Most Famous British Writers

United Kingdom has produced 702 notable writers throughout history, led by William Shakespeare. Rankings are drawn from a cross-verified academic dataset of 152,953 people.

Category All
Citizenship All
WS
William Shakespeare British Playwright 1564 – 1616
# 8
CD
Charles Dickens British Writer 1812 – 1870
# 54
JR
J. R. R. Tolkien British Writer 1892 – 1973
# 74
AC
Agatha Christie British Playwright 1890 – 1976
# 81
JA
Jane Austen British Writer 1775 – 1817
# 121
VW
Virginia Woolf British Novelist 1882 – 1941
# 125
GO
George Orwell British Novelist 1903 – 1950
# 142
MS
Mary Shelley British Writer 1797 – 1851
# 253
HG
H. G. Wells British Writer 1866 – 1946
# 318
LC
Lewis Carroll British Writer 1833 – 1898
# 332
CS
C. S. Lewis British Writer 1898 – 1963
# 452
RD
Roald Dahl British Novelist 1916 – 1990
# 509
SR
Salman Rushdie British Writer Born 1947
# 603
AC
Aleister Crowley British Playwright 1875 – 1947
# 742
JM
John Milton British Writer 1608 – 1674
# 772
SJ
Samuel Johnson British Writer 1709 – 1784
# 886
TP
Terry Pratchett British Writer 1948 – 2015
# 964
MW
Mary Wollstonecraft British Writer 1759 – 1797
# 996
NG
Neil Gaiman British Author Born 1960
# 1,112
CH
Christopher Hitchens British Author 1949 – 2011
# 1,158