20th-century English writers

Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia.

Kathleen Jessie Raine CBE (14 June 1908 – 6 July 2003) was a British poet, critic and scholar, writing in particular on William Blake, W.

Thomas Anstey Guthrie (8 August 1856 - 10 March 1934) was an English novelist and journalist, who wrote his comic novels under the pseudonym F.

Correlli Douglas Barnett CBE FRHistS FRSL FRSA (born 28 June 1927) is an English military historian, who has also written works of economic history, particularly on the United Kingdom's post-war "industrial decline".

Gilbert Ryle (19 August 1900 – 6 October 1976) was a British philosopher.

Pauline Melville (born 1948) is a Guyanese-born writer and actress of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, who is currently based in London, England.

William McDougall FRS (/məkˈduːɡəl/; 22 June 1871 – 28 November 1938) was an early 20th century psychologist who spent the first part of his career in the United Kingdom and the latter part in the United States.

John Basil Boothroyd (4 March 1910 – 27 February 1988) was an English humorous writer, best known for his long association with Punch.

Tanika Gupta, MBE (born 1 December 1963) is an English playwright of Bengali descent.

Victor Marlborough Silvester OBE (25 February 1900 – 14 August 1978) was an English dancer, author, musician and bandleader from the British dance band era.

Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh (/ˈrɔːli, ˈrɑː-/; 5 September 1861 – 13 May 1922) was an English scholar, poet, and author.

Joseph Weston Martyr (1885 – 27 March 1966), was a pioneer British ocean yachtsman, writer and broadcaster, who was influential in the creation of the Fastnet race after participating in similar races in Bermuda in 1924 Martyr's varied adult life started when he went to sea at the age of 15 to serve on square-riggers and then steamers.

Alan Burridge (born 7 May 1951), is the official biographer of the heavy rock band, Motörhead.

Harold David Rosenthal OBE (30 September 1917 – 19 March 1987) was an English music critic, writer, lecturer, and broadcaster about opera.

Inglis Gundry (8 May 1905 – 13 April 2000) was an English composer, novelist, musicologist, music pedagogue and writer.

Eglantyne Jebb (25 August 1876 – 17 December 1928) was a British social reformer and founder of the Save the Children organisation.

Elizabeth Forbes (3 August 1924 – 22 October 2014) was an English author, music critic, and musicologist who specialised in writing about opera.

John Hamilton Warrack (born 1928, in London) is an English music critic, writer on music, and oboist.

Alison Sim (born 1961) is an English historian and writer, specialising in the Tudor period.

Amanda Lucy Foreman (born 1968) is a British/American biographer and historian.

Paul Mayhew-Archer (born 6 January 1953) is a British writer, producer and script editor for the BBC.

Pete Davies is the book author of American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age about the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy, for which Davies visited sites along the Lincoln Highway.

Robert Patrick Webb (born 29 September 1972) is an English comedian, actor and writer, and one half of the double act Mitchell and Webb, alongside David Mitchell.

Eric Wright (May 4, 1929 – October 9, 2015) was a professor and Canadian writer of mystery novels.

John Buxton Hilton was a British crime writer (1921–1986).

Herbert Leslie Gee (1901–1977) was a prolific English writer, mostly about the coast and countryside of Yorkshire, his native county.

Chris Hutchins is a British best-selling author, journalist and former PR.

Monica Pidgeon (29 September 1913 – 17 September 2009) was a British interior designer and architectural writer best known as the editor of Architectural Design from 1946 to 1975.

Percy Edward Newberry (23 April 1869 – 7 August 1949) was a British Egyptologist.

Brian Joseph Blessed OBE (/ˈblɛsɪd/; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor famous for work on the stage, television, radio and in films.

Eleanor Vere Boyle (1 May 1825 – 29 July 1916) was an English artist and author of the Victorian era.

Esther McCracken (née Armstrong, 1902–1971) was a British actress and playwright.

Juliet Harmer (born 11 May 1943) is an English artist, children's author and actress who was best known in the role of Georgina Jones in the BBC TV series Adam Adamant Lives! (1966–67).

Kate Fox is a social anthropologist, co-director of the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) and a Fellow of the Institute for Cultural Research.

Kay Adshead (born 10 May 1954) is a poet, playwright, theatremaker, actress and producer.

Georgia Arianna, Lady Colin Campbell (née Ziadie; born 17 August 1949) is a Jamaican-born British writer, socialite, and television and radio personality.

Emma Walton-Hamilton (born Emma Katherine Walton; 27 November 1962) is a British actress, theatrical director and author of children's books.

Sean Lock (born 22 April 1963) is an English comedian and actor.

John George Pearson (born 5 October 1930 in Epsom, Surrey) is an English novelist and an author of biographies, notably of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, and of the Kray twins.

Pam Ayres MBE (born 14 March 1947) is an English poet, comedian, songwriter and presenter of radio and television programmes.

Ann Barr (16 September 1929 – 4 May 2015) was a British journalist and writer involved in coining the terms Sloane Rangers and Foodies, in the early 1980s.

Sir William Wilkinson Addison (4 April 1905 – 1 November 1992), was an English historian, author and jurist.

Mabel Florence Lethbridge O.

Andrea Ashworth (born 1969) is an English writer and academic, known for her memoir Once in a House on Fire, which won the Somerset Maugham Award from the Society of Authors in 1999.

Anissa Helou (born 1 February 1952) is a London-based cookbook author, teacher, and chef specialising in the cuisines of the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa.

Anne Barbara Ridler OBE (née Bradby) (30 July 1912 – 15 October 2001) was a British poet, and Faber and Faber editor, selecting the Faber A Little Book of Modern Verse with T.

Anthony Clive Smee (born 22 November 1949 in Hackney, London) is an English theater producer, writer, and actor who has worked in radio, theatre, television, and film since 1972.

Francis William Pixley FSA FCA (b.c1852 - 27 April 1933) was an English accountant, barrister and author.

Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson (2 March 1905 – 25 November 1985) was a British poet, writer, editor, critic, anthologist and naturalist.

Stephen George Churchett (born 10 April 1947 in Bromley, London) is an English actor and writer.

Stuart Holroyd (born 10 August 1933 in Bradford, Yorkshire) is a British writer.

David George Hogarth CMG (23 May 1862 – 6 November 1927) was a British archaeologist and scholar associated with T.

Edgar Marcus Lustgarten (3 May 1907 – 15 December 1978) was a British broadcaster and noted crime writer.

William Ainger Wigram (16 May 1872 – 16 January 1953) was an English Church of England priest and author, notable for his work with and writings on the Assyrian Church of the East.

William Gaunt (/ɡɔːnt/; 1900–1980) was a British artist and art historian, best known for his books on British 19th-century art.

Robert Seymour Bridges, OM (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was Britain's poet laureate from 1913 to 1930.

Ferdinand Gottschalk (28 February 1858 – 10 November 1944) was an English theatre and film actor.

David R. O'Keefe (born 9 February 1967) is an award-winning historian, professor of history, television presenter, documentarian, creator, host, writer, producer and best-selling author.

Shelagh Stephenson is an English playwright and actress.

Raymond Arthur Gosling (5 May 1939 – 19 November 2013) was an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and gay rights activist.

Captain Bernard Acworth DSO (3 February 1885 – 16 February 1963) was an English submariner, writer, evangelical Christian and creationist.

John Leslie Palmer (4 September 1885, Paddington, London – 5 August 1944) was an English author.

Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television cook and writer frequently appearing on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with Major Johnnie Cradock who played the part of a slightly bumbling husband.

Matt Bullen (born Guildford, Surrey, 1969) is an English writer and polyamory advocate.

Nick Parker, an English journalist, is the chief foreign correspondent of London-based The Sun newspaper.

Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter, and author.

Harold Truscott (23 August 1914 – 7 October 1992) was a British composer, pianist, broadcaster and writer on music.

Charlton "Charlie" Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English satirist and broadcaster.

Herman Cyril McNeile, MC (28 September 1888 – 14 August 1937), commonly known as Cyril McNeile and publishing under the name H.

Dudley Charles Carew (born 1903; died on 22 March 1981 at Cuckfield, Sussex aged 77) was an English journalist, writer, poet and film critic.

Sabrina Dhawan is an Indian screenwriter and producer, born in England and raised in Delhi, India.

Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007) was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was well known as a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff.

Antonia Forest (26 May 1915 – 28 November 2003) was the pseudonym of Patricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein, an English writer of children's novels whose real name was not made public during her lifetime.

Lauren Brooke is the pen name of popular author Linda Chapman and Beth Chambers who have written the books for "Heartland".

Quick reference Thomas Edward Clark (10 May 1888 – 30 April 1962) was an English conductor and music producer for the BBC.

Ian McCallum (born September 1965) is an English guitarist and songwriter.

Artemis Cooper (born 22 April 1953) is a British writer.

Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall (1880 – 3 January 1934) was an English Egyptologist, stage designer, journalist and author whose works span the whole range from histories of Ancient Egypt through historical biographies, guide-books, popular novels, screenplays and lyrics.

Jenny Eclair (born Jenny Clare Hargreaves on 16 March 1960) is an English comedian, novelist and actress, best known for her roles in Grumpy Old Women between 2004 and 2007 and in Loose Women in 2011 and 2012.

(For other people with the same name, see James O'Connor.) Jimmy O'Connor (20 May 1918 – 29 September 2001) was a playwright for The Wednesday Play and Play for Today television series on the BBC.