Chiswick may be Britain’s most literary location – The Observer
To prove it we’ve identified close to 500 writers who have written a book, poem, play or script for film or television and lived in Chiswick W4, or have written books about the area. It includes the creators of some of the country’s greatest works, from Thackeray’s Vanity Fair to Osborne’s Look Back in Anger and Pinter’s The Caretaker.
This page lists, in chronological order, the 300 authors for whom we have years of birth. All of the writers we know can be found on our fiction and non-fiction listings. If you’d to appear on the timeline below, email your year of birth to admin@chiswickbookfestival.net.
Our Writers Trail map features 36 notable novelists, poets and playwrights. These are displayed below in CAPITAL LETTERS.
For more information, our Writers Tales page carries links to anecdotes, pictures and articles. And for much much more, see A Quick Guide to The Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books.
| Year of Birth | Name | Known For |
| 1561 | LADY MARY SIDNEY | Sidney Psalter |
| 1572 | JOHN DONNE | Death Be Not Proud |
| 1598 | Herbert Thorndike | Of the Government of Churches |
| 1615 | Sir John Denham | Cooper’s Hill |
| 1641 | Edward Baynard | Health; a Poem |
| 1643 | Sir John Chardin | Journal du voiage du Chevalier Chardin en Perse et aux Indes orientales la Mer Noire et par la Colchide |
| 1684 | Joseph Miller | Joe Miller’s Jests |
| 1688 | ALEXANDER POPE | The Rape of The Lock |
| 1689 | SAMUEL RICHARDSON | Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded |
| 1697 | William Hogarth | The Analysis of Beauty |
| 1703 | Thomas Morell | Judas Maccabaeus |
| 1705 | David Mallet (David Malloch) | William and Margaret |
| 1705 | James Ralph | James Ralph |
| 1712 | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | The Social Contract |
| 1720 | RALPH GRIFFITHS | The Monthly Review |
| 1727 | Lady Mary Coke | The letters and journals of Lady Mary Coke |
| 1737 | ELIZABETH MOODY | To A Lady Who Was A Great Talker |
| 1738 | Dorothea Celesia | Almida |
| 1757 | GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE | Emma; Or, The Unfortunate Attachment: A Sentimental Novel |
| 1763 | Mary Berry | Social Life in England and France from the French Revolution |
| 1764 | Ann Radcliffe | The Romance of the Forest |
| 1772 | HENRY FRANCIS CARY | The Divine Comedy |
| 1775 | Daniel O’Connell | An Historical Memoir: Ireland and the Irish |
| 1778 | UGO FOSCOLO | Dei Sepolcri |
| 1788 | Sir Francis Ronalds | A Description of an Electric Telegraph |
| 1799 | John Lindley | Encyclopedia of Plants |
| 1803 | Joseph Paxton | The Gardeners’ Chronicle |
| 1811 | WM THACKERAY | Vanity Fair |
| 1812 | Robert Fortune | A Journey to the Tea Countries of China |
| 1813 | Rev William Cotton | My Bee Book |
| 1817 | Edward Robert Kelly | Kelly’s Directory |
| 1819 | Thomas Layton | The Layton Collection |
| 1819 | Queen Victoria | Queen Victoria’s Journals |
| 1826 | Thomas Harrington Tuke | Journal of Mental Science |
| 1831 | George Manville Fenn | Once a Week |
| 1832 | Sir Edwin Arnold | The Light of Asia |
| 1834 | James McNeill Whistler | The Gentle Art of Making Enemies |
| 1834 | WILLIAM MORRIS | News from Nowhere |
| 1834 | Frederick Walton | The Infancy and Development of Linoleum |
| 1837 | Henry Fox Bourne | John Stuart Mill: His Life and Works |
| 1839 | Mary Cecil Hay | The Squire’s Legacy |
| 1839 | Dr John Todhunter | Three Bardic Tales |
| 1841 | Mary Popham Blyth | The Queen’s Jewel |
| 1843 | James Sime | History of Germany |
| 1847 | Robert Stevenson | Engraving |
| 1847 | Richard Bowdler Sharpe | Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum |
| 1848 | Lewis Pinhorn Wood | Harry Goodchild’s Day Dream |
| 1848 | Thomas Bolas | The Chiswick Level Crossing Fatality |
| 1849 | Maurice B Adams | Building News |
| 1849 | WE Henley | Invictus |
| 1850 | Frederick York Powell | Corpus Poeticum Boreale: Court Poems |
| 1850 | Thomas Alfred Spalding | Elizabethan Demonology |
| 1851 | Llewellyn Atherley-Jones | Miner’s Manual |
| 1851 | SERGIUS STEPNIAK | Underground Russia |
| 1851 | Charles Elkin Mathews | The Yellow Book |
| 1852 | Goddard Henry Orpen | Ireland under the Normans |
| 1853 | WPW Phillimore | Historic Collections Relating to Chiswick |
| 1853 | Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree | Henry VIII and His Court |
| 1855 | Adela Orpen | Corrageen in ’98: a story of the Irish rebellion |
| 1855 | SIR ARTHUR WING PINERO | The Second Mrs Tanqueray |
| 1858 | CJ Cornish | The Naturalist on the Thames |
| 1859 | Nelson Dawson | Goldsmiths’ and Silversmiths’ Work |
| 1863 | Edgar Jepson (R. Edison Page) | Arsène Lupin |
| 1865 | WB YEATS | Sailing to Byzantium |
| 1867 | Sir Sydney Cockerell | The Book Of Hours Of Yolande Of Flanders |
| 1867 | Roger Ingpen | Storm Boy |
| 1868 | Jessie Georgina Sime | The Mistress of All Work |
| 1869 | St John Hankin | The Return of the Prodigal |
| 1869 | Lindsay Philip Butterfield | Floral Forms in Historic Design |
| 1869 | Dan Rider | Adventures With Bernard Shaw |
| 1872 | Edward Gordon Craig | On the Art of the Theatre |
| 1872 | Sir Charles (CB) Cochran | Secrets of a Showman |
| 1873 | George Reginald Bacchus | The Confessions of Nemesis Hunt |
| 1873 | Ford Madox Ford | Parade’s End |
| 1874 | GK CHESTERTON | Father Brown |
| 1874 | Isa Bowman | The Story of Lewis Carroll, Told for Young People by the Real Alice in Wonderland |
| 1874 | Sir Nigel Playfair | When Crummies Played |
| 1875 | Cyril Gull (Guy Thorne) | When It Was Dark: The Story of A Great Conspiracy |
| 1875 | EDGAR WALLACE | The Four Just Men |
| 1876 | Sir Percy Harris | Forty Years In and Out of Parliament, London and its Government |
| 1876 | Mark Edward Perugini | The Story of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith |
| 1878 | Sydney Blow | Where Is This Lady? |
| 1879 | EM FORSTER | A Room With a View |
| 1884 | JC SQUIRE | The London Mercury |
| 1886 | ALAIN FOURNIER | The Lost Domain |
| 1887 | KC Barnaby | Basic Naval Architecture |
| 1887 | Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery of Alamein | The Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery |
| 1887 | Violet Jessop | Titanic Survivor |
| 1888 | Archibald Low | The Future |
| 1889 | Patsy Hendren | My Book of Cricket and Cricketers |
| 1894 | Ralph Edwards | Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture |
| 1896 | Margaret Kennedy | The Constant Nymph |
| 1897 | Cosmo Clark | The Tin Trunk |
| 1897 | Sir John Slessor | The Central Blue: The Autobiography of Sir John Slessor, Marshal of the RAF |
| 1899 | Selwyn Jepson | Keep Murder Quiet |
| 1900 | STEPHEN POTTER | Gamesmanship |
| 1900 | GEOFFREY HOUSEHOLD | Rogue Male |
| 1903 | Reginald Coleman | Stamford Brook: An Affectionate Portrait |
| 1904 | NANCY MITFORD | Love in a Cold Climate |
| 1904 | PATRICK HAMILTON | Gaslight |
| 1905 | Jerrard Tickell | Appointment With Venus |
| 1906 | SIR JOHN BETJEMAN | Summoned by Bells |
| 1908 | Michael Redgrave | In My Mind’s I: An Actor’s Autobiography |
| 1909 | Goronwy Rees | A Chapter of Accidents |
| 1910 | MS Bartlett | An Introduction to Stochastic Processes |
| 1910 | Giles Playfair | Keane: Paradoxical Genius |
| 1910 | Rachel Kempson | Life Among the Redgraves |
| 1913 | Jack Bentley | Laura and Disorder |
| 1913 | Jo Grimond, Baron Grimond | The Liberal Future |
| 1913 | Hugh Cudlipp, Baron Cudlipp | Publish and be Damned: The Astonishing Story of the “Daily Mirror” |
| 1913 | Ralph Hoddinott | The Thracians |
| 1914 | DYLAN THOMAS | Under Milk Wood |
| 1914 | Alec Dickson | Chance to Serve |
| 1917 | ANTHONY BURGESS | A Clockwork Orange |
| 1917 | T Affleck Greeves | Bedford Park: The First Garden Suburb |
| 1917 | Leo Abse | Margaret, Daughter of Beatrice |
| 1918 | Mora Dickson | Nannie: A Lifetime Of Devotion |
| 1919 | Donald Pleasence | Scouse The Mouse |
| 1919 | DAME IRIS MURDOCH | The Sea, The Sea |
| 1919 | Iris Murdoch | The Bell |
| 1920 | Dr Ian Fletcher | Colonnade and Nine |
| 1921 | Sir Jimmy Young | Forever Young |
| 1921 | Tommy Cooper | Just Like That! |
| 1922 | MICHAEL FLANDERS | At the Drop of a Hat |
| 1922 | Eamonn Andrews | For Ever and Ever, Eamonn: The Public and Private Life of Eamonn Andrews |
| 1924 | ROBERT BOLT | A Man for All Seasons |
| 1924 | JAMES BERRY | News for Babylon |
| 1924 | Professor Robin Marris | Ending Poverty |
| 1924 | Ralph Miliband | Marxism and Politics |
| 1924 | John Grigg | All Quiet in the Western Suburbs |
| 1925 | Diana Pullein-Thompson | I Wanted A Pony |
| 1925 | ALUN OWEN | A Hard Day’s Night |
| 1925 | Ernie Wise | Still On My Way To Hollywood |
| 1925 | John Guillermin | Death on the Nile |
| 1925 | Pete Murray | One Day I’ll Forget My Trousers |
| 1925 | Peter Brook | The Empty Space |
| 1926 | Fritz Spiegel | A Small Book of Grave Humour |
| 1926 | Eric Morecambe | Mr Lonely |
| 1926 | John Fowles | The French Lieutenant’s Woman |
| 1926 | Humphry Berkeley | The Life and Death of Rochester Sneath |
| 1926 | Dame Gillian Lynne | A Dancer in Wartime |
| 1926 | Gillian Lynne | A Dancer in Wartime |
| 1927 | Alvin Rakoff | Baldwin Street |
| 1927 | Fenella Fielding | Do You Mind If I Smoke? |
| 1927 | Julia Smith | East Enders |
| 1928 | CARLA LANE | The Liver Birds |
| 1929 | JOHN OSBORNE | Look Back in Anger |
| 1929 | Dennis Farr | British Sculpture since 1945 |
| 1929 | Patricia Lousada | American Baking |
| 1929 | John Vaizey | The Trade Unionist and Full Employment |
| 1929 | Roderick Gradidge | Dream Houses, The Edwardian Ideal |
| 1929 | Martin Hoffman | Hoffman on Pairs Play |
| 1929 | Brian Tesler | The Best of Times |
| 1930 | JG BALLARD | Empire of the Sun |
| 1930 | Donald Churchill | Mixed Feelings |
| 1930 | Andy Garnett | A Year in the Life of an English Meadow |
| 1930 | Marthe Armitage | The Making of Marthe Armitage Artist & Patternmaker |
| 1930 | HAROLD PINTER | The Caretaker |
| 1931 | Margaret Jones Bolsteri | The Early Community at Bedford Park |
| 1931 | Mark Girouard | Life in the English Country House |
| 1932 | Professor Peter Hall | The World Cities |
| 1933 | Anthea Craigmyle | Vicarage in the Blitz |
| 1933 | Claudia Flanders | The Songs of Michael Flanders & Donald Swann |
| 1933 | Julian Bream | The Julian Bream Guitar Library |
| 1933 | Sheila Hancock | Old Rage |
| 1934 | Dame Eileen Atkins | Upstairs, Downstairs |
| 1934 | Tom Mangold | Splashed! A Life from Print to Panorama |
| 1935 | David Hannay, Lord Hannay of Chiswick | Britain’s Quest for a Role: A Diplomatic Memoir from Europe to the UN |
| 1935 | Sir Alan Munro | Keep the Flag Flying: A Diplomatic Memoir |
| 1936 | Don Taylor | Days Of Vision |
| 1936 | John Bird | Bremner, Bird and Fortune |
| 1936 | Clive Bingley | Business of Book Publishing |
| 1936 | Don Taylor | Days of Vision |
| 1937 | Neil Ardley | The Way Things Work |
| 1937 | Vanessa Redgrave | Vanessa: An Autobiography |
| 1938 | Marina Vaizey | 100 Masterpieces Of Art |
| 1938 | Sandra Lousada | London’s Parks & Gardens |
| 1939 | John Fortune | Bremner, Bird and Fortune |
| 1939 | Professor Robert Skidelsky | How Much Is Enough? |
| 1939 | Erin Pizzey | Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear |
| 1939 | Frederick Vine | Global Tectonics |
| 1939 | Virginia Makins | The Invisible Children |
| 1939 | Bill Hagerty | British Journalism Review |
| 1939 | Corin Redgrave | Michael Redgrave: My Father |
| 1939 | Lynn Seymour | Lynn |
| 1939 | Michael Billington | State of the Nation: British Theatre Since 1945 |
| 1940 | Jimmie Chinn | Straight and Narrow |
| 1940 | Sir Michael Rose | Fighting for Peace: Bosnia 1994 |
| 1940 | Michael Cockerell | Unmasking Our Leaders |
| 1941 | Sir George Young MP | I’m Keeping Young: The Everyday Life of an MP |
| 1941 | Ginny Brown | Swans At My Window |
| 1942 | Frank Field MP | Unequal Britain |
| 1942 | Ian Dury | Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll |
| 1942 | Will Wyatt | The Fun Factory: A Life in the BBC |
| 1943 | Professor Francis Ames-Lewis | Concepts of Beauty in Renaissance Art |
| 1943 | Professor Robert Hewison | Cultural Capital: The Rise and Fall of Creative Britain |
| 1943 | Michael Parker | My Life, My Hurdles |
| 1943 | Simon Jenkins | The Companion Guide to Outer London |
| 1943 | Robin Knight | A Road Less Travelled |
| 1943 | LYN REDGRAVE | Shakespeare for My Father |
| 1944 | Peter Murray | The Saga of Sydney Opera House |
| 1944 | Polly Devlin | Vogue Book of Fashion Photography |
| 1944 | Angela Rippon | Fabulous at Fifty and Beyond |
| 1944 | John Entwistle | Bass Culture: The John Entwistle Bass Collection |
| 1944 | Roger Daltrey | Roger Daltrey: Thanks a lot Mr Kibblewhite |
| 1945 | Celia Brayfield | Pearls |
| 1945 | Helen Mirren | In the Frame – My Life in Words and Pictures |
| 1946 | Jenny Smith | The Refuge |
| 1946 | Julia Langdon | Gordon Brown |
| 1947 | Michael Dibdin | Ratking |
| 1947 | Roddy Llewellyn | Beautiful Backyards |
| 1947 | Graham Holderness | D.H. Lawrence: History, Ideology and Fiction |
| 1947 | Ian Peacock | Bankers: From Pillars to Pariahs |
| 1947 | Rick Stein | English Seafood Cookery |
| 1947 | Vicki MacKenzie | The Revolutionary Life of Freda Bedi |
| 1947 | Rula Lenska | Rula: My Colourful Life |
| 1947 | Tony Stoller | Sounds of Your Life, Classical Music Radio |
| 1948 | Mavis Cheek | Pause Between Acts |
| 1948 | Val Bott | Hogarth’s House |
| 1948 | Lulu | I Don’t Want to Fight |
| 1948 | Andrew Lloyd Webber | The Phantom of The Opera |
| 1948 | Gareth Armstrong | Around the World with Shakespeare’s Jew |
| 1948 | Wayne Sleep | Precious Little Sleep: The Autobiography of Wayne Sleep |
| 1949 | Susan Penhaligon | For the Love of Angel |
| 1949 | Robert Rankin | The Witches of Chiswick |
| 1949 | Floella Benjamin | Coming to England |
| 1949 | Glenn Frankel | High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic |
| 1949 | Tom Sensky | Psychiatry in Europe |
| 1950 | Torin Douglas | Complete Guide to Advertising |
| 1951 | Bryan Appleyard | Bedford Park |
| 1951 | Hamish Pringle | Spending Advertising Money in the Digital Age |
| 1951 | Phil Collins | Not Dead Yet |
| 1952 | Mel Smith | Alas Smith and Jones |
| 1953 | Cahal Dallat | Beautiful Lofty Things |
| 1953 | Louella Miles | Perfect Marketing |
| 1953 | Mark Malloch Brown | The Unfinished Global Revolution |
| 1953 | Vyvyan Kinross | Information Warriors |
| 1953 | Joan Smith | Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists |
| 1953 | Mark Ellen | Rock Stars Stole My Life |
| 1953 | Midge Ure | Do They Know It’s Christmas? |
| 1955 | Janet Ellis | The Butcher’s Hook |
| 1956 | Sebastian Coe | Running My Life |
| 1957 | Edwin Lester Arnold | Gulliver of Mars |
| 1957 | Nick Hennegan | How to make a Crisis out of a Drama |
| 1957 | Laurence Rees | Auschwitz: the Nazis and the Final Solution |
| 1957 | Peter Oborne | How Trump Thinks |
| 1958 | Cath Kidston | Coming Up Roses: The Story of Growing a Business |
| 1958 | Bruce Dickinson | What Does This Button Do? |
| 1958 | Daley Thompson | Going for Gold |
| 1959 | Jasper Conran | Country |
| 1959 | Karen Liebreich | The Family Kitchen Garden: How to Plant, Grow, and Cook Together |
| 1960 | Kim Wilde | Gardening with Children |
| 1961 | Vesna Goldsworthy | Monsieur Ka |
| 1961 | Imogen Stubbs | We Happy Few |
| 1961 | James Thellusson | School’s Out |
| 1961 | Fergal Keane | The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear and PTSD |
| 1962 | Rebecca Frayn | Misbehaviour |
| 1962 | Phillip Schofield | Life’s What You Make It |
| 1964 | Rosamund Lupton | Sister |
| 1965 | Bill Bailey | Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to British Birds |
| 1965 | Jeremy Vine | What I Learnt: What My Listeners Say – and Why We Should Take Notice |
| 1965 | William Dalrymple | The Last Mughal |
| 1965 | William Cook | One Leg Too Few |
| 1966 | David Miller | Today |
| 1966 | Carrie Reichardt | Cash is King: The Art of Defaced Banknotes |
| 1967 | Sadie Jones | The Outcast |
| 1967 | Adrian Chiles | We Don’t Know What We’re Doing |
| 1967 | Rageh Omaar | Only Half of Me |
| 1968 | Al Murray | The Pub Landlord’s Book of British Common Sense |
| 1968 | Kate Humble | Home Cooked |
| 1968 | Jason Donovan | Between the Lines |
| 1969 | Sir Craig Oliver | Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of Brexit |
| 1970 | Richard Osman | The Thursday Murder Club |
| 1970 | Kristina Bill | Positive Discipline |
| 1970 | Sir Matthew Pinsent | A Lifetime in a Race |
| 1971 | Clare Balding | The Racehorse Who Disappeared |
| 1972 | Dara Ó Briain | Secret Science |
| 1972 | James Cracknell | Touching Distance |
| 1972 | James O’Brien | How to be Right |
| 1972 | Kenny Logan | Just for Kicks |
| 1973 | Dharshini David | The Almighty Dollar |
| 1973 | Warwick Draper | Chiswick |
| 1973 | Gabby Logan | The First Half |
| 1974 | Harriet Evans | The Wildflowers |
| 1975 | Ant McPartlin | Ooh! What A Lovely Pair: Our Story (with Declan Donnelly) |
| 1975 | Declan Donnelly | Ooh! What A Lovely Pair: Our Story (with Ant McPartlin) |
| 1976 | Elizabeth Baker | Chains |
| 1976 | Dr Josephine Perry | Perform Under Pressure |
| 1979 | Henry Hemming | M: Maxwell Knight, MI5’s Greatest Spymaster |
| 1979 | Sophie Ellis-Bextor | Spinning Plates |
| 1980 | Adam Kay | This is Going to Hurt |
| 1986 | Corina Stanescu | Rawry’s Missing Tooth |
| 2013 | Miranda Sofia | Poems and Stories for Little People |