Who is your favourite author?

[CockleburIck]

Looking to explore literary pastures new, so need some inspiration!

My long term favourites have always been Charles Dickens and Jane Austin. Love the language and the humour.
And, more up to date I also enjoy a bit of Stephen King: so much warmth, humanity and humour in his writing, even, or especially, when writing about horrible things.
Also like David Mitchell, the occasional Martin Amis, and earlier Ian McEwan (he got sloppy and pretentious latterly)

What about you?

Kazuo Ishiguro - for more quirky novels
Robert Harris - for a bit of historical fiction

Malcolm Seville
Monica Edwards
Antonia Forest
Violet Needham
Elizabeth Goudge

As a start off

Hands down George Orwell.

Terry Pratchett
Robert Rankin
Ben Elton
Harlan Coben

Mine are mostly thriller-

Mark Edwards
Alice Feeny
Lisa Jewel
Adele Parks
Jodi Picoult
Ruth Ware
Lucy Foley
Claire Mackintosh
Claire Douglas
Louise Candlish
BA Paris
Kia Abdulah
TM Logan
Sophie Hannah
Phoebe Morgan
Lucy Clarke
Heidi perks
Shari Lapena

I won a signed copy of that book, can't remember where I saw the competition though, might have been in a magazine. It is a good book which I enjoyed, which surprised me as it wouldn't have been one I'd have bought.

Yes, I second that👏. Trollope is hugely underrated. It’s funny how certain authors go out of fashion. In some cases, it’s because their views/writings have aged poorly. But in others, there’s no explanation. They just get forgotten.

For example, the following are all superb, yet who reads them now? Ford Madox Ford, G. K. Chesterton, M. R. James, Anthony Burgess (people just remember him for A Clockwork Orange and ignore his other stuff), Elizabeth Gaskell, Walter Pater, John Ruskin, Max Beerbohm and Swinburne. It really puzzles me.

My overall favourite is Sue Townsend.

Graham Greene
Charles Dickens
E M Forster
Joseph O’Connor

I love his essays. Weirdly, I have no interest in politics, and very little faith in socialism, yet I read him constantly. I think it’s the crystal clear style. Also, he doesn’t write much about the dreary, day to day stuff (tax rates, agricultural policy, etc). Actually, now I think about it, a lot of his essays aren’t about politics at all. Quite a few are about other writers. He wrote a superb essay on Dickens, for example, and a good one on Kipling. And his writings on the English countryside are often lyrical and gorgeous.

Not a fan of his fiction though. 1984 is obviously a must read, but it’s hardly enjoyable. And A Clergyman’s Daughter is awful. The only novel of his I really like is Coming Up for Air.

In some ways he’s a bit like Aldous Huxley - a superb essayist, but mediocre novelist (though Huxley is better - Crome Yellow is wonderful).

God, yeah, I’d forgotten Graham Greene. Love his stuff. Matt Haig said that when he was recovering from depression, Graham Greene was his go to. All he did all day was lay on the sofa and read Greene.

I’d nominate him for best post-war British novelist, along with Anthony Burgess and J G Ballard. Oh, and maybe Irish Murdoch.

Our Man in Havana is hilarious.

Phillip Pullman
Kate Atkinson
John Boyne

Wally Lamb
Graeme Mcrae Burnett
Donna Tartt
Andy Weir
Ben Aaronovitch
Diana Wynne Jones

..... and Fay Weldon

For example, the following are all superb, yet who reads them now? Ford Madox Ford, G. K. Chesterton, M. R. James, Anthony Burgess (people just remember him for A Clockwork Orange and ignore his other stuff), Elizabeth Gaskell, Walter Pater, John Ruskin, Max Beerbohm and Swinburne. It really puzzles me

Oh I've read everything by M.R. James! But yes, there are some wonderful authors who are slowly fading into obscurity.

Well it's good to see all of your favourites. Some have cropped up again and again, and some I've never heard of. I'll certainly look those up.

Thanks for all of your responses.

Maggie O'Farrell
Hilary Mantel
Barbara Kingsolver

Matt Haig ; amazingly creative books of a variety of genres that are usually about topics that would never interest me, but he writes with such eloquence and pace that it is impossible not to instantly be drawn in and gripped. I was bereft when I finished How to Stop Time and to a lesser extent The Radleys even though the premise of both were themes I would normally not entertain…I’ve read all on his ones for adults and never been disappointed.

James Patterson
Anne Rice
Stephen King
Terry Pratchett
Poppy Z. Brite
Herman Melville
Mary Wollstonecraft
Jasper Fforde
Celia Dart-Thornton
James 'Jimbob' Morrison
Jane Austen

Jodi Picoult is my favourite.

I've read all of her books except 1 - which I can't bring myself to read as the topic cuts too close to the bone for me. I'm still tempted to read it, but not sure I could cope with it.

Rohiton Mistry

Non fiction

Graham Hancock - history
Robert Greene - self help
Dale Carnegie - self help
Brian Tracy - self help
Nancy Friday - relationship self help

Fictional
J k for Harry Potter series
Range of nexus books
Range of black lace books

John Fowles
John Irvine
Amor Towles

Also

Dame Stella Remington for her espionage books
The cherub espionage set of books

Neil Gaiman
Linwood Barclay
Sue Townsend