-
731
The venerable Vede
The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people. -
800
Beowulf
Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons -
950
Eddas
The material of the Eddas, taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy -
1300
Duns Scotus
Duns Scotus, known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times, later provides humanists with the name Dunsman or dunce. -
1340
William of Ockham
William of Ockham advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor -
1367
William Langland
A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman -
1385
Chaucer
Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy -
1469
Thomas Malory
Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur -
1510
Erasmus and Thomas More
Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism -
1524
William Tyndale
William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English -
Marlowe
Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine the Great, introduces the swaggering blank verse of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama -
Shakespeare
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age -
John Smith
John Smith publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region in 1614 -
John Milton
John Milton's Lycidas is published in memory of a Cambridge friend, Edward King -
John Locke
John Locke publishes his Essay concerning Human Understanding, arguing that all knowledge is based on experience -
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding introduces a character of lasting appeal in the lusty but good-hearted Tom Jones -
Thomas Chatterton
17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, later hailed as a significant poet, commits suicide in a London garret -
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine publishes his completed Age of Reason, an attack on conventional Christianity -
William Cobbett
William Cobbett brings back to England the bones of Thomas Paine, who died in the USA in 1809 -
Peter Mark Roget
London physician Peter Mark Roget publishes his dictionary of synonyms, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases -
George Eliot
English author George Eliot wins fame with her first full-length novel, Adam Bede -
George du Maurier
French-born artist and author George du Maurier publishes his novel Trilby -
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling publishes his Just So Stories for Little Children -
James Joyce
James Joyce's novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man begins serial publication in a London journal, The Egoist -
Henry Williamson
Henry Williamson wins a wide readership with Tarka the Otter, a realistic story of the life and death of an otter in Devon -
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes defines his economics in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money -
Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis and other young writers in Britain become known as Angry Young Men -
Roald Dahl
British author Roald Dahl publishes a novel for children, James and the Giant Peach -
Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch publishes The Sea, the Sea, and wins the 1978 Booker Prize -
Julian Barnes
English author Julian Barnes publishes a multi-faceted literary novel, Flaubert's Parrot -
Louis de Bernières
Louis de Bernières publishes Captain Corelli's Mandolin, a love story set in Italian-occupied Cephalonia -
Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen dramatizes the visit of Werner Heisenberg to Niels Bohr in wartime Denmark -
Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials
