Any good british writers?

[oryx]

William Boyd

 

[Scarlette]

Iris Murdoch. She is all Oxford lalala, but every word she wrote was beautiful.

 

[badlands]

Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy is excellent.

Cider with Rosie
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
A Moment of War

Think you can buy them as a boxset.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

Richard Morgan.

 

[Clint Iguana]

Netherland was disappointing

Too flat???

 

[ska invita]

Magnus Mills, Zadie Smith, Christopher Brookmyre...Oxford and Cambridge don't get a look in.

Didnt really like Zadie Smiths White Teeth, and its not because she went to Cambridge! Her writing just felt too taught and learned - IMO

Magnus Mills and Christopher Brookmyre look interesting - never heard of either before I'll look into them. I note Brookmyre is Scottish...

The scottish ones.

..I think this might be what I'm looking for. By happy coincidence I came across a sampler book of Rebel Inc titles - the imprint that broke Irvine Welsh. Fellow scots Alexander Trocchi and Laura Hird both seem really good from the extracts I read.

(The scottish ones.) Seconded. Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Irvine Welsh, Alan Bisset, Louise Welsh ...

will check for sure - thanks.

what a bizarre question, there are scores of great British writers.

The thread title was stupid, and maybe I didn't make it clear what I was looking for - for example someone mentioned Orwell - sure, a great British writer who I can make it to the end of one of his books, but the language isnt fresh and alive for me - its less academic than other 'great British writers', but it feels maybe journalistic to me.

Martin Amis - definitely

Enjoyed Money a lot, but other things ive tried have felt too clever clever for me (quite likely im a philistine!)

Two novels I am reading or have read, both excellent by British/Irish writers are; Junior Officers Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey and Netherland by Joseph O'Neill.
Otherwise for post war novelists take your pick from Greame Greene, Len Deighton, John le Carré, Iris Murdoch, J G Ballard, Dorris Leasing, Kingsley amis etc, etc, etc...

havent read Dorris Leasing but tried the rest and are all a bit too dry for me - JG Ballard's Attrocity Exhibiton was amazing in little bursts, but i couldnt break into Empire of the Sun - maybe ill try some of his other stuff

Jonathan Coe
Toby Litt
Anthony Burgess
Peter Ackroyd
Iain Sinclair
Stewart Home
China Mieville

I tried Stewart Home's Down and Out in Shoreditch and Hoxton, and though I didnt really get into I did finish it and it is fresh and the writing is more the kind of thing im looking for. Anthony Burgess' Clockwork Orange was right there too, though havnt read anything else by him, I'll check some of the other names on that too - thanks. Thanks everyone!

 

[Zeppo]

Yeah Kelman is good. A Disaffection. How late it was, how late great books.

 

[Fictionist]

Anthony Burgess. Sadly dead for some time but one of the best non-Oxbridge post-war writers this country has produced. 'A Clockwork Orange' is good but is by no means his best novel.

 

[Pickman's model]

Stewart Home

a wanker's wanker

 

[ChocolateTeapot]

I quite like James Kelman: I remember when he was up for a nomination for some prize and there was this rabbi saying he shouldn't win it because there was too much swearing in his narrative.

 

[El Jefe]

'A Clockwork Orange' is good but is by no means his best novel.

no, Earthly Powers is

 

[El Jefe]

a wanker's wanker

wanker

 

[Fictionist]

no, Earthly Powers is

I read that many years ago and really wasn't impressed, so I may well revisit it as some point in the near future. Have you read his 'Revolutionary Sonnets' EJ?

 

[El Jefe]

I read that many years ago and really wasn't impressed, so I may well revisit it as some point in the near future. Have you read his 'Revolutionary Sonnets' EJ?

I haven't.

Pieface has just read Earthly Powers and loved it - I read it as a teenager and adored it, without probably understanding all of it..

 

[Fictionist]

I haven't.

Pieface has just read Earthly Powers and loved it - I read it as a teenager and adored it, without probably understanding all of it..

Well perhaps a cojoined 're-read' is in order then?

 

[llion]

Have you read any of Alan Warner's books? The most well-known is Morvern Callar, which is brilliant, but the follow-up is also excellent as are his other novels. He's got a pretty unique and original writing style.

Joanna Kavenna's Inglorious is probably the best British novel I've read in the past couple of years. Totally contemporary, stylish without being over-written, funny without being obvious, really poignant in parts.

I'd second the Iain Sincalir and Niall Griffiths recommendations. Some of Michael Moorcock's none-fantasy/science-fiction books are as good as anything else around, especially Mother London.

 

[gosub]

First bloke that came mind from initial com-parables was Jeff Noon
Perfered what Deighton did in Ipcress with the info Burgess was trying to get out in Clockwork, and the time frame he did it i.

 

[Cloo]

Andrea Levy's books that I've read so far are great.

 

[Debord]

Try a Hanif Kureshi that isn't Buddha of Suburbia.

 

[ericjarvis]

OK. With a bit more detail of what you are looking for.

The Good Terrorist - Doris Lessing
The Restraint Of Beasts - Magnus Mills
Pollen - Jeff Noon
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
and pretty much anything by Christopher Brookmyre.

 

[Pie 1]

what a bizarre question, there are scores of great British writers.

S'what I thought too.

Geoff Dyer, William Boyd, Jonathan Raban....
Younger guy, Edward Docx is looking promising too.

 

[Andrew Hertford]

Kazuo Ishiguro.

He is British, honest.