Authors

This page is chiefly a response to a surprising number of requests from readers of the rest of my site concerning my favourite authors. It's not meant to be an exhaustive reply - it couldn't be. For a start, I read far too much and have far too many "favourite authors" to be able to list all of them, still less to say anything about them. It's not even in any particular order; the first writer I've chosen, Fiona Cooper, shouldn't be taken to be at the top of some list, simply on a list of writers whom I particularly enjoy.

If I've applied any criterion at all in my selection from my favourites it's that of comparative neglect. I'm sure that Fiona Cooper sells well, but I'm surprised that her work isn't better known. So, apart from being a response to requests, this page is also an attempt to bring certain writers to the greater prominence they deserve. I hope also that it sets you to the enjoyable reading of books you might otherwise not have come across.

(Neglect, here, means neglect in this country (England). It may well be that some of the writers that I add (for example, Eudora Welty) are far from neglected elsewhere. And sometimes I'll include an author who simply isn't neglected, but whom I just can't leave out.)

The fact that most of the authors here so far are women is simply a reflection of the fact that many of my favourite writers are women; there's no intention to make this a "Women Writers Page". An extremely good site that is intended as that is A Celebration of Women Writers - highly recommended. It's very ambitious, and is well worth returning to at regular intervals.

You might also be interested in the Authors section of my Fantasy & S.F. page.

Clicking on or otherwise selecting the links will take you to whatever information I've found and thought useful - usually a bibliography, plus any relevant links to other sites. I'm not too interested in personality cults, nor in lit.crit. wafflings about Literature; I just enjoy reading the books.

James Finney Boylan

I know only his two novels -- highly recommended. I also have details of work forthcoming.

Ernest Bramah

Including the start of an on-line edition of Kai Lung's Golden Hours.

C.J. Cherryh

The highpoint being a link to her own Web site.

Barbara Comyns (1909-1992)

Gently surreal, often very black, generally very funny (though never unalloyed with something sharper, more painful).

Fiona Cooper (1955-)

Mainly a novelist, but also a short-story writer. A writer of humour and sensitivity; her earlier books stressed the former, her later the latter.

Helen DeWitt

Helen's first novel came out in 2000, and is now available in paperback. It's unmissable -- sharp and funny and energetic and completely absorbing. OK, she's a friend of mine, but I promise that that has nothing to do with my opinion. I almost wish that I didn't know her, just so that my recommendation would carry more weight.

Maeve Henry

Maeve is a writer of books for children. Her five published works so far have included fantasy, suspense, and romance, and she has won the Smarties Award. (She's also another friend of mine, but you should still buy her books.)

Attia Hosain (1913-)

Just one novel and a book of short stories, so far as I know.

Marcia Muller

One of the best Private-Eye writers around (though, in the first books, Sharon McCone isn't strictly speaking a Private Eye).

E. Annie Proulx

Best known for The Shipping News.

Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975)

Sheri S. Tepper (1929-)

Links, including complete and annotated bibliographies, plus some on-line reviews.

Eudora Welty (1909-)