Top Ten authors

[kickassangel]

One of my 6th Form asked if I could come up with a list of 10 'good' writers for her to do some reading over the summer. After fainting, I began thinking about this, and we've had some interesting discussions in the staff room.
What do people on MN think are the best authors to read?
The books should be of good quality rather than popular (although you can take that into consideration), have contributed to the 'literary cannon' in some way, e.g. influenced how others write, created a whole new genre etc.

The following criteria MUST be met.
1 English
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland)
1 pre 1914
1 post 1914
1 poet
1 prose writer
1 playwright
1 European, outside UK
1 new world
1 female
1 male

1 author could fulfill several of these criteria, therby given you some freedom to choose authors from outside these categories (e.g. Shakespeare is male, engliah, pre 1914 etc)

Or you could just tell me your favourite authors.

Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited (poetic fabulous language)
Dickens - Great Expectations (just the best - rereading it atm makes me lol and sob)
Wilkie Collins - The Woman In White
George Elliot - Silas Marner
Albert Camus (read as teenager especially after I found out a Cure song was based on one of his books - how sad was I )
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5
Jane Austen
Margaret Atwood
Emily Bronte
Audrey Niffenegger - the Time Traveller's Wife (would add that my local reading group felt this was flawed in many ways BUT has stayed with us and left a strong impression - also has appeal that would suit teenager?)
E.Annie Proulx - Shipping News
Isabel Allende - The House of the Spirits
Dodie Smith - I Capture the Castle (haven't read this yet, but have had it recommended many times)
Kate Atkinson - Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Iris Murdoch (read a lot when teenager)
Carol Ann Duffy - poet
Grace Nichols - poet

must stop - could go on forever.

i don't think anyone's mentioned sylvia plath as poet/female. loved this as a teenager!

loved I capture the castle, and the handmaid's tale.

Sad but one book I have read over and over and over again is Neville Shute's "A Town Like Alice".

Life of Pi
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Passage to India

Will do a list later but must mention Charles Dickens - I don't think I've seem him mentioned yet?

Poet - Wendy Cope or Pam Ayres
English - Jane Austen
Playwright - Oscar Wilde - Importance of Being Ernest
New world - Margaret Atwood - Lady Oracle or Margaret Laurence - The Stone Angel

1 English = Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland) = some Joyce if they're feeling brave!
1 pre 1914 = Thomas Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles
1 post 1914 = Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
1 poet = Philip Larkin
1 prose writer = Simon Armitage
1 playwright = Alan Bennett's History Boys or Arthur Miller's All My Sons
1 European, outside UK = Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
1 new world = Larry's Party by Carol Shields
1 female = anything by Geraldine McCaughren, who writes for "children" but I think they're universal: White Darkness is v good, as is Not The End of the World
1 male = Ian McEwan Saturday

Garriaon Keillor's Lake Wobeggon Days is another favourite but especially the audio cassette as he reads it himself in his unique style.

This thread is great - I keep making notes for suggestions at my next reading group meeting!

1 English = Jane Austen
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland) = Dylan Thomas
1 pre 1914 = George Eliot
1 post 1914 = Brian Patten
1 poet = Carol Ann Duffy
1 prose writer = Kazuo Ishiguro
1 playwright = Shakespeare (well...)
1 European, outside UK = Dostoevsky (specifically 'Crime & Punishment') Also Camus
1 new world = John Updike
1 female = Margaret Attwood
1 male = Keats (good for teenagers, all that wistful dying stuff)

These aren't necessarily my favourite authors, but think they are a good range of accessible and challenging.

Marina - I loved The Golden Gate too. Am reading Melissa Bank 'The Wonder Spot' at the moment and love it!

Really enjoyed 'A Gethering Light' - thanks for that one.

Wot no Hardy??

Hardy has to be my favourite ever author.

1 English: Martin Amis, London Fields
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland): Agree with whoever said Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood (and recommend the recording with Richard Burton as First Voice...)
1 pre 1914: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
1 post 1914: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
1 poet: Wouldn't recommend just one... get an anthology! Recommend 'Staying Alive'.
1 prose writer: Orwell, 1984
1 playwright: Sartre, Huis clos (translated as 'In camera'), Beckett, Waiting for Godot; Shakespeare (of course), King Lear or Othello
1 European, outside UK: Primo Levi (If This is a Man/The Truce, or The Periodic Table) or Camus, L'etranger, or Svevo, Confessions of Zeno
1 new world: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
1 female: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (or anything...)
1 male: Thackeray, Vanity Fair

Ooh, that was fun! But if you asked me tomorrow I'm sure I'd come up with a different list!

Another one - Time's Arrow, think it's Martin Amis? Brilliant book, in which time goes backwards, starts with an old man and goes backwards through his life, but he only knows about it as he experiences it, bit like being born when you're old and gradually getting younger. So he starts with a load of guilt about something, and only half way through, finds out what it was. Excellent book.

Whoops, Dickens has already got a mention!

Off the top of my head, how about the following, not necessarily my favourites but anyway:-

1 English = GRAHAM GREENE
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland) = JAMES JOYCE
1 pre 1914 = CHARLES DICKENS
1 post 1914 = EVELYN WAUGH/KINGSLEY AMIS
1 poet - TS ELIOT/SYLVIA PLATH
1 prose writer
1 playwright
1 European, outside UK = FRANZ KAFKA
1 new world = SCOTT FITZGERALD/KEROUAC/SALINGER
1 female
1 male

when I was younger (cue creaking bones) I also enjoyed John Irving's Prayer for Owen Meany, Salman Rushdhie's Midnight's Children and Isabelle Allende's House of the Spirits.

OK, this is my list geared towards this age group in particular:

1 English: I'm going to say Margaret Drabble, because I loved her books when I was a teenager, they really opened my mind
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland): Kate Atkinson (slight cheat, but she lives in Edinburgh or used to)
1 pre 1914: Charlotte Bronte
1 post 1914: Ian MacEwan
1 poet: Louis MacNeice, though they'd probably prefer Sylvia...
1 prose writer: Jessica Mitford (muckraking in particular)
1 playwright: Tom Stoppard
1 European, outside UK: Primo Levi (been said before but it just has to be)
1 new world: Sara Lewis (unusual choice but she's so good and so under-recognised)
1 female: Susanna Clarke
1 male: Charles Palliser (for sheer enjoyment)

Ta da

Ohh I enjoyed this, not necessarily favourite but admired writers none the less.

1 English Emily Bronte
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland) Roddy Doyle
1 pre 1914 Thomas Hardy
1 post Aldous Huxley
1 poet Stevie Smith
1 prose writer Oscar Wilde
1 playwright RC Sherriff
1 European, outside UK Herman Hesse
1 new world John Irving
1 female Keri Hume
1 male Jim Crace

wow! now i keep changing my mind about what to put on my list.

from an educational point of view it can be hard to escape the 'dead white male' syndrome, but these ideas are really good. i have promised to present my list to students by monday, so i have the weekend to think about this.

Pants. I've just tried writing a list, using ideas from here, and (of course) my HoF. So far i have 15 names. as i know the pupils have already read some of these, i may cheat, and give them 10 new ones they haven't yet covered.

also people like Nick Hornby, Helen Fielding might grab the "reluctant reader"

I spotted, without properly reading (promise) that someone else had done this without looking to see what other people had done - good idea, so I've done same.

Preamble: my list is not meant to be objective creme de la creme, it's what I think (i) a sixth former would click with; (ii) a good mix; and (iii) what just might feasibly be fitted into a summer. So there are some oddities.

Here we go:

Virginia Woolf, Room of One's Own + perhaps Jacob's Room
Byron, Don Juan [a riot]
Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London
Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
Primo Levi, Periodic Table [might be a bit heavy for a sixth former]
Laurence Sterne, either Sentimental Journey or Tristram Shandy. SJ probably better for summer reading
Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
Gorki, My Childhood (and then all the other ones)
Sharman Macdonald, When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream And Shout
Raymond Chandler, any - maybe The Big Sleep

Oh help, now i realise i've missed off hemingway & steinbeck

Margeret Forster.

kickassangel, I know exactly what you mean re the 'dead white male' syndrome. A similar thought occured to me while I was typing my list. Will see if I can think of some less obvious examples, have a feeling I may struggle as I'm not exactly well read tbh!

Muriel Spark? I love her books!

This is hard! When I did A'level English, Sylvia Plath was the height of cool - no idea what passes as good nowadays!

English - Thomas Hardy
pre 1914 - Dickens (David Copperfield)
post 1914 -
poet - Seamus Heaney (hated it while studying it but still remember it now)
prose -
play - I really like Rhinoceros (poss by Ionesco?)
Euro - Dostoevsky
New - Douglas Coupland (Girlfriend in a Coma), Donna Tartt (Secret History), Fitzgerald (Great Gatsby)
Female - Caged Bird lady (Maya Angelou?)
Male - Patrick McGrath (Asylum)