Mary, Lady Stewart was a British novelist who developed the romantic mystery genre, featuring smart, adventurous heroines who could hold their own in dangerous situations. She also wrote children's books and poetry, but may be best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and fantasy.
Peter O'Donnell was an English writer of mysteries and of comic strips, best known as the creator of Modesty Blaise, an action heroine/undercover trouble-shooter. He was also an award-winning gothic historical romance novelist who wrote under the female pseudonym Madeleine Brent, in 1978, his novel Merlin's Keep won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Precursors include authors of literary fiction, such as Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë.
British literature is literature from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. This article covers British literature in the English language. Anglo-Saxon literature is included, and there is some discussion of Latin and Anglo-Norman literature, where literature in these languages relate to the early development of the English language and literature. There is also some brief discussion of major figures who wrote in Scots, but the main discussion is in the various Scottish literature articles.
Katherine Karen Dunn was a novelist, journalist, voice artist, radio personality, book reviewer, and poet from Portland, Oregon. She is best known for her novel Geek Love (1989). She was also a prolific writer on boxing.
Joanna Trollope is an English writer. She has also written under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Her novel Parson Harding's Daughter won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Nora Roberts is an American author of more than 225 romance novels. She writes as J. D. Robb for the in Death series and has also written under the pseudonyms Jill March and for publications in the U.K. as Sarah Hardesty.
Anthony Walter Patrick Hamilton was an English playwright and novelist. He was well regarded by Graham Greene and J. B. Priestley, and study of his novels has been revived because of their distinctive style, deploying a Dickensian narrative voice to convey aspects of inter-war London street culture. They display a strong sympathy for the poor, as well as an acerbic black humour. Doris Lessing wrote in The Times in 1968: "Hamilton was a marvellous novelist who's grossly neglected".
Victorian literature refers to English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). The 19th century is considered by some to be the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for British novels. It was in the Victorian era that the novel became the leading literary genre in English. English writing from this era reflects the major transformations in most aspects of English life, from scientific, economic, and technological advances to changes in class structures and the role of religion in society. Famous novelists from this period include Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, the three Brontë sisters, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling.
Janey King is a British journalist and romance novelist, writing under the pseudonym of Rosie Thomas. She is the author of 20 novels and ranks among the top 100 authors whose books are borrowed from United Kingdom libraries. She is a two-time winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year award.
Lucilla Matthew Andrews Crichton was a British writer of 33 romance novels from 1954 to 1996. As Lucilla Andrews she specialised in hospital romances, and under the pen names Diana Gordon and Joanna Marcus wrote mystery romances.
Karen Robards is a best-selling author of over fifty novels. After first gaining recognition for her historical romances, Robards became one of the first historical romance novelists to successfully make the switch to contemporary romantic suspense. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages, and has won multiple awards.
Pauline Sara Jo Moyes, known professionally as Jojo Moyes, is an English journalist and, since 2002, an award-winning romance novelist, #1 New York Times best selling author and screenwriter. She is one of only a few authors to have twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association and her works have been translated into twenty-eight languages and have sold over 40 million copies worldwide.
Maggie Shayne is an American author of more than 70 novels. Shayne has won numerous awards, including the Romance Writers of America RITA Award, multiple Reviewers' Choice and Career Achievement Awards, The Readers' Choice Award, and the P.E.A.R.L. Award among others. In addition to her work as a novelist, Shayne is active in the Wiccan religion.
Thomas William Basden is an English actor, comedy writer, and a member of the British four-man sketch group Cowards. He has written and performed extensively for comedy shows on the BBC and Channel 4 and often collaborates in two-man shows with fellow Cowards member Tim Key.
Timothy James Beck is the collective pseudonym of four 21st-century American novelists — Timothy Forry, Timothy J. Lambert, Jim Carter, and Becky Cochrane — whose collaborative fiction focuses primarily on homosexuals, drag queens, other sexual minorities, and their families and friends. Beck's work is mostly set in Manhattan.
William James Royce is an American playwright/director, screenwriter, and novelist.
Lad lit was a term used principally from the 1990s to the early 2010s to describe male-authored popular novels about young men and their emotional and personal lives.
Milly Johnson is a British author of romantic fiction. She has written 20 best-selling novels with over three million sales worldwide, one book of poetry, and 5 novellas. She was nominated for the Melissa Nathan award for Romantic comedy in 2012, winner of the RoNA Award for Comedy Romance in 2014 and 2016 and Winner of Channel 4's Come Dine With Me – Barnsley edition. She was honoured with the Romantic Novelist Association's Outstanding Achievement Award in 2020. She is also an after-dinner speaker, poet, professional joke writer, short-story writer and newspaper columnist.
