Best British authors
British authors ranked by the scores readers give their books. Britain's range runs from Agatha Christie's detective puzzles through Terry Pratchett's Discworld satire to Neil Gaiman's modern myth-making, and its writers remain a fixture of crime, fantasy and children's shelves worldwide. The ranking below orders British authors by how readers rate their books, so the strongest names rise to the top.
Ranked by each author’s score — the average of their books’ reader ratings on BookRank. Citizenship data: Wikidata.
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- 1Alan Moore8.58.5
- 2Caroline Criado-Perez8.58.5
- 3Warren Ellis8.58.5
- 4Douglas Stuart8.48.4
- 5Ed Yong8.48.4
- 6Jung Chang8.48.4
- 7Sam McBratney8.38.3
- 8Julia Donaldson8.38.3
- 9J. R. R. Tolkien8.38.3
- 10Mark Miodownik8.38.3
- 11Stephen Hawking8.38.3
- 12Hilary Mantel8.28.2
- 13J. K. Rowling8.28.2
- 14Gail Honeyman8.28.2
- 15Richard Dawkins8.28.2
- 16Patrick O'Brian8.28.2
- 17Oliver Burkeman8.28.2
- 18Sangu Mandanna8.28.2
- 19George Orwell8.28.2
- 20A. A. Milne8.28.2
- 21Jonathan Stroud8.18.1
- 22Richard Adams8.18.1
- 23Bernard Cornwell8.18.1
- 24Alice Oseman8.18.1
- 25Neil Gaiman8.18.1
- 26Ben Aaronovitch8.18.1
- 27Elizabeth E. Wein8.18.1
- 28Terry Pratchett8.08.0
- 29Louis de Bernières8.08.0
- 30Frances Hodgson Burnett8.08.0
- 31Daphne du Maurier8.08.0
- 32William Blake8.08.0
- 33Grant Morrison8.08.0
- 34Alan Hollinghurst8.08.0
- 35Douglas Adams8.08.0
- 36qntm8.08.0
- 37Jasper Fforde8.08.0
- 38Michael Morpurgo8.08.0
- 39Tasha Suri8.08.0
- 40Alan Watts8.08.0
- 41Salman Rushdie8.08.0
- 42Emily Tesh8.08.0
- 43Diana Wynne Jones8.08.0
- 44Mary Stewart8.08.0
- 45William Somerset Maugham8.08.0
- 46Joseph Delaney7.97.9
- 47Oliver Sacks7.97.9
- 48Callie Hart7.97.9
- 49Joan Aiken7.97.9
- 50Bertrand Russell7.97.9
- 51Beatrix Potter7.97.9
- 52Anthony Burgess7.97.9
- 53P. G. Wodehouse7.97.9
- 54Iain Banks7.97.9
- 55Roald Dahl7.97.9
- 56David Mitchell7.97.9
- 57Philip Pullman7.97.9
- 58Mike Carey7.97.9
- 59Emma Orczy7.97.9
- 60Arthur Conan Doyle7.97.9
- 61Edith Nesbit7.97.9
- 62G. K. Chesterton7.97.9
- 63Friedrich Hayek7.97.9
- 64Ken Follett7.97.9
- 65T. H. White7.97.9
- 66Kenneth Grahame7.97.9
- 67Rafael Sabatini7.97.9
- 68Enid Blyton7.97.9
- 69Philippa Pearce7.97.9
- 70C. S. Lewis7.87.8
- 71Hannah Kaner7.87.8
- 72Mark Millar7.87.8
- 73A. S. Byatt7.87.8
- 74Arthur Ransome7.87.8
- 75Nick Hornby7.87.8
- 76Niall Ferguson7.87.8
- 77Virginia Woolf7.87.8
- 78Susan Cooper7.87.8
- 79Mary Shelley7.87.8
- 80Cressida Cowell7.87.8
- 81William Nicholson7.87.8
- 82John Fowles7.87.8
- 83Arthur C. Clarke7.87.8
- 84China Miéville7.87.8
- 85Aldous Huxley7.87.8
- 86Jojo Moyes7.87.8
- 87Sue Townsend7.87.8
- 88Frederick Forsyth7.77.7
- 89Fred Hoyle7.77.7
- 90Iain Pears7.77.7
- 91Anthony Horowitz7.77.7
- 92Dodie Smith7.77.7
- 93Robert Muchamore7.77.7
- 94John Wyndham7.77.7
- 95Malorie Blackman7.77.7
- 96Muriel Spark7.77.7
- 97Lee Child7.77.7
- 98Ian McEwan7.77.7
- 99Graham Greene7.77.7
- 100Kazuo Ishiguro7.77.7
- 101J. M. Barrie7.77.7
- 102John le Carré7.77.7
- 103Dorothy L. Sayers7.67.6
- 104E. M. Forster7.67.6
- 105Rudyard Kipling7.67.6
- 106P. L. Travers7.67.6
- 107Thomas Hardy7.67.6
- 108Oyinkan Braithwaite7.67.6
- 109Mark Haddon7.67.6
- 110George Bernard Shaw7.67.6
- 111Anna Sewell7.67.6
- 112Nevil Shute7.67.6
- 113Dolly Alderton7.67.6
- 114Walter Scott7.67.6
- 115Josephine Tey7.67.6
- 116Zadie Smith7.67.6
- 117Agatha Christie7.67.6
- 118Hugh Lofting7.67.6
- 119Tracy Chevalier7.67.6
- 120Olaf Stapledon7.67.6
- 121Val McDermid7.67.6
- 122Julia Armfield7.67.6
- 123Alexander McCall Smith7.57.5
- 124Ford Madox Ford7.57.5
- 125James Herbert7.57.5
- 126H. G. Wells7.47.4
- 127Ian Fleming7.47.4
- 128D. H. Lawrence7.47.4
- 129Samantha Harvey7.47.4
- 130John Buchan7.47.4
- 131Arthur Machen7.37.3
- 132J. G. Ballard7.37.3
- 133P. D. James7.37.3
- 134William Golding7.37.3
- 135Joseph Conrad7.37.3
- 136Ruth Ware7.17.1
- 137E. L. James6.66.6
- 138Jack Thorne6.36.3
