Greatest Living British Author

[Poppy1]

As long as we're only criticising the book and not our fellow readers, I'm happy. Of course we're each going to have personal preferences. After debate gets heated, at some point we have to remind ourselves that the differences are what makes this forum and others like it, worth visiting. That's when we break out the water pistols and duke it out in style

ABC, I've just got to say, you are the absolute master of diplomacy.
If anyone can take the heat out of a thread and throw in a bit of humour, it's you.
Maybe it comes from refereeing all your children, but you've got it down to a fine art.
I'll be over with my water pistol (it just better be a bit warmer there) and Winnie the Pooh firmly under my arm. I'll bring a pavlova and will happily read to any interested children.

 

[abecedarian]

ABC, I've just got to say, you are the absolute master of diplomacy.
If anyone can take the heat out of a thread and throw in a bit of humour, it's you.
Maybe it comes from refereeing all your children, but you've got it down to a fine art.
I'll be over with my water pistol (it just better be a bit warmer there) and Winnie the Pooh firmly under my arm. I'll bring a pavlova and will happily read to any interested children.

Thanks! Its 92 F. right now...how hot do you want? Pooh sounds lovely. I'll join you and the kids. I might be persuaded to pull out Meanwhile Back At the Ranch for a humerous sidenote. Its just a short picture book, so it wouldn't take too long. I might also be persuaded to make a few pizzas too.

 

[Poppy1]

92 F sounds heavenly compared to 40F here. I'm sitting at the computer with a blanket wrapped round me. LOVE pizza.

 

[abecedarian]

92 F sounds heavenly compared to 40F here. I'm sitting at the computer with a blanket wrapped round me. LOVE pizza.

Come on then...I love making the pizza dough; its theraputic as well as tasty.

 

[Poppy1]

I'm on my way. Must get your recipe elsewhere

 

[muggle]

Come on then...I love making the pizza dough; its theraputic as well as tasty.

Promises, promises. First you promise Biscuits and do not deliver, now you are promising pizza. What next, a wet T-shirt.

 

[abecedarian]

Promises, promises. First you promise Biscuits and do not deliver, now you are promising pizza. What next, a wet T-shirt.

Like I'd show you I never brought up the wet t-shirt bit, that was Stewart..who isn't sharing details on his attire for the event. Anyway, this is a kid-friendly event so all that has to be taken into account..We might never find out what Scotsmen really wear under their kilts

 

[mehastings]

Thanks! Its 92 F...I might also be persuaded to make a few pizzas too.

Conclusive proof. You're nuts! That kind of heat is good for watermelon, cucumber & tomato wedges, pasta salad and sandwiches. Cooking pizza? Neh.

 

[muggle]

Conclusive proof. You're nuts! That kind of heat is good for watermelon, cucumber & tomato wedges, pasta salad and sandwiches. Cooking pizza? Neh.

You got that right.....and....a few bottles of iced blueberry beer.

 

[unKeMPt]

I'd just like to express my disappointment that David Mitchell and Julian Barnes are so low.

 

[Shade]

I'd like to express my relief that they were so high!

I do wonder how many votes were actually cast in this poll. The fact that there were so many tied places (eight authors tied for the coveted position of 'joint 44th') suggests it may have been only a handful.

 

[Thickney]

Ah, the wonderful, blurred line between "best author" and "I haven't heard of any of these other guys, so I should vote for Rowling. Oh well, not too many hard feelings. I honestly don't know a terrible amount about living British writers, but it is kind of lame I feel that Harold Pinter didn't even place, what with the volume of great stuff he's written, and the Nobel Prize for Literature win...

 

[Shade]

Good point Thickney; however, I haven't read the rules but I suspect it was for novelists only.

 

[Stewart]

it is kind of lame I feel that Harold Pinter didn't even place

He came seventh. See here.

I see that, in defense of Rowling topping the list, the accompanying article claims jealous as being the reason why people don't think she should be at the top.

 

[Shade]

To quote the accompanying article, by Natasha Narayan:

the critical reaction to her books has all too often been sniffy, if not sneery. ... A S Byatt explains her popularity by noting that adults ‘like to regress.’

and then

When I read Harry Potter as an adult perhaps I am regressing to the days of Marmite soldiers and sticky-back plastic. Put another way, I am reexperiencing that delicious childhood feeling of being somewhere simultaneously safe and thrilling.

Er, so you agree with Byatt then?

Till recently, too much literary fiction thought it was above storytelling. ... Like most of the bookconsuming public, I don’t want another dissection of a Hampstead marriage in limpid prose.

Limpid prose, eh? Sounds rather good. But where are these dissections of Hampstead marriage which she cites as a reason to disdain literary fiction? Looking over the Booker winners, a pretty solid guide to mainstream literary fiction over the last thirty-odd years, I can't see many that fall into that category. Salman Rushdie's magical realism? Ben Okri's Indian subcontinent epic? James Kelman's expletives deleted? Peter Carey's historical retellings? J.M. Coetzee's desperate Africans? Margaret Atwood's multi-layered storylines? Pat Barker's war stories? Kazuo Ishiguro's period drama? Yann Martel's fantastic voyage? DBC Pierre's American idiot? John Banville's Joycean beauty? How's your latest Hampstead marriage novel going, Alan Hollinghurst? Has she actually read any literary fiction?

 

[Stewart]

Ah, here she is, Natasha Narayan, author of The Paradise Plot.

 

[sirmyk]

David Mitchell... sixteenth? Well, maybe he'll work his way up this greatest British children's, er... greatest British writers of all time list. Look what he's given us so far:

Ghostwritten:




number9dream:




Cloud Atlas:




Black Swan Green: