Most Famous British Writers

50 British Writers in view out of 1,274

Writing 1,274
United Kingdom 9,803
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare British Playwright 1564 – 1616
#8
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens British Writer 1812 – 1870
#54
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien British Writer 1892 – 1973
#74
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie British Playwright 1890 – 1976
#81
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde British Poet 1854 – 1900
#89
Jane Austen
Jane Austen British Writer 1775 – 1817
#121
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf British Novelist 1882 – 1941
#125
George Orwell
George Orwell British Novelist 1903 – 1950
#142
John Locke
John Locke British Philosopher 1632 – 1704
#145
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley British Writer 1797 – 1851
#253
H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells British Writer 1866 – 1946
#318
Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll British Writer 1833 – 1898
#332
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon British Philosopher 1561 – 1626
#362
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes British Philosopher 1588 – 1679
#370
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis British Writer 1898 – 1963
#452
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl British Novelist 1916 – 1990
#509
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill British Philosopher 1806 – 1873
#522
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke British Philosopher 1635 – 1703
#552
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley British Poet 1894 – 1963
#597
SR
Salman Rushdie British Writer Born 1947
#603
John Keats
John Keats British Poet 1795 – 1821
#605
T. E. Lawrence
T. E. Lawrence British Biographer 1888 – 1935
#672
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley British Poet 1792 – 1822
#697
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley British Playwright 1875 – 1947
#742
John Milton
John Milton British Writer 1608 – 1674
#772
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson British Writer 1709 – 1784
#886
Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett British Writer 1948 – 2015
#964
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft British Writer 1759 – 1797
#996
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham British Philosopher 1748 – 1832
#1,005
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth British Poet 1770 – 1850
#1,012
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman British Author Born 1960
#1,112
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy British Poet 1840 – 1928
#1,122
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens British Author 1949 – 2011
#1,158
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton British Writer 1897 – 1968
#1,184
CM
Christopher Marlowe British Playwright 1564 – 1593
#1,205
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer British Philosopher 1820 – 1903
#1,237
Alan Moore
Alan Moore British Comics Born 1953
#1,240
Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro British Novelist Born 1954
#1,249
D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence British Playwright 1885 – 1930
#1,256
Graham Greene
Graham Greene British Playwright 1904 – 1991
#1,263
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe British Novelist 1660 – 1731
#1,280
WM
William Morris British Poet 1834 – 1896
#1,311
Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter British Writer 1866 – 1943
#1,374
EB
Emily Brontë British Writer 1818 – 1848
#1,390
Alfred (Lord Tennyson)
Alfred (Lord Tennyson) British Poet 1809 – 1892
#1,466
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge British Poet 1772 – 1834
#1,526
Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing British Writer 1919 – 2013
#1,541
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti British Philosopher 1895 – 1986
#1,550
John le Carré
John le Carré British Writer Born 1931
#1,563
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley British Philosopher 1733 – 1804
#1,735

By the numbers

Inside the United Kingdom Writers

1,274 notable people in this slice of the dataset.

Through the Centuries

One face per century — the most globally famous the united kingdom writers born in each.

Notable Births by Decade

Notable births among the United Kingdom Writers peaked in the 1920s with 83 people.

What the United Kingdom Writers Are Known For

Click any row to drill into that filter.

Writer are the United Kingdom Writers's biggest group — 31% of all notables (399).

The United Kingdom Writers over-index on biographer — 42.1× the global rate.

  1. Writer399
  2. Poet252
  3. Historian109
  4. Journalist89
  5. Philosopher65
  6. Author57
  7. Novelist56
  8. Linguist42
  1. Biographer2742.1×
  2. Playwright4016.7×
  3. Scholar2015.5×
  4. Editor1514.4×
  5. Publisher1512.4×
  6. Novelist5611.9×
  7. Poet25210.1×
  8. Literary169.9×

City Hot Spots

Cities that over-produce the United Kingdom Writers compared to the world average — multiplier shows how much more.