Recommend me some quintessential British fiction

[Fishpond]

I'm American and have read a fair bit of the British "classics" but I'm looking for the ones that fly a little further under the radar.

Disclaimer is I must be able to find them here! I've had a few recommendations before but couldn't find them anywhere (even amazon!) for purchase / loan.

Oh and I Capture the Castle obviously but it MUST have been mentioned dozens of times already!

These lists need some more Scottish/Welsh/Irish content and a some titles that are a bit less posh. Really random thoughts:

How Green was my Valley
Kes
Trainspotting

Also some wartime titles, Regeneration trilogy - Pat Barker, maybe

I read a lot of Australian books when I lived there and enjoyed reading autobiographies in between the classics, mostly of of the not at all famous, just those with a good tale to tell. Example, Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth, the books are a good read and very detailed about day to day life.

Thackeray generally, not just Vanity Fair. For example, Barry Lyndon and Henry Esmond are very good. Funny too.

Graham Greene and Le Carre more recently(ish).

Chubbleigh I could add lots of Irish stuff but then it's not really British is it? Not the stuff I'm thing of which is all Ireland not Ulster.

simon brett
dick francis
are my favourite crime writers

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
Slaves of Solitude
Hangover Square

All by Patrick Hamilton

London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins

Alana - I know what you mean but I think you have to include some Irish stuff if you want to know about GB generally. In fact I would recommend that the original poster explores Irish literature in general - a goldmine!

contemporary-ish Scottish crime fiction:
Ian Rankin Rebus series, the earlier in the series the better general
Denise Mina Garnethll trilogy
Peter May The Blackhouse or the Lewis Man (set in Scottish islands)

The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett. He has written lots of other great things too but my brain is too fuzzy to thing of them.

Wizardofos I am obsessed with London Belongs to Me. Have also just started Bond Street Story which is out of print but got it cheap on Amazon.

OP, not quite sure what sort of thing you like but I love:

Vanity Fair (several mentions and yes, it's oddly modern)
Antonia White's Frost in May series
Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossmith
Diary of a Provinical Lady - EM Delafield

As for more modern stuff, Martin Amis has written some good books despite being fairly annoying. London Fields I think is his best and most British. I really loved Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller.

The books of Jane Gardam (Old Filth, The Man in the Wooden Hat) and Patrick Gale.

Possibly the English equivalents of Anne Tyler? Sort of territory.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch is modern and has very dry, British humour. It's set in London and is about a policeman. It's a bit 'out there' though. I loved it.