. R. Ackerley (1896 - 1967)
• Theodore Dyke Acland (1851-1931)
• Valentine Ackland (English Poet 1906-1969)
• Elizabeth "Eliza" Acton (1799-1859) English Poet and cook
• Douglas Adams, over 15 millions copies of his books sold in several different languages. He is best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
• Sarah Fuller Flower Adams (1805-1848) English Poet
• Joseph Addison (1672 – 1719) English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician.
• Kay Adshead (b 1954) British actress, poet, and playwright
• Grace Aguilar (1816 – 1847) English novelist and writer on Jewish history and religion.
• Joan Aiken
• Mary Alcock
• Richard Aldington born Edward Godfree Aldington (1892-1962), English writer and poet.
• William Alexander
• Maria Alford
• Mabel Esther Allan
• Marian Allen
• Margery Allingham (1904-1966 English crime writer
• Gillian Allnutt
• Laurence Alma-Tadema
• Elizabeth Frances Amherst (poet)
• Kingsly Amis
• Martin Louis Amis
• John Anderson (1795-1845) writer in Pulo Penang, or prince of wales Island -
• Jane Anger
• Christopher Anstey (1724 – 1805) English poet and Essayist
• Eva Anstruther
• Michael Arlen (1895 - 1956)
• Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) British poet and cultural critic
• Jason Arnopp - novelist and scriptwriter, with a background in journalism. He wrote the 2011 horror feature Stormhouse and has scripted Doctor Who audiobooks and plays for the BBC and Big Finish ranges. In 2012, two of his horror stories, Beast In The Basement and A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home were published for Kindle. He has contributed to BBC Radio 4's Recorded for Training Purposes and Laurence & Gus comedy shows.
• Daisy Ashford
• Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671 - 1713)
• Anne Askew (1520/1521 – 1546) English poet and Protestant condemned as a heretic - the only woman on record known to have been both tortured in the Tower of London and burnt at the stake.
• Mary Astell
• John Astley, MP (c.1507 - 1595)
• Judy Astley
• Diana Athill OBE (born 1917) British literary editor, novelist and memoirist
• Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM CH CVO CBE FRS FZS FSA (born 1926) English broadcaster and naturalist. Television series Screenwriter, writer and autobiographer
• Richard Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (1923-2014) -published an informal autobiography entitled Entirely Up to You, Darling in 2008.
• Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG (1883-1967)
• Mary Anne Atwood
• Harriet Auber
• Penelope Aubin
• Wystan Hugh Auden (1907 – 1973), Anglo-American poet whose works were published as W. H. Auden
• Jane Austen
• Katherine Austen
• Valerie Austin
• Sir Alan Ayckbourn, CBE Playwright
• Thomas Harman Ayckbourn (1781-1871) Barrister, author
• Pam Ayres
• Shaista Aziz 1978-

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B

• Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
• Enid Bagnold, Lady Jones, CBE MP (1889 - 1981)
• Anthony Cowper Bailey (1933-2020) English writer and art historian
• Beryl Bainbridge
• Sarah Bakewell
• Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) Scottish Poet
• Olive Baldwin 2nd Earl of Bewdeley (1899-1958)
• Clara Lucas Balfour
• John Patrick Douglas Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1904 - 1976)
• Isabella Banks
• Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825) English poet and writer
• ulian Patrick Barnes (born 1946) English writer
• William Barnes (1801-1886) English writer, poet, minister, and philologist
• Judi Barrett
• J. M. Barrie (1860-1937)
• Jane Barker
• Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) Mathematician, writer
• Sir John Barrow
• Gregory Bateson (1904 – 1980) English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist
• Elizabeth Bath
• Lucy Elizabeth Bather
• Nina Beachcroft
• Sir Cecil Beaton (1904 - 1980)
• Laura Beatty
• Fran Beauman
• Francis Beaumont (1584 – 1616)
• John Beaumont (1583 - 1627) English Poet
• Gilbert Abbott à Beckett (1811 - 1856)
• Gilbert Arthur à Beckett (1837 - 1891)
• William Beckford (1760-1844)
• Patricia Beer
• Constance Beerbohm
• Aphra Behn (1640-1689) English playwright, poet
• Edith Maberly Bell /Enid Hester Chataway Bell (1881 - 1967)
• Mary Hayley Bell Novelist, playwright
• Priscilla Bell (1750 - 1832)
• Frances Bellerby
• Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Belloc (1868 - 1947)
• Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953)
• Mark Adayre Bence-Jones (1930-2010)
• Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn (1925 – 2014) Published diarist
• Melissa Benn
• Allan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and author.
• Anna Maria Bennett (c.1760 - 1808)
• Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)
• Arthur Christopher Benson (1862 – 1925) English essayist, poet, and author
• Stella Benson (1892–1933) was an English feminist, travel writer, and novelist.
• Michael Bentine, CBE (1922 - 1996)
• E. C. Bentley (1875 – 1956) English novelist
• Nicolas Clerihew Bentley (1907 - 1978)
• Elizabeth Bentley (writer)
• Juliana Berners
• Mary Berry (1763 - 1852) English non-fiction writer born in Kirkbridge, North Yorkshire, best known for her letters and journals
• Mary-Rosa Alleyne Berry Born 1935 - Cookery writer and autobiographer
• Tamasin Berry-Hart
• Annie Besant
• Walter Besant (1836 - 1901)
• Alfred Edmeades Bestall, MBE (1892-1986)
• Matilda Betham-Edwards
• Candida Rose Betjeman (1942 - 2014)
• Sir John Betjeman, CBE (1906 - 1984)
• Jo Beverley
• Elizabeth Bibesco
• Lady Rachel Billington Novelist, diarist
• Julie Bindel
• Robert Laurence Binyon, CH (1869 – 1943) English poet, dramatist and art scholar. His most famous work, For the Fallen, is well known for being used in Remembrance Sunday services.
• Carol Birch
• John Joseph Bishop (born 1966) English comedian and actor, autobiographer
• Clementina Black
• Malorie Blackman
• William Blackstone (1723-1780) English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century most noted for writing the Commentaries on the Laws of England.
• Robert Blair (1699-1746)
• Emilia Aylmer Blake
• William Blake (1757-1827)
• Robert Lifford Valentine "Val" ffrench Blake (1913-2011) English Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, cattle- and horse breeder, and author.
• William Blake (1757 - 1827)
• Lieutenant General Humphrey Bland (1686-1763) military writer: among his books, was A Treatise of Military Discipline: In Which is laid down and Explained the Duties of Officer and Soldier which was published in 1727 and "considered the bible of the British Army". A first edition was owned by George Washington who encouraged his officers in the Continental Army to "study Bland and other treatises."
• Brian Blessed (born 1937) Autobiographer
• Edmund Charles Blunden, MC (1896 –1974) English poet
• Wilfred Scawen Blunt
• Regina Miriam Bloch
• Evelyn, Princess Blücher
• Enid Blyton
• St George Guy Reginald Bolton (1884 - 1979)
• Rt Hon Charles Booth, PC, FRS MP (1840 - 1916)
• Dion Boucicault (1820–90)
• Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (1749-18000
• Nicholas Boson (1624–1708)
• James Boswell, 9th of Auchinleck (1740 – 1795) - lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland, best known for the biography he wrote of Samuel Johnson
• Francis William Bourdillon (1852 - 1921)
• Lilian Helen Bowes Lyon
• Sir Maurice Bowra, CH (1898 - 1971)
• Nina Boyle (1865 - 1943)
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• Anne Bradstreet
• Terence Brady (1939 - d.) London~born actor and writer.
• Charlotte Mary Brame
• Barbarina Brand
• Hannah Brand
• Edward Fitzgerald "Gerald" Brenan, MC, CBE
• Anna Eliza Bray (1790 - 1883) historical novelist
• Jane Brereton
• Sylvia Brett
• Audrey Brettle
• Harold Brighouse (1882 - 1958)
• Vera Brittain
• Penny Broadhurst
• Lucy Broadwood
• Frances Freeling Broderip
• Anne Brontë
• Charlotte Brontë
• Emily Brontë
• Rupert Brook born 17 Aug 1840 in Petworth. Died 10 Sep 1922. Poet and Traveller
• Elizabeth Brooke (writer)
• Frances Brooke
• Field Marshall Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke (1883-1963) War Diaries
• Rupert Chawner Brooke (1887 – 1915) War Poet
• Isabella Delves Broughton (1958 - 2007)
• Rhoda Broughton (1840-1920)
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Robert Browning (1812-1889) English poet and playwright
• John Buchan
• Jacintha Buddicom
• Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer
• Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831 - 1891)
• Madeleine Bunting MP
• John Bunyan (1628-88)
• Rosina Bulwer Lytton (1802-1882)
• Anthony Burgess
• Thomas Burke (1886 - 1945)
• Edward Burne-Jones
• Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (1849 –1924) English playwright and author
• Frances Burney (1776–1828) also known as Fanny Burney and after her marriage as Madame d'Arblay. English novelist, diarist and playwright.
• Sarah Burney (1772 – 1844) was an English novelist,
• Robert Burns (1759-1796)
• Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS (1821 – 1890) British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat.
• May Butcher ( 1886 - 1950) English-born Maltese writer who translated several works from the Maltese language into English
• Sir James Ramsay Montagu Butler, OBE - editor United Kingdom Military Series of the History of the Second World War by Clement Attlee. He wrote two of the volumes concerning grand strategy published within that series.
• Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, KG, CH, DL, PC (1902 – 1982), R. A. Butler and familiarly known as Rab, was a British Conservative politician. Autobiographer
• Samuel Butler (1613 – 1680) - poet and satirist remembered now chiefly for a long satirical poem entitled Hudibras.
• Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE, known as A. S. Byatt (born1936), English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner
• Muriel St. Clare Byrne
• Lord George Gordon Byron (1778-1824) Lord Byron, English poet

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C

• Cædmon the earliest English (Northumbrian) poet whose name is known.
• Ada Cambridge
• Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) Scottish Poet
• William Camden (1551-1623) Antiquarian and Historian, cartographer, writer
• May Wedderburn Cannan
• Roxey Ann Caplin
• Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844) author and translator.
• Barbara Comyns Carr (1907 - 1992)
• Thomas Carlisle (1795-1881)
• J. Comyns Carr (1849 - 1916)
• William Carr biographer for the Dictionary of National Biography,
• Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
• Angela Carter
• Elizabeth Carter
• Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland
• Sheila Cassidy
• Jane Cavendish
• Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Winifred Cawley
• Thomas Carew
• Edward Cave
• Dorothea Celesia
• Robert Chalmers. 1st and last Lord Chalmers wrote the book History of Currency in the British Colonies
• Sir Thomas Chaloner, MP (The Elder) 1521 - 1565)
• William Chambers (1723-1796) Architect, writer
• Basil Champneys (1842-1935), architect and author,
• Rev. Weldon Champneys (1807 - 1875)
• Sheila Chandra
• Sir Henry Channon (1897 - 1958)
• Laura Ormiston Chant
• Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) Scriptwriter, autobiographer
• George Chapman (?1559-?1634)
• Charlotte Charke
• Elizabeth Charles
• Maria Louisa Charlesworth
• Leslie Charteris
• Clara de Chatelain
• Thomas Chatterton (1752-70)
• Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1399)
• Erika Cheetham
• Nicolas John Alexander Cheetham (1910-2002)
• Edward Henshaw Cheney (1803-1884)
• Robert Henry Cheney, Esquire (1799-1866)
• Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886 - 1959)
• Nora Chesson
• Gilbert Keith Chesterton,(1874 – 1936) English writer
• Peter Cheyney born Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse Cheyney (1896 – 1951) British crime fiction writer, poet, novelist.
• Robert Erskine Childers DSC (1870 – 1922)
• Amy Childs
• Sir Thomas Willes Chitty, 3rd Baronet (1926 - 2014)
• Catherine Christian
• Agatha Christie
• Mary Cholmondeley
• Nazrin Choudhury
• Lady Mary Chudleigh
• John Clare (1793-1864) Poet
• Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, PC (1928 – 1999) British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), historian and diarist.
• Lucas Cleeve
• Anne de Clifford, Countess of Pembroke (c.1590 - 1676)
• Lucy Clifford
• Caroline Clive
• Kitty Clive
• Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–61)
• William Cobbett (1763 - 1835)
• Lady Evelyn Cobbold (1867 - 1963)
• Kira Cochrane
• Catharine Trotter Cockburn
• Sarah Cockburn (c.1938 - 2000) Sarah Caudwell was the pseudonym of Sarah Cockburn
• Liza Cody
• Catherine Cole (1913 - 2001) English children's writer
• Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, KBE, often known as Seb Coe, is an English former athlete and politician. Autobiographer and sports/running related books
• Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
• Sara Coleridge
• Mary Collier
• Wilkie Collins
• Mary Collyer
• Cometan (1998 - ) born in Lancashire, England, the Founder of Astronism and author of its founding treatise, known as the Omnidoxy.
• Arthur Ignatius Conan-Doyle (1859 - 1930)
• Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) born in the Ukraine
• William Congreve (1670-1729)
• Eliza Cook (1818-1889) English Poet
• Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich 1890 - 1954)
• Lady Diana Cooper
• Lettice Ulpha Cooper (1897 - 1994)
• Leonard Cooper (c. 1901 - ?)
• Louise Cooper
• Sir Anthony Cope
• Wendy Cope
• Esther Copley
• Julia Copus
• Frances Cornford
• Jane Cornwallis
• Elizabeth Kerr Coulson
• Sir Noël Peirce Coward (1899 – 1973) English playwright
• Virginia Cowles (1910 - 1983)
• Abraham Cowley (1618 – 1667) English poet
• Hannah Cowley (1743-1908) English Playwright
• William Cowper (1731-1800)
• Elizabeth Craven
• Aidan Merivale Crawley, MBE (1908 - 1993)[1] British journalist, television executive and editor, and politician. Biographer
• Harriet Spencer Crawley (b. 1948), a successful author and former television presenter
• Eliot Crawshay-Williams (1879 - 1962)
• Louise Creighton
• Charles Crichton (1910 – 1999) English film director, editor and scriptwriter.
• Helen Cross
• Ida Crowe married name Pollock
• Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947)
• Annie Hall Cudlip
• Richard Cumberland (1732-1811) Playwright, memoirist, wrote 4 operas
• Alan Cumming, OBE (born 1965), is a Scottish-American actor, author, and activist. Memoirist, novelist and Autobiographer.
• Nancy Cunard
• Rev. John William Cunningham
• Olive Custance

References and Sources

• Women's History Month - Wordpress
• WIKI - British Writers
• WIKI British Literature
• WIKI Writers
• Literature British Council - Writers
• The Guardian - Black British Writers
• Oxford Royale - Britains Famous Writers History

this project is in History Link