Kate's Favourite Writers
I am constantly being asked who my favourite writers are, a question I find very difficult to answer as I read so widely and love so many different books. Here are some of them:
- Contemporary Writers
- Classic Writers
- Crime Writers
- Contemporary Children's Writers
- Classic Children's Writers
- Best Books On Writing
- Best Books on Children's Literature
Contemporary Writers
- Isabel Allende - Love And Shadows, The House of Spirits
- Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
- Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Mists of Avalon
- Geraldine Brooks - The Year Of Wonders
- Truman Capote - In Cold Blood
- Tracey Chevalier - Girl With A Pearl Earring and Falling Angels
- Louise Doughty - Stone Cradle and Fires In the Dark
- Sarah Dunant - The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan
- Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong
- Phillipa Gregory - The Queen's Own Fool and The Other Boleyn Girl
- Kate Grenville - The Secret River
- Joanne Harris - Chocolat and Five Quarters Of The Orange
- Lian Hearn - Across the Nightingale Floor
- Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic
- Elizabeth Knox - The Vintner's Luck
- Barbara Kingsolver - Prodigal Summer and The Poisonwood Bible
- Juliet Marillier - Daughter of the Forest and Wildwood Dancing
- Robin McKinley - Beauty
- Deborah Moggach - Tulip Fever
- Kate Mosse - Labyrinth; Sepulchre
- Kate Morton - The Shifting Fog and The Forgotten Garden
- Kim Wilkins - Angel Of Ruin and The Autumn Castle
- Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, The Passion
- Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind
Classic Writers (ie books published before I was born)
- Jane Austen - Persuasion; Sense and Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice
- Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
- Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
- E.M. Forster - A Room With A View; Howards End; Where Angels Fear to Tread
- Georgette Heyer - These Old Shades; The Devil's Cub; The Reluctant Widow
- Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird
- C.S. Lewis - Till We Have Faces
- Mary Stewart - Madam, Will You Talk, The Moon-Spinners, This Rough Magic
- J.R.R Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
- Mary Webb - Precious Bane
Crime Writers
- Agatha Christie - The Man In The Brown Suit; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
- Lindsay Davis - The Silver Pigs; Shadows In Bronze
- John Dunning - Booked To Die; The Sign Of The Book
- Elizabeth George - A Great Deliverance; Payment In Blood
- C.S. Harris - What Angels Fear; When Gods Die
- Georgette Heyer - Footsteps In The Dark; Why Shoot A Butler?; The Unfinished Clue
- Donna Leon - Death At Le Fenice; The Anonymous Venetian; Blood From A Stone
- Dorothy Sayers - Strong Poison; Have His Carcase; Busman’s Honeymoon
- Ellis Peters - A Morbid Taste for Bones; One Corpse Too Many; The Rose Rent
- Patricia Wentworth - The Catherine Wheel; The Listening Eye
- Minette Walters - The Sculptress; The Scold’s Bridle; The Ice House
Contemporary Children's Writers
- Gail Carson Levine - Ella Enchanted
- Kate Di Camillo - The Tale Of Despereaux
- Cornelia Funke - The Thief-Lord; Inkheart
- John Flanagan - The Ranger's Apprentice series
- Sally Gardner - I, Coriander and The Red Necklace
- Shannon Hale - Goose Girl
- Joanne Harris - Runemarks
- Eva Ibbotson - The Star of Kazan and Song For Summer
- Geraldine McCaughrean - The Kite Rider; Peter Pan In Scarlet
- Michael Morpugo - The Amazing Story Of Adolphus Tips
- Garth Nix - Sabriel, The Keys to the Kingdom
- Phillip Pullman - Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Golden Compass
- Michael Pryor - Blaze of Glory; Heart of Gold
- Emily Rodda - The Deltora quest; Key to Rondo
- J.K.Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Angie Sage - Magick; Flyte; Physick
- Jane Yolen - The Devil's Arithmetic and Queen's Own Fool
Classic Children's Writers
- Joan Aiken - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Midnight Is A Place
- Lloyd Alexander - The Book Of Three, The Black Cauldron
- Lucy M. Boston - The Children Of Green Knowe
- Enid Blyton - The Famous Five series
- Susan Cooper - Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising
- Peter Dickinson - The Devils' Children; The Blue Hawk
- Monica Edwards - The White Riders
- Eleanor Farjeon - The Glass Slipper; The Little Bookroom
- Alan Garner - The Weirdstone Of Brisingham
- Elizabeth Goudge - The Little White Horse; Linnets And Valerians
- Ursula le Guin - A Wizard Of Earthsea
- Molly Hunter - A Stranger Came Ashore
- C.S. Lewis - The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
- Edith Nesbit - The Phoenix And The Carpet; The House Of Arden
- E.J. Oxenham - The Abbey Girls series
- Philippa Pierce - Tom's Midnight Garden
- Dodie Smith - I Capture The Castle
- Rosemary Sutcliff - The Witch's Brat
- Nicholas Stuart Grey - The Stone Cage; Down In The Cellar
- J.R.R Tolkien - The Hobbit
- Geoffrey Trease - Cue For Treason; The Popinjay Stairs
- T.H. White - The Sword In The Stone
- Diana Wynne Jones - Charmed Life, Cart and Cwidder
Best Books On Writing
- Christopher Booker - The Seven Basic Plots
- Terry Brooks - Sometimes The Magic Works: Lessons From A Writing Life
- E.M. Forster - Aspects of the Novel
- Libby Gleeson - Writing Hannah
- Kate Grenville - Searching For The Secret River
- Stephen King - On Writing
- Ursula le Guin - Steering the Craft
- Gail Carson Levine - Writing Magic - Creating Stories That Fly
- Jane Yolen - Take Joy: A Writer's Guide to Loving the Craft
Best Books on Children's Literature
- Susan Cooper Dreams and Wishes - Essays on Writing for Children
- Jane Yolen Touch Magic - Fantasy, Faerie and Folklore in the Literature of Childhood
- Alison Lurie Don't Tell the Grownups - Subversive Children's Literature
- Francis Spufford - The Child That Books Built
- Deborah O' Keefe Readers In Wonderland - The Liberating Worlds of Fantasy Fiction
- William Zinsser - Worlds Of Childhood: The Art And Craft Of Writing For Children