Jane Austen
1775–1817
English novelist; Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility. Explored marriage and family relationships.
In this topic
What to be able to answer
- Match major writers to works, characters, or prizes.
- Separate designers from novelists and poets.
- Remember Poet's Corner and Westminster Abbey.
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British designers, novelists and poets
Names to recognise
Scan the name, then the exact work, role, or achievement attached to it.
Charles Dickens
1812–1870
Oliver Twist, Great Expectations. Scrooge and Mr Micawber have entered everyday language.
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850–1894
Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Thomas Hardy
1840–1928
Author and poet; novels of rural society including Far from the Madding Crowd.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1859–1930
Scottish doctor and writer; created Sherlock Holmes, one of the first fictional detectives.
Evelyn Waugh
1903–1966
Satirical novelist; best known for Brideshead Revisited.
Sir Kingsley Amis
1922–1995
English novelist and poet; most well-known novel is Lucky Jim.
Graham Greene
1904–1991
Novelist influenced by religious beliefs; Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter.
J K Rowling
1965–
Author of the Harry Potter series, which achieved huge international success.
William Wordsworth
1770–1850
Poet inspired by nature; 'I wander'd lonely as a cloud' (The Daffodils).
Wilfred Owen
1893–1918
WWI poet; Anthem for Doomed Youth — 'What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?'.
Siegfried Sassoon
WWI poet who wrote about his experiences in the trenches.
Britain has produced many great designers. Thomas Chippendale designed furniture in the 18th century. Clarice Cliff designed Art Deco ceramics. Sir Terence Conran was a leading 20th-century interior designer.
Leading fashion designers of recent years include Mary Quant, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood.
Designers, writers and poets
The test usually asks for the work, character, prize, or quote attached to each name.
Design first
Chippendale is furniture, Clarice Cliff is Art Deco ceramics, Terence Conran is interiors; Quant, McQueen and Westwood are fashion.
Prizes and global books
Golding, Heaney and Pinter are Nobel names. Booker began in 1968. Christie, Fleming and Tolkien are worldwide fiction names to recognise.
Novelists by character or work
Austen means marriage and family; Dickens gives Scrooge and Micawber; Stevenson, Hardy, Conan Doyle and Rowling are work-to-author matches.
Poetry line
Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and Wordsworth lead into Blake, Byron, Browning, Owen and Sassoon. Poet's Corner is in Westminster Abbey.
The UK has a prestigious literary history. Several British writers have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, including the novelist Sir William Golding, the poet Seamus Heaney, and the playwright Harold Pinter.
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction has been awarded annually since 1968 for the best fiction novel written by an author from the Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe. Past winners include Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel and Julian Barnes.
Dame Agatha Christie's detective stories are read all over the world. Ian Fleming's books introduced James Bond. In 2003, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien was voted the country's best-loved novel.
British poetry is among the richest in the world. The Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf tells of its hero's battles against monsters. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales dates from the Middle Ages. Shakespeare wrote many sonnets (poems of 14 lines) and some longer poems.
John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, inspired by his Protestant religious views. William Wordsworth was inspired by nature — his most famous lines begin 'I wander'd lonely as a cloud'. Sir Walter Scott wrote poems and novels inspired by Scotland and its border traditions.
Poetry was very popular in the 19th century. Notable poets include William Blake (‘Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright’), John Keats, Lord Byron (‘She walks in beauty, like the night’), Percy Shelley, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Robert and Elizabeth Browning. Robert Browning wrote 'Oh, to be in England now that April's there'.
Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were inspired to write about their experiences in the First World War. Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth begins ‘What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?’.
Some of the best-known poets are buried or commemorated in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.
Do not mix up
Golding is novelist, Heaney poet, Pinter playwright
Scrooge means mean; Micawber means always hopeful
Poet's Corner is in Westminster Abbey
Practise
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