‘What better way to start the year than with an argument?’ Erica Wagner asks jauntily in The Times. Ooh, I don’t know. World peace, maybe? Global agreement on measures to tackle climate change? But still, I shouldn’t be flippant, because the implication is that anyone who cares about books will be compelled to voice their opinion on the vital cultural question: who are The 50 Greatest British Writers since 1945? The paper has listed the selection of its literary journalists with the criteria for judgment apparently style, influence, longevity and sales. As ever the result is a really odd list that I cannot help but feel is an exercise in promoting feelings of inadequacy. Classic British authors is probably a category where I am the least well-informed, having spent the bulk of my serious reading years on classic European authors with the British ones I thought pleasurable and fun to fill in the gaps. Here’s the countdown with my own cheerfully stated ignorance (for the main part) confessed in brackets:
50. Michael Moorcock (don’t know him; amusingly he’s also listed as not making the cut)
49. Rosemary Sutcliff (ok, she’s probably underrated, but seems a little dated now)
48. Benjamin Zephaniah (I’m not cool – I’ve never heard of him)
47. Alice Oswald (who? Oh me and poets!)
46. Bruce Chatwin (could never quite understand the fuss, although he’s talented)
45. Colin Thubron (never read him)
44. Julian Barnes (yes! But why so low down the list?)
43. Philip Pullman (again, yes, but lesser than some of the other children’s authors?)
42. J. K. Rowling (ok)
41. Isaiah Berlin (a great academic in his time. I don’t know his work well enough)
40. A. J. P. Taylor (rings a faint bell – who is he?)
39. George Mackay Brown (never read him)
38. Iain Banks (ditto)
37. Hanif Kureshi (yes, talented, but has he fulfilled his potential?)
36. Godfrey Hill (who?)
35. Ian McEwan (yes, probably well placed)
34. A. S. Byatt (should be higher)
33. Anita Brookner (where has she gone these days?)
32. Kazuo Ishiguro (should be higher)
31. Derek Walcott (never read him)
30. John Fowles (when I wrote about him I was intrigued how divided opinion was)
29. Alasdair Gray (never read him)
28. Alan Garner (ok)
27. J. G. Ballard (never read him)
26. Beryl Bainbridge (slightly shamefully, I’ve never read her)
25. Barbara Pym (I love her, but I don’t think she’s better than A. S. Byatt)
24. Philippa Pearce (I remember thinking her rather too worthy as a child)
23. Penelope Fitzgerald (adore her, should be higher)
22. John le Carré (never read him)
21. Alan Sillitoe (very much of his time – but isn’t he a little dated now?)
20. Anthony Powell (I’ve never read him, either)
19. Martin Amis (a quiet little voice suggests he might be overrated)
18. Mervyn Peake (used to sell this by the truckload, but have never read him)
17. Anthony Burgess (never read A Clockwork Orange – whoops, sorry!)
16. Roald Dahl (I don’t personally like him, although I’m sure he’s very gifted)
15. Jan Morris (who? And better than A.S. Byatt?)
14. Ian Fleming (for real?)
13. Salman Rushdie (Ok)
12. Iris Murdoch (Ok)
11. C. S. Lewis (he’s all right, I suppose)
10. Angela Carter (hurray! Love her)
9. Kingsley Amis (oh no, such an old boy establishment choice)
8. Muriel Spark (like her a lot, but should she be so high?)
7. V. S. Naipaul (given my first book by him for Christmas)
6. J. R. R. Tolkien (never read him!)
5. Doris Lessing (love her work)
4. Ted Hughes (don’t know his work well, but like what I’ve read)
3. William Golding (I recognize he’s good, but I don’t like him myself)
2. George Orwell (never read him! Now that really is awful)
1. Philip Larkin (top of them all? Really?)
Naturally, the authors that I have most enjoyed and appreciated were to be found in the list of people who didn’t make the cut into the top 50: Peter Ackroyd, Pat Barker, William Boyd, Malcolm Bradbury, Jonathan Coe, William Dalrymple, Carol Ann Duffy, Howard Jacobson, Penelope Lively, David Lodge, Hilary Mantel, Brian Moore, Ali Smith, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain, William Trevor, Sarah Waters, Jeanette Winterson. I have to say that I found it a rather dusty list, leaning towards the undeniably admirable if gently outdated. But what I don’t understand is the need for a list at all. How can one possibly and usefully compare Philip Larkin and Philip Pullman? Salman Rushdie and John le Carré? It seems extraordinary to me that anyone should want to try. By all means have a big pot in which the names of great authors can be placed, but to hierarchise them seems ridiculous and unnecessarily divisive. Even if I think that A. S. Byatt is better than Muriel Spark, what does that matter to anyone? Why should my opinion be of any interest or value, except to me? I think that listing is the child of bibliophilic incest. I think it’s where the critical pleasures of evaluating a literary text and the librarian pleasures of classifying works meet in a twisted and demonic way. It’s a way of needling people who love books, and who often love them for the serenity that reading can bring. I suspect that it might be all kinds of wrong. And if The Times wants a big argument about who should occupy which position, I don’t think I’ll be rushing to formulate one.
I agree – these kinds of lists do no one any good except, perhaps, those critics who spend a whole lot of time decrying bloggers for the downward spiral ‘real’ criticism is succumbing to -
CS Lewis, though? I guess I’ve just never been as enchanted with him as everybody else…
Comment by everythinginbetween — January 8, 2008 @ 9:52 pm |
I bet the Times could find a way to rank the following:
10 – a dirty tablecloth
9 – two carrots
8 – moonlight
7 – George Clooney
6 – The Iliad
5 – architecture
4 – symmetry groups
3 – air travel safety
2 – chthonic spirits
1 – and three or four raccoons
And then people would get emotional about why air travel safety was not valued above raccoons, or why architecture got a higher rank than George Clooney, or why Escherichia Coli did not make the cut when moonlight did.
We live in a world with three dimensions. The media never need more than one.
Comment by mandarine — January 8, 2008 @ 10:14 pm |
Since we’re talking about rankings, I ranked this post highly — until I read the delightful comment by Mandarine! He really is off-base on the carrots, though. Who could just have two of them?
Comment by Cam — January 9, 2008 @ 4:55 am |
I quite enjoy such lists simply for their capacity to provoke conversation. For example, I’m pleased to see Muriel Spark ranked so close to the top of the list and I have no trouble putting her ahead of A.S. Byatt! And I feel that the constructors of the list have done me a service if they prompt me to investigate a worthy writer who has thus far escaped my notice. (In that vein, do have a go at George MacKay Brown and Alasdair Gray, brilliant Scottish writers both!) Yet I agree that attempting to rank such disparate writers against one another is a silly venture. And I fear that the tendency towards the dusty is inevitable even when, presumably, the whole point of the 1945 starting point is to create a modern list. It’s just too difficult to arrive at firm conclusions about the longevity of recent work that hasn’t yet had to stand the test of time.
Comment by Kate S. — January 9, 2008 @ 7:16 am |
This seems a totally bizarre list to me. Of course like you I have not read them all by any means but I absolutely agree with your list of exclusions who should have been in there. Naturally I could argue with your comments on those I have — I’m not keen on AS Byatt, for example, though I see how clever she is (I use the word advisedly). But Tolkein at 6 Pullman right down the bottom is crazy, and Larkin is all very well, but top of this list? etc etc etc. And indeed as you say, it’s absurd anyway to compile such a list.
Comment by Harriet — January 9, 2008 @ 10:24 am |
I’m shocked that you never read any Tolkien!? I was told that all British infants were fed Tolkien together with baby formula! I thought I had to prove my minimum knowledge of hobbits and elves (together with my ID) to be let across the Channel! Are these all lies?
Seeing Ian Fleming in a list of best British writers (and above Ishiguro, Byatt, Barnes) has given an awful doubt… surely the whole list is a joke, no? It’s not snobbery, but just that it seems really badly written, IMO.
Comment by Smithereens — January 9, 2008 @ 10:27 am |
Well, there are tons of authors there that I’ve never read and lots I’ve never heard of. Oh, well! Kate’s point is a good one — a list like this, while stupid, can be a way to find new writers. And with that thought, I appreciate your list of great authors left off the Times list and will have to make sure to read some of those!
Comment by Dorothy W. — January 9, 2008 @ 1:40 pm |
I was trying to think of some witty and approriately snarky comment about the list, but then I read Manadrine’s comment and anything I could think of wouldn’t be half as good as that!
Comment by Stefanie — January 9, 2008 @ 7:29 pm |
“I think that listing is the child of bibliophilic incest.” That, and mandarine’s list, gave me such a jolt of delight! Thank you.
Comment by bloglily — January 9, 2008 @ 7:36 pm |
15. Jan Morris (who? And better than A.S. Byatt?)
!!!
Jan Morris. Famous historian (wrote a trilogy about the end of the British Empire) and travel writer (too many books to mention, but the one I’d recommend as a starting point is A Writer’s World, which is a compendium of reports from the last fifty years). Also written one novel, Hav, first published as Last Letters From Hav, and shortlisted for the Booker, in the mid-eighties. I haven’t read as much Byatt as I have Morris, but from what I have, yes, Morris is better.
Comment by Niall — January 9, 2008 @ 7:41 pm |
I certainly agree – why the fuss to put things in an extremely subjective order just so we can fuss over who should be 36 or 42. There are some great writers on the list and quite a few I have never heard of – hopefully not the majority but I am not going to go back and count just in case
And I really do need to read more Byatt.
Comment by verbivore — January 9, 2008 @ 8:14 pm |
Well, I’m glad that 2, 4 and 5 are in the top five, but I had never heard of WAY too many of those. You have authors we just aren’t exposed to here. My husband was outraged to discover that here in the US, Ted Hughes is mostly just Sylvia Plath’s husband, if people have ever even heard of him. He tells me that over there, Plath is just Hughes’ first wife. I like them both.
And I loved Mandarine’s comment so much I’m off to visit his/her blog!
Comment by Dew — January 9, 2008 @ 9:13 pm |
Courtney – I do agree with you about C. S. Lewis. We had to read him in school when I was 11, and that was pretty much the kiss of death with any book, I found! And yes, all that list needed was some catty remark about how only real professionals knew how to rank!! Mandarine – if only there were some award for the best comments of the year, I think that would be a prize winner! How you made me laugh – that has to be the best list, ever. Cam – thank you! And yes, every time I go back to that comment it makes me chuckle. My question is why two carrots, but no stick? Kate – what very sane and sensible remarks1 You’re quite right that lists are good for broadening reading (I could certainly broaden mine on that showing), and I will certainly look into the Scottish authors you mention if they come with your stamp of approval. Harriet – I know, isn’t it bizarre? Well, I have to think that it’s just intended to be provocative. I do feel that we are both right in our assessment of A S Byatt as far as our own reading goes, and that’s the fun of reading. How dull if we all liked the same thing all the time! To start to argue about our opinions, though, would be risible. Smithereens – you made me laugh too! I confess immediately that I was read passages from The Hobbit in junior school (I’d have been about 7), and I never liked the sound of it. So you are right, but it’s possible to duck below the Tolkein radar! And well, yes, I do have to agree with you about Ian Fleming. He certainly isn’t known for the quality of his writing… Dorothy – you are absolutely right, it’s a good way to come across new names. In that respect, I rather (contradictorily) wish someone would do a similar list for American authors. Maybe without hierarchising them. I would love to broaden my reading! Stefanie – yes, I know, it was a fantastic comment! Not that you are a slouch when it comes to commenting though! Bloglily – you are more than welcome. Whenever I feel low, I return to Mandarine’s comment myself! All right, Niall, don’t get your knickers in a twist; she just isn’t famous to me. But thank you very much for the very helpful biographical data. I’ll certainly look her up now. Verbivore – I haven’t dared count! And it’s certainly the ordering that irritates me, otherwise I’d be happy to think about great authors I haven’t read! Dew – your husband’s remark just cracked me up! But really don’t worry – you can see how many of them I haven’t read either. Enjoy mandarine – he’s a delight!
Comment by litlove — January 9, 2008 @ 10:16 pm |
Yes, I could not believe how low they ranked A.S. Byatt with C.S. Lewis (!!) and Kingsley Amis (!!!!) so high above but, well, I figured they were having a laugh once Rowling came right above Pullman.
Comment by imani — January 9, 2008 @ 10:35 pm |
My first thought was: I doubt I’ll know many of these. Then I started reading the list. Oh man, would I love to be in a room with the people who composed this list right about now. I’d start with my quiet little objection to Kingsley Amis (a pompous show-off) and go from there. Please, please, where is Lawrence Durell? And sales as a criterion? That means one of the best American writers since 1945 is Danielle Steele. But after ranting and arguing with them, I’d completely agree with you and point out to them these lists are absurd.
P.S. You and Courtney might change your minds if you read C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces. It’s a perfect read. I read it and decided I need bother with nothing else by him, because nothing else could possibly be that good, and I’d just be disappointed (having been pretty much disenchanted with Narnia as a child).
Comment by Emily Barton — January 9, 2008 @ 11:57 pm |
Several British Nobel Laureates in Literature since 1945 did not make the list, including TS Eliot, Winston Churchill, and Harold Pinter. Are they too old to be great? Or is the list slanted very heavily toward fiction writers? (And maybe British doesn’t extend to all the countries of Great Britain; otherwise Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney must be disqualified for some other reason.) I’m sure I’m showing my age and the creakiness of my admirations but somebody has to stand up for those who can’t stand any more.
Comment by davidbdale — January 10, 2008 @ 3:01 am |
I just realized: that’s Lawrence Durrell, not Durell. How could I possibly have mistyped the name of a man I so worship?
Comment by Emily Barton — January 10, 2008 @ 1:12 pm |
As with all lists like this, very interesting. I’m surprised to see Moorcock, who is a well known science fiction author, but not to see Arthur C. Clarke who is much more well known, revered, and has a British science fiction award named after him.
I never quite trust awards that have Rowling and Pullman rated high on them so it was nice to see them back a bit. I think they are both highly overrated.
Mervyn Peake is someone I plan to read sometime this year. It is about time.
Good to see Tolkien in the top ten, although I would have pushed him a bit higher. Lewis should be in the top ten, I think his nonfiction work is amazing.
Have to admit that I love Roald Dahl. His children’s fiction is very funny and his adult short stories are well crafted.
Ian Fleming’s Bond books were a surprise last year. They are very well written, each is a little different than the last rather than a cookie cutter rendition of the one before it, and all of them are nothing like the films with the exception of the recent Casino Royale. And that is a good thing because the other Bond films are detestable in comparison to the novels.
I’m wholly ignorant of over half the folks on the list and many others that I have heard of I haven’t read.
By the way, congrats on your book. I’m really excited for you!
Comment by Carl V. — January 10, 2008 @ 2:13 pm |
Litlove, you say you’d like a list of american writers, and I’m sure someone will offer that.
Here, in a non-ranked way, are some canadian writers to read. I haven’t read all of them, I should say, and don’t vouch for them all. The great band NRBQ used to play, and perhaps record, songs by others that they didn’t like, as a lesson – to see what was in them. Keeping that in mind, here’s a by no means exhaustive list of 25 notable names:
Margaret Atwood (find her essays terrible)
Michael Ondaatje (I can’t stand his writing)
Wayne Johnston
Kenneth Harvey (knew him once; can’t read him)
Michelle Butler Hallett (author of a collection of short stories and a novel)
David Adams Richards
Margaret Laurence (cold to her work)
Timothy Findley
Lisa Moore (on long list for 2007 Orange prize)
Mordecai Richler
Jane Urquhart
Barbara Gowdie
Elizabeth Hay
Alice Munro (not to my taste)
Michael Winters
M.G. Vassanji
Douglas Coupland
Lori Lansens (on long list for 2007 Orange prize)
Yann Martel
Rohinton Mistry
Carol Shields
Miriam Toew
David Bergen
Rudy Wiebe
Alistair MacLeod
Regards.
Comment by JB — January 10, 2008 @ 3:53 pm |
[...] taking a leaf out of Tales of the Reading Room and having a look at a new list from The [...]
Pingback by NextRead » Simply the Best - Britains Best Writers since 1945? — January 10, 2008 @ 6:28 pm |
Looking forward to hearing what you think of the Naipaul you received for Christmas, when you read it. Thanks for the thought-provoking post!
Comment by gentle reader — January 10, 2008 @ 6:52 pm |
Litlove, I think you’ll find A J P Taylor is a noted historian, writing mainly about the two world wars. I’ve never read him, but the ex had a few large tomes by him which I wasn’t sorry to see the back of, when we parted!
And although I haven’t read very many of the British authors mentioned (9), I’m feeling slightly smug at having read 4 of JB’s Canadians (Atwood, Ondaatje, Coupland and Shields)!
Comment by Caz Mockett — January 10, 2008 @ 7:00 pm |
imani – after I’d posted this I read your comments on your site, and had a good laugh! Yes, the placement is very peculiar indeed, and I think pretty much everyone on this site agrees about Kingsley Amis! Emily – your comment about Danielle Steele cracked me up! And you remind me to read Lawrence Durrell (they say that love is blind, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were dyslexic!), as I have The Alexandria Quartet and your recommendation is quickly moving it up the pile. And thank you for the C. S. Lewis suggestion – it is excellent to remember he wrote other things than the Narnia novels. David – you do have to wonder what you need to do to get on the list if being a Nobel Laureate doesn’t count! I agree with you completely – those are bad omissions. To be fair to the list creators, they did not include playwrights and Heaney and Beckett are Irish, but then why the odd parameters? I would much rather see Pinter and even Stoppard on that list than Ian Fleming or Alan Sillitoe. Carl – a very Happy New Year to you! Thank you for enlightening me about Moorcock and it’s good to hear your comments about Fleming (and after all, I have never read a whole book by him). Roald Dahl is extremely popular here, so I know it’s only me who doesn’t like him (he scared me as a child!) and I’ll be very interested to know what you make of Peake. I need a review I can trust. Thank you also for the very kind comments about my book! JB – what a star you are! This list is wonderful and I very much approve of the non-ranking!! I have books by 10 of those authors in the house (the number I’ve read is much lower) and now I have a fantastic guide to Canadian literature. Really, thank you! Gentle Reader – It looks very good – I thought it really was about time I read something by him! Caz – ahhhh – well you are the best placed person to know exactly how much history we learned in school! Which is to say, next to nothing. And way to go with the Canadians! I think you’ve done better than me!
Comment by litlove — January 10, 2008 @ 9:44 pm |
Mervyn Peake – definitely a recommended read. Especially his first two Titus books. G. Peter Winnington is an expert on him, and his critical book _The Voice from the Heart_ is respectful and fires one with enthusiasm to re-read Peake again.
Durrell was a surprising absence, in some ways, but he’s aligned with Henry Miller and his later work was not so well-done as the _AQ_. Why John Cowper Powys isn’t on that list is surprising. He kept publishing well into the 1950s.
As for my partial (in two senses) canadian list, I do recommend Michelle Butler Hallett’s short story collection, _The shadow side of grace_, and her first novel (so far), _Double-Blind_. She’s a friend, and she is a new voice. If one is looking for tough-minded canadian women writers, then she’s one. Those interested in historical fiction/First Nations peoples could check out Wiebe’s _The Temptations of Big Bear_, or, for those interested in Mennonite literature, his _The Blue Mountains of China_.
What I don’t like about some of the young canadian writers is that they are very evidently out of the same mold – minimalism. I detested the work of Carver, Bobbie Ann Mason, etc. during the anemic 1980s. A few of the canadian writers are descended from that line. It’s as if they only read each other; and the only older u.s. novelist they read is Don DeLillo. Some of what they come out with is, at times, set down almost more like oral tales than hard-worked words. There’s very little that makes one gasp with astonishment (the good kind), or marvel at a technical accomplishment that also has some brio to it.
I, too, have to say a few good words about Ian Fleming. I dislike the movies, as they’re nothing like the books, which were generally all right, sometimes not so much, sometimes better.
JB
Comment by JB — January 10, 2008 @ 10:12 pm |
Let me keep this short.
Such lists promote illiteracy.
That’s their single purpose, and the only pleasure they provide… for those who aspire to
write and/or read in an illiterate society.
If BF Myers can claim a buck by presciptionist BS… hey, I can do better for free.
I happen to belive what just wrote.
Comment by Jacob Russell — January 11, 2008 @ 2:22 am |