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Anne Brontë (1820-1849), the sister of Charlotte and Emily, was the youngest of six children and is best known for her novels ‘Agnes Grey’ and ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) had a writing career which spanned more than fifty years, and he is now considered both a major novelist and poet. His tales of Wessex, a fictional amalgamation of various south-west counties, have a lasting appeal, and many, such as ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ and ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ have become popular television adaptations.

Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was oldest of the three Brontë sisters to achieve fame. Her first published novel ‘Jane Eyre’ remains her most popular work, but her subsequent books, ‘Shirley’, ‘Villette’ and the posthumously-published ‘The Professor’ are all highly rated.

Jerome K(lapka) Jerome (1859-1927) spent the majority of his creative life writing for the stage, with which he was associated for over 50 years, but it is for a classic work of English humour that he is now remembered. ‘Three Men in a Boat’, and the sequel, ‘Three Men on the Bummel’ have an enduring popularity.

Emily Jane Brontë (1818-1848) is widely considered to be the greatest writer of the three Brontë sisters. She published only the one novel, ‘Wuthering Heights’ in 1847, an intense story of almost demonic love and revenge, which over the years has come to be placed among the greatest works of English literature.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) was an English poet, short-story writer and novelist. His stories of the British in India reached their height of popularity in the 1890s, but opinion turned against him as the public perception of the days of the Empire changed. With the passing of years, he can now be viewed from a historical perspective as a recorder of the world as it was then. His books for children, including ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘The Second Jungle Book’ have an enduring appeal.

Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898). His children’s stories, such as ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ and ‘What Alice Found There’, appeal to readers of all ages.

D(avid) H(erbert Richards) Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English novelist and poet, whose works were not only controversial during his lifetime, but long after his death. The explicit sexuality of his books, including his most popular work, ‘Sons and Lovers’, reached a peak with ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, his final book, that was not published in an unexpurgated form in the U.K. until after a court case for obscenity was dismissed, in 1960.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer, critic, playwright, historian and theologian. From his massive output of work, he is now remembered principally for his fifty-two short stories of Father Brown, the cleric turned detective.