British Literature

British literature is literature from the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. By far the largest part of this literature is written in the English language, but there are also separate literatures in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais, Guernésiais and other languages. Northern Ireland is the only part of Ireland still part of the United Kingdom and it possesses literature in English, Ulster Scots and Irish. Irish writers have also played an important part in the development of English-language literature.
Literature in the Celtic languages of the islands is the oldest surviving vernacular literature in Europe. The Welsh literary tradition stretches from the 6th century to the 21st century. The oldest Welsh literature does not belong to the territory we know as Wales today, but rather to northern England and southern Scotland. But though it is dated to be from the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries, it has survived only in 13th- and 14th century manuscript copies. Irish poetry represents a more or less unbroken tradition from the 6th century to the present day.

Most famous authors

For centuries the United Kingdom has been known for its great literary and poetic minds. Shakespeare, Byron, Blake, Keats, Chaucer, Tenyson, Shelley, Dickens, Austen, Bronte, Rowling. Millions of people around the world have read, studied and even performed many of British authors' and poets' works.
The playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and the novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) remain two of the most popular and widely known British writers the world over. In addition to writing 35 known plays, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and sometimes acted in small parts in his own plays – he is known to have played the Ghost in Hamlet. His best known plays include: Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Dickens began his writing career as a journalist and all his novels were first published serially in periodicals. Many of his works highlight the injustice of the 19th century social institutions and the inequalities between the rich and the poor. His most famous works include Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield.

The novels of Jane Austen (1775-1817) are known for their subtlety of observation and irony, together with their penetrating insights into the provincial life of the middle-classes in the early part of the 19th century. Her works include Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility – all dramatized on film and television to critical acclaim.

The Bronte sisters, Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848) and Anne (1820-1849) were three talented 19th-century women novelists whose works are regarded as classics to today. Charlotte is best known for her novel Jane Eyre and Emily for Wuthering Heights – both novel features strong, independent heroines.

Many distinguished works of contemporary fiction have been awarded the Booker Prize, given annually to the best novel published in Britain. Novels must be written in English by a citizen of Britain, the Commonwealth or the Republic Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize in 2004 was Alan Hollinghurst for his fourth, The Line of Beauty.

Glasgow-born James Kelman is a leading contemporary writer from Scotland whose writing echoes the rhythms of the Glaswegian dialect, while the Welsh-Jewish writer Bernice Rubens, who died in 2004, received much acclaim for her novels.

Currently, all the rage amongst children (and adults!) is the most famous schoolboy wizard, Harry Potter, the creation of J.K. Rowling.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_literaturehttp://www.britainusa.com/sections/articles_show_nt1.asp?d=0&i=41074&L1=&L2=&a=40832