Warm greetings to my readers!

Both small and large. Although today's lesson will be devoted rather to the first. We are waiting for English writers for children and their works. We will also touch upon the "oldies" from the 19th century. And consider the "youth" from the 20th century. And I will also give you a list where their famous books and famous ones are arranged in the order of my sincere love :).

Let `s start?

• Lewis Carroll

This writer is known by many for his restless heroine Alice and her endless travels to the Land of Wonders, then to the Looking Glass. The biography of the writer itself is no less interesting than his books. He grew up in a large family - with 3 brothers and 7 sisters. He loved to draw and dreamed of becoming an artist.

The story itself tells us about a girl who finds herself in a wonderful magical world. Where he meets many interesting characters: the Cheshire cat, and the mad hatter, and the queen of cards.

• Roald Dahl

Roald was born in Wales to Norwegian parents. He spent most of his childhood in boarding houses. One of the latter was located next to the famous Cadbury chocolate factory. It is believed that it was then that he got the idea to write his best children's story - "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

This story is about the boy Charlie, who receives one of five tickets. This ticket will allow him to enter the closed chocolate factory. Together with 4 other participants, he goes through all the tasks in the factory and remains the winner.

• Rudyard Kipling

This author is known to us for his story "The Jungle Book", which tells the story of a boy named Mowgli, who grew up in wild forests along with a variety of animals. Most likely, this story was inspired by his own childhood. The fact is that Rudyard was born and lived in India for the first 5 years of his life.

• Joanne Rowling

The most famous "storyteller" of our time gave us that very one. Joan wrote this story for her children. And at that time, their family lived very poorly.

And the books themselves give us the opportunity to plunge into the world of magic and magic. Boy Harry finds out that he is a wizard and goes to Hogwarts school. Amusing adventures await him there.

It is more profitable to buy books here!

• Joan Aiken

This woman simply had to become a writer, because everyone in her family wrote: from father to sister. But Joan was engaged in children's literature. So her most famous work was the story "A Piece of Heaven in a Pie". And it was she who was filmed by our domestic TV channels. True to the Russian people, this story is known under the name "Apple Pie".

• Robert Louis Stevenson

Not a man - a pirate! I just want to scream "Hey gay!", Because this man invented the pirate Captain Flint in his story "Treasure Island". Hundreds of boys did not sleep at night to follow the adventures of this hero.

The author himself was born in cold Scotland. He studied to be an engineer and a lawyer. At the same time, his first books were published when Robert was only 16 years old with money borrowed from his father. But he came up with the story about the treasure island much later. And what is interesting - while playing with my son. Together they drew a treasure map and came up with stories.

• John Tolkien

The creator of modern stories from another world - "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" - stories so fantastic and breathtaking that it takes your breath away.

The author of the books, John, worked as a teacher. As a child, he learned to read early, so he did it often. He confessed that he hated the story "Treasure Island" with fierce hatred, but madly loved "Alice in Wonderland". The author himself wrote stories for which he was nicknamed "the father of fantasy."

• Pamela Travers

This woman's real name is Helen. She was born in a distant, distant Australia. But at the age of 8 she moved with her mother to Wales. As a child, Pamela was very fond of animals. She fiddled in the yard, and imagined herself as a bird. When she grew up, she traveled a lot, but still later returned to England.

One day she was asked to sit with two small and restless kids. So, during the game, she began to invent a story about a nanny who carried things with her in a suitcase, and who had an umbrella in a parrot-shaped handle. Then the plot develops on paper, and so the world got the famous nanny Mary Poppins. The first book was followed by others - the continuation of the story of the nanny.

On this, I think, we will finish. Read interesting books, learn the language and develop. And do not miss the opportunity to receive new blog articles instantly to your mail - subscribe to the newsletter.

Until next time!

In the video below, there are some more great writers and their works worth reading!

"Jonathan Franzen, author of" Amendments "and" Freedom "- family sagas that have become events in world literature. On this occasion, the book critic Lisa Birger compiled a short educational program on the main prose writers of recent years - from Tartt and Franzen to Houellebecq and Eggers - who wrote the most important books of the 21st century and deserve the right to be called the new classics.

lisa birger

Donna Tartt

One novel in ten years - such is the productivity of the American novelist Donna Tartt. So her three novels - "The Secret History" in 1992, "Little Friend" in 2002 and "The Goldfinch" in 2013 - are a whole bibliography, a dozen articles in newspapers and magazines will be added to it by force. And this is important: Tartt is not just one of the main authors since the novel "The Goldfinch" won the Pulitzer Prize and blew all the top lines of every bestseller in the world. She is also a novelist who is extremely faithful to the classical form.

Beginning with his first novel, The Secret History, about a group of ancient students overly carried away by literary games, Tartt drags the clumsy genre of the big novel into the light of our time. But the present is reflected here not in details, but in ideas - for us, today's people, it is no longer so important to know the name of the killer, or even to reward the innocent and punish the guilty. We just want to, with our mouths open and frozen in surprise, watch how the gears rotate.

What to read first

After the success of The Goldfinch, its heroic translator Anastasia Zavozova re-translated into Russian and Donna Tartt's second novel The Little Friend. The new translation, free from the mistakes of the past, finally pays tribute to this mesmerizing novel, the protagonist of which goes too far to investigate the murder of her little brother - it is both a scary tale of the secrets of the South and a harbinger of a future boom in the young adult genre.

Donna Tart "Little friend",
Buy

Who is close in spirit

Donna Tartt is often placed on a par with the other savior of the great American novel, Jonathan Franzen... For all their obvious difference, Franzen turns his texts into an insistent commentary on the state of modern society, and Tartt is completely indifferent to modernity - both of them feel like successors of a classic big novel, feel the connection of centuries and build it for the reader.

Zadie Smith

An English novelist, about whom there is much more noise in the English-speaking world than in the Russian-speaking one. At the beginning of the new millennium, it was she who was considered the main hope of English literature. Like so many contemporary British writers, Smith belongs to two cultures at once: her mother is from Jamaica, her father is English, and it was the search for identity that became the main theme of her first novel, White Teeth, about three generations of three British mixed families. White Teeth is notable primarily for Smith's ability to abandon evaluations, not to see tragedy in the inevitable clash of irreconcilable cultures, and at the same time to sympathize with this other culture, not to despise it - although this opposition itself becomes an inexhaustible source of its caustic wit.

In the same way, the clash of two professors, one liberal, the other a conservative, and both studying Rembrandt, turned out to be irreconcilable in her second novel, On Beauty. Perhaps it is the conviction that there is something that unites us all, despite our differences, be it our favorite paintings or the land we walk on, that distinguishes Zadie Smith's novels from hundreds of similar identity seekers.

What to read first

Unfortunately, Smith's latest novel, Northwest ("NW") has never been translated into Russian, and it is unknown what will happen to the new book "Swing Time", which will be released in English in November. Meanwhile, "North-West" is perhaps the most successful and perhaps even the most understandable book for us about collisions and differences. Center - the story of four friends who grew up together in the same area. But some managed to achieve money and success, while others did not. And the further, the greater obstacle to their friendship becomes socio-cultural differences.

Zadie Smith "NW"

Who is close in spirit

Who is close in spirit

Next to Stoppard, he is drawn to put some big figure of the last century like Thomas Bernhard. After all, his drama is, of course, very much connected with the twentieth century and the search for answers to the difficult questions posed by his dramatic history. In fact, Stoppard's closest relative in literature - and no less dear to us - is Julian Barnes, in which the life of the timeless spirit is built in the same way through the connections of times. Nevertheless, the confused tongue twister of Stoppard's characters, his love of absurdism and attention to events and heroes of the past are reflected in the modern drama, which should be sought in the plays of Maxim Kurochkin, Mikhail Ugarov, Pavel Pryazhko.

Tom Wolfe

The legend of American journalism, his Candy-Colored Orange-Petal Streamlined Baby, published in 1965, is considered the beginning of the genre of "new journalism." In his early articles, Wolfe solemnly proclaimed that the right to observe and diagnose society now belongs to journalists, not novelists. Twenty years later, he himself wrote his first novel, The Bonfires of Ambition, and today, 85-year-old Wolfe is still cheerful and with the same fury rushes to American society to tear it to shreds. However, in the 60s, he just did not do this, then he was still fascinated by eccentrics going against the system - from Ken Kesey with his drug experiments to the guy who invented a giant lizard costume for himself and his motorcycle. Now Wolfe himself has turned into this anti-systemic hero: a gentleman from the South in a white suit and with a wand, despising everyone and everything, deliberately ignoring the Internet and voting for Bush. His main idea - everything around is so crazy and crooked that it is impossible to choose a side and take this curvature seriously - should be close to many.

It's hard to miss Bonfires of Ambition - a great novel about New York in the 80s and the collision of black and white worlds, Wolfe's most decent translation into Russian (by Inna Bershtein and Vladimir Boshnyak). But you cannot call it simple reading. A reader who is not familiar with Tom Wolfe should read The Battle for Space, a story about the Soviet-American space race with its dramas and human casualties, and the latest novel, The Voice of Blood (2012), about the life of modern Miami. Wolfe's books once sold in the millions, but his latest novels have not had such a success. And yet for a reader not burdened with memories of Wolfe's better times, this criticism of everything should make a stunning impression.

Who is close in spirit

Unfortunately, New Journalism gave birth to a mouse - in the field where Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer and many others once raged, only Joan Didion and the New Yorker magazine, still preferring emotional stories in present tense in first person. But the comics artists became the real successors of the genre. Joe Sacco and his graphic reports (so far only “Palestine” has been translated into Russian) are the best of what literature has managed to replace free journalistic chatter.

Leonid Yuzefovich

In the minds of the general reader, Leonid Yuzefovich remains the person who invented the genre of historical detective stories, which has so comforted us in recent decades - his books about the detective Putilin were published even earlier than Akunin's stories about Fandorin. It is noteworthy, however, not that Yuzefovich was the first, but that, as in his other novels, a real person becomes the hero of detective stories, the first head of the detective police of St. Petersburg, detective Ivan Putilin, whose stories about famous cases (perhaps, he himself and written) were published at the beginning of the 20th century. Such accuracy and attentiveness to real characters is a distinctive feature of Yuzefovich's books. His historical fantasies do not tolerate lies, and they do not value fiction. Here, starting with the first success of Yuzefovich, the novel "Autocrat of the Desert" about Baron Ungern, published in 1993, there will always be a real hero in real circumstances, speculated only where there are blind spots in the documents.

However, in Leonid Yuzefovich, what is important for us is not so much his fidelity to history, but the idea of \u200b\u200bhow this story grinds absolutely all of us: white, red, yesterday and the day before yesterday, kings and impostors, everyone. The further in our time, the more clearly the historical course of Russia is felt as inevitable and the more popular and significant is the figure of Yuzefovich, who has been repeating this for 30 years.

What to read first

First of all - the last novel "Winter Road" about the confrontation in Yakutia in the early 20-ies of the white general Anatoly Pepelyaev and the red anarchist Ivan Strod. The clash of armies does not mean a clash of characters: they are united by common courage, heroism, even humanism, and ultimately by a common destiny. And so Yuzefovich was the first who was able to write the history of the Civil War without taking sides.

Leonid Yuzefovich "Winter road"

Who is close in spirit

The historical novel has found fertile ground in Russia today, and many good things have grown on it over the past ten years - from Alexei Ivanov to Yevgeny Chizhov. And even though Yuzefovich turned out to be the peak that cannot be taken, he has wonderful followers: for example, Sukhbat Aflatuni (under this pseudonym is the writer Yevgeny Abdullaev). His novel The Adoration of the Magi, about several generations of the Triyarsky family, is about the complex connections of the eras of Russian history, and about the strange mysticism that unites all these eras.

Michael Chabon

An American writer whose name we will never learn to pronounce correctly (Shibon? Sheibon?), So we will stick to the mistakes of the first translation. Growing up in a Jewish family, Chabon heard Yiddish from childhood and, along with what normal boys usually feed on (comics, superheroes, adventures, I must add), was saturated with the sadness and doom of Jewish culture. As a result, his novels are an explosive mixture of everything we love. There is both the charm of Yiddish and the historical weight of Jewish culture, but all this is combined with entertainment of the most faithful kind: from detective novels in the noir genre to escapist comics. This combination turned out to be quite revolutionary for American culture, which clearly saw the audience on the smart and the fools. In 2001, the author received the Pulitzer Prize for his most famous novel, The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay, in 2008, the Hugo Prize for the Union of Jewish Policemen, and since then it has somehow quieted down, which is a shame: it seems that Chabon's main word is literature has not yet been told. His next book, Moonlight, will be released in English in November, but this is not so much a novel as an attempt to document the biography of the entire century through the story of the writer's grandfather, told to his grandson on his deathbed.

The most well-known text of Chabon is "The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay" about two Jewish cousins \u200b\u200bwho invented the superhero Escapist in the 40s of the last century. An escapist is a Houdini, on the contrary, saving not himself, but others. But miraculous salvation can only exist on paper.

Another well-known text by Chabon, The Union of Jewish Policemen, goes even further into the genre of alternative history - here Jews speak Yiddish, live in Alaska and dream of returning to the Promised Land, which never became the State of Israel. Once upon a time, the Coens dreamed of making a film based on this novel, but for them there is probably too little irony in it - but just right for us.

Michael Chabon"The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay"

Who is close in spirit

Perhaps it is Chabon and his difficult search for the right intonation for a conversation about escapism, roots and his own identity that should be thanked for the appearance of two brilliant American novelists. it Jonathan Safran Foer with his novels "Full Illumination" and "Terribly Loud and Extremely Close" - about a trip to Russia in the footsteps of a Jewish grandfather and about a nine-year-old boy who is looking for his father who died on September 11. AND Juno Diaz with the delightful text "A short fantastic life of Oscar Vao" about a gentle fat man who dreams of becoming a new superhero, or at least a Dominican Tolkien. He will not be able to do this because of the family curse, the dictator Trujillo and the bloody history of the Dominican Republic. Both Foer and Diaz, by the way, unlike poor Chabon, are perfectly translated into Russian - but, like him, they explore dreams of escapism and the search for identity of not the second, but, say, the third generation of emigrants.

Michelle Houellebecq

If not the main one (the French would argue), then the most famous French writer. We seem to know everything about him: he hates Islam, is not afraid of sex scenes and constantly claims the end of Europe. In fact, Houellebecq's ability to construct dystopias has been polished from novel to novel. It would be unfair to the author to see in his books only momentary criticism of Islam or politics or even Europe - society, according to Houellebecq, has long been doomed, and the causes of the crisis are much more terrible than any external threat: it is the loss of personality and the transformation of a person from a thinking cane into a set of desires and functions.

What to read first

If we assume that the reader of these lines has never opened Houellebecq, then it is worth starting not even with the famous dystopias like Platform or Submission, but with the novel Map and Territory, which won the Goncourt Prize in 2010, an ideal commentary on the modern life, from her consumerism to her art.

Michelle Houellebecq"Map and territory"

Who is close in spirit

In the genre of dystopia, Houellebecq has wonderful companions in the environment of what is called living classics - an Englishman Martin Amis (who also repeatedly opposed Islam, which requires total loss of personality from a person) and a Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, interfering genres for the credibility of their dystopias.

A wonderful rhyme to Houellebecq can be found in novels Dave Eggers, spearheading a new wave of American prose. Eggers began with immense size and ambition with a growing up novel and a manifesto of new prose, Heartbreaking Creation of a Stunning Genius, founded several literary schools and magazines, and has recently delighted readers with biting dystopias such as Sphere, a novel about an Internet corporation that has taken over the world to such an extent that its employees themselves were horrified at what they had done.

Jonathan Coe

A British writer who brilliantly continues the traditions of English satire - no one better than him knows how to smash modernity to shreds with pinpoint blows. His first big success was What a Swindle (1994), about the dirty secrets of an English family from the time of Margaret Thatcher. With an even greater sense of excruciating recognition, we read the Rakaliy Club and The Circle Closed dilogy about three decades of British history, from the 70s to the 90s, and how modern society came to be.

The Russian translation of the novel “Number 11”, the sequel to the novel “What a swindle,” which is already taking place in our time, will be released early next year, but we still have something to read: Coe has a lot of novels, almost all of them have been translated into Russian. They are united by a strong plot, impeccable style and everything that is commonly called writing skills, which in reader's language means: take the first page and will not let go to the last.

What to read first

... If Coe is compared to Lawrence Stern, then Coe will be Jonathan Swift next to him, even with his midgets. Among the most famous books by Self - "How the Dead Live" about an old woman who died and ended up in parallel London, and the novel "The Book of Dave", never published in Russian, in which the diary of a London taxi driver becomes the Bible for the tribes that populated the Earth later 500 years after an environmental disaster.

Antonia Bayette

The philological grand dame, who received the Order of the British Empire for her novels, it seemed that Antonia Bayette had always existed. In fact, Possess was only published in 1990, and today it is being studied in universities. Bayette's main skill is the ability to talk to everyone about everything. All plots, all themes, all epochs are connected, a novel can be simultaneously romantic, love, detective, chivalrous and philological, and according to Bayette it is really possible to study the state of minds in general - in one way or another, any topic that has interested humanity in the last couple of hundred is reflected in her novels centuries.

In 2009, Antonia Bayette's Children's Book lost the Booker Prize to Wolf's Hall by Hilary Mantel, but this is the case when history will remember not the winners. In a way, Children's Book is a response to the boom in children's literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. Byette noticed that all the children for whom these books were written either ended up badly or lived an unhappy life, like Christopher Milne, who until the end of his days could not hear about Winnie the Pooh. She came up with a story about children living on a Victorian estate and surrounded by fairy tales that a writer-mother comes up with for them, and then bam - and the First World War comes. But if her books were described so simply, then Bayette would not be herself - there are a thousand characters, a hundred microplots, and fairy-tale motives are intertwined with the main ideas of the century.

Sarah Waters. Waters began with erotic Victorian romances with a lesbian bias, but eventually ended up with history books about love in general - not romance novels, but trying to solve the mystery of human relationships. Her best book to date, The Night Watch, featured people who found themselves under the bombings of World War II in London and immediately after they were lost. Otherwise, Bayette explores the topic of the connection between man and time. Kate Atkinson - the author of excellent detective stories, whose novels "Life After Life" and "Gods Among People" are trying to embrace the entire British XX century at once.

Cover:Beowulf Sheehan / Roulette

English writers The 17th and 20th centuries are less popular today, and the subject of foreign literature is no longer taught at school. It is strange, but not so long ago, during the stagnation, the Iron Curtain and the Cold War, schoolchildren knew and loved the English classics. And their parents spent a whole year collecting waste paper in order to get the opportunity to purchase the cherished volume of Jerome K. Jerome or Wilkie Collins for 20 kilograms. Today, however, when asking who Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy is, most often you only see a puzzled look in response. And the truth is, how can modern adolescents find out about this, if school does not pass ???!

Well, for those who did glance at this page with the title "English writers", I want to offer the most interesting books and no less interesting biographies of these same English writers. So, I invite you to read, listen and watch purely English stories, both in Russian and in English. Below is a list of their most interesting works, as well as their adaptations. And for English learners, we offer films and cartoons in English with subtitles, video interviews and free online English lessons.

Below list of 17th-20th century English writerswhose books are presented on the site:

You will be able to get acquainted with the biographies of English writers, whose eventful lives are reflected in exciting works. No matter what book you take, it is simply impossible to tear yourself away! And for those who want to know more, a review article about English literature. Read on!

English writers and their works (classics)

Robert Stevenson (1850-1894

Psychological novels from the creator Mr. Hyde and the owner of Ballantrae. Look into your soul ...

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

The most humane writer, mercilessly fought against the injustice and vices of the Victorian society.

The Brontë sisters: Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848), Anne (1820-1849)

Three stars that flashed in the sky of English literature, incredible women, each of whom was amazingly talented and unimaginably unhappy.

1. Charlotte Brontë "Jane Eyre"
2. Wuthering Heights (film adaptation of the novel by Emily Bronte)
3. Anne Bronte "Agnes Gray"

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

A witty genius, a philosopher, a master of words, famous for his quotes, the "father" of Dorian Gray.

Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927)

1. film adaptations of works -\u003e in development

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Nick Hornby is known not only as the author of such popular novels as "Hi-Fi", "My Boy", but also as a screenwriter. The writer's cinematic style makes him very popular in adapting books by various authors for film adaptation: "Brooklyn", "Education of the Senses", "Wild".

An ardent football fan in the past, he even threw out his obsession in the autobiographical novel Football Fever.

Culture often becomes a key theme of Hornby's books, in particular, the writer does not like it when pop culture is underestimated, considering it a limitation. Also, the key themes of the works are often the hero's relationship with himself and others, overcoming and finding himself.

Nick Hornby now lives in the Highbury area of \u200b\u200bNorth London, close to the stadium of his favorite football team, Arsenal.

Doris Lessing (1919 - 2013)

After the second divorce in 1949, she moved with her son to London, where at first she rented an apartment for a couple with a woman of easy virtue.

The themes that worried Lessing, as often happens, changed during her life, and if in 1949-1956 she was primarily concerned with social issues and communist themes, then from 1956 to 1969 the works began to bear a psychological character. In later works, the author was close to the postulates of the esoteric movement in Islam - Sufism. In particular, this was expressed in many of her sci-fi works from the Canopus series.

In 2007, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Worldwide success and love of millions of women to the writer brought the novel "Diary of Bridget Jones", which was born from a column that Helen wrote in the Independent newspaper.

The plot of the "Diary" repeats in detail the plot of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice", right down to the name of the main male character - Mark Darcy.

They say that the book was inspired by the 1995 TV series and especially by Colin Firth, since he migrated to the film adaptation of The Diary without any changes.

In the UK, Stephen is known as an esthete and great original, driving his own cab. Stephen Fry is an incomparable combination of two abilities: to be the standard of British style and regularly shock the public. His bold statements about God put many into a stupor, which, however, does not affect his popularity in any way. He is openly gay - Fry, 57, married a 27-year-old comedian last year.

Fry does not hide the fact that he used drugs and suffers from bipolar disorder, about which he even made a documentary.

Defining all areas of Fry's activities is not easy, he himself jokingly calls himself "a British actor, writer, king of dance, prince of swimming trunks and blogger." All of his books invariably become bestsellers, and interviews are sorted into quotes.

Stephen is considered to be a rare owner of a unique classic English accent, a whole book has been written about the art of “speaking like Stephen Fry”.

Julian Barnes is called the "chameleon" of British literature. He is perfectly able, without losing individuality, to create works that are unlike each other: eleven novels, four of which are detective stories written under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh, a collection of stories, a collection of essays, a collection of articles and reviews.

The writer was repeatedly accused of Francophonie, especially after the publication of the book "Flaubert's Parrot", a mixture of the writer's biography and a scientific treatise on the role of the author as a whole. The writer’s craving for everything French is partly due to the fact that he grew up in the family of a French teacher.

His novel A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters became a real event in literature. Written in the genre of dystopia, the novel seeks answers to a number of philosophical questions about the essence of man, his past, present and future.

A favorite of children and adults all over the world, the restless bear Paddington was "born" in 1958 when Michael Bond realized at the last moment before Christmas that he had forgotten to buy a present for his wife. Out of hopelessness, the author, who had already written many plays and stories by that time, bought his wife a toy bear in a blue raincoat.

In 2014, based on his books, a film was shot, where London became one of the characters in the story. It appears before us as if through the eyes of a little guest from dense Peru: first rainy and inhospitable, and then sunny and beautiful. The painting includes Notting Hill, Portobello Road, streets near Maida Vale station, Paddington Station and the Museum of Natural History.

It is interesting that the writer now lives in London just near Paddington station.

In just five years, Rowling went from welfare to the author of the best-selling series of books in history, which became the basis for films, which, in turn, are recognized as the second highest grossing franchise.

As Rowling herself said, the idea for the book came to her during a train ride from Manchester to London in 1990. ...

Neil Gaiman is called one of the main modern storytellers. Hollywood producers are lining up for the film rights to his books.

He also wrote scripts more than once. His famous novel Neverwhere was born out of just such a script for the 1996 BBC miniseries. Although, of course, it is often the other way around.

Neal's scary tales are also loved because they blur the lines between intellectual and entertainment literature.

The writer is a laureate of prestigious awards, many of Ian's works have been filmed.

The first works of the writer were distinguished by their cruelty and great attention to the topic of violence, for which the author was nicknamed Ian Macabre. He was also called the black wizard of modern British prose and a world-class expert on all forms of violence.

In further work, all these themes remained, but seemed to have faded into the background, passing like a red thread through the fate of the heroes, while they themselves did not linger in the frame.

The writer's childhood was on the run: he was born in Czechoslovakia into an intelligent Jewish family. Due to her nationality, his mother moved to Singapore and then to India. Almost all of the writer's relatives died during the Second World War, and his mother, having married a British soldier for the second time, raised the children as real Englishmen.

Stoppard became famous for the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a reimagined Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet, which, under Tom's pen, turned into a comedy.

The playwright has a lot to do with Russia. He visited here in 1977, working on a report on dissidents who were being held in psychiatric hospitals. "It was cold. Moscow seemed gloomy to me, ”the author shares his memories.

The writer also visited Moscow during the staging of a play based on his play at the RAMT Theater in 2007. The theme of the 8-hour performance is the development of Russian political thought of the 19th century with its main characters: Herzen, Chaadaev, Turgenev, Belinsky, Bakunin.

English literature is rooted in the distant past, in a poetic tradition, the founder of which was Chaucer. But even today, despite the frantic pace of modern life, the British still find time to read a good book.

The current Book Club catalog contains 10 great contemporary novels by English writers. These are world famous authors - Ian Asher, James Bowen, Paula Hawkins, Burleigh Dougherty, Penny Hancock, as well as new names in the horizon of English literature: Karen Perry, Saira Shah and others. The best detective stories, autobiographical stories, psychological novels and touching stories about animals are presented to your attention.

Enjoy reading!

Ian Asher decided to sell his failed life on eBay. As a result, he was left with only a passport - and the proceeds from the transaction $ 305,000. He set 100 goals and gave himself 100 weeks to achieve them ... After 4 years, 50-year-old Ian has already traveled all over the world and found love and found happiness.

Jess and Jason. These names were given by Rachel to the "impeccable" spouses, whom she watches from the train window every day. They seem to have everything that Rachel herself recently lost - love, happiness, well-being ... But one day she sees something shocking happening in the courtyard of their cottage. Just a minute - and the train starts to move, but this is enough for the perfect picture to crumble. And then Jess disappears. Rachel realizes that perhaps only she knows the secret of her disappearance. Will the police accept her testimony? And is it worth even interfering in someone else's life?

A spinal fracture changed the life of Cassandra: her lover left her, and friends stopped communicating. Her formerly wonderful life became hell. But the hope of happiness and willpower help the girl to cope with difficulties. Will she be able to feel the sweet scent of life again? ..

Anna and Tobias dreamed of a child, but fate was merciless. The baby turned out to be terminally ill. In a secluded house with a sick child, Anna feels trapped and decides to run away, leaving her daughter to her husband, however ...

Just five minutes - and the life of Harry and Robin, a happy married couple, changes forever: during an earthquake in Tangier, their little son Dillon disappears without a trace. Five years pass - and Harry and Robin, expecting their second child, seem to be ready to come to terms with the loss, but ... in the seething crowd of people in Dublin, Harry suddenly notices a boy who looks very much like the missing Dillon. Is this really their son? And if so, where has he been all this time? .. So begins an amazing story of love and betrayal, loss and finding hope. A story that touches to the core ...

The death of his mother was a crushing blow for little Jim. A defenseless boy fell into slavery to the owner of a coal barge, who treated him worse than a dog. In the inhospitable London streets, Jim will meet friends and enemies, learn to survive and help others, avoid the traps of the big city and hope no matter what. He is not a lost angel at all, he is a desperate street child. When you finally find someone who is ready to help Jim, your heart will be filled with joy, and your eyes - with tears ...

The publication also includes the novel "Sisters of the Homeless Child".

Here is a story about how an inexperienced teenager learned the inside of this world; as a passionate woman, wishing to deceive Time itself, took an illness for love. A story that repeats itself forever. Love ... is it always good? And adoration - is it always good?

The doors of the animal shelter in London's Battersea neighborhood never close, even at Christmas. Early morning ... Our heroes begin to wag their tails, prick up their ears, stretch, wake up and shake off half-asleep. Soon the daily bustle begins at the shelter. Employees and volunteers scurry along the corridors and get to work: washing floors, cleaning cages, serving breakfast ... Many dogs and cats had a hard time before they got here. Having survived the loss of the owner, faced with the cruelty and irresponsibility of the previous owners, they almost lost faith in man, but now they regained hope. And those who are ready to give warmth and care to a new friend have a chance to find out that miracles happen! Sometimes they are very close ... 14 amazing and touching stories about the inhabitants of the most famous animal shelter in the UK.

World bestseller! A film adaptation is being prepared! He was a lonely homeless musician, but one day he saw this homeless kitty ... The cat managed to become a friend, a partner, and a doctor. This is the story of the survival of two creatures in the stone jungle of a big city. The story is filled with small miracles and human warmth.

The amazing gift of this dog gave salvation to many people, and her love and devotion helped to survive when there was no hope ...
The tiny puppy was born on the eve of the war. English sailors saved him from a bitter fate. Soon, little fluffy Judy became the mascot of their ship. She sensed the approach of danger and warned the sailors.
When the ship's crew was captured, the enemies wanted to kill the dog. But Judy survived and sneaked into the prisoner camp - to her own! Together with people, she lived in a camp hell and gave the sailors joy ...
This story is not fiction. The novel is based on real facts about a unique dog who served on a warship along with people during World War II. After the war, he received awards for loyalty and courage.