By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The English novelist, poet, essayist, and Christian apologist Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) is revered by many readers – and fellow writers – for his wit, his insight into human nature, and his brilliant storytelling. His Father Brown stories are often compared with Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales, while he remains one of the most quotable English writers of the last century or so.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The American-born poet, playwright, and critic T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) is one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Eliot was educated at Harvard before moving to Britain, where he settled, becoming a UK citizen in 1927.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The British author Colin Dexter (1930-2017) is responsible for creating one of the most iconic fictional detectives: Endeavour Morse, known to millions around the world as ‘Inspector Morse’ (although Morse was always, in fact, already a Chief Inspector). Dexter’s novels, and the ITV drama series that they inspired, helped to make Oxford ‘the murder capital of the world’.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) was an important twentieth-century writer whose work often explored some of the ‘biggest’ and most important ideas of his day. The following pick of his best books include a work documenting his experiences of drug-taking, classic dystopian fiction, radical utopian vision, and social satires of the ‘roaring twenties’.