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.