The Borough of Ealing is that part of west London that borders Chiswick and includes Acton, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale and Southall. With the help of The Pitshanger Bookshop and Ealing Borough Archivist and author Jonathan Oates we’ve compiled a list of published writers who have lived, worked or been educated in the borough or have written books set in the area.
To avoid double-counting, we’ve excluded writers who live in the Chiswick W4 part of the Borough of Ealing: these appear on the Chiswick Writers pages. Authors are also listed by genre on these pages:
Where there’s information online about an author you’ll see that you can click on their name. If there’s someone we’ve missed, please let us know by emailing admin@chiswickbookfestival.net.
Timeline of Ealing Writers & Books – Year by Year
| Year of Birth | Author | Known For |
| 1707 | Henry Fielding | Tom Jones |
| 1753 | Sir John Soane | Memoirs of the Professional Life of an Architect |
| 1760 | Charles Compton | Memoir of Henry Compton |
| 1762 | Spencer Perceval | An Inquiry Or Delicate Investigation Into the Conduct of Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales |
| 1767 | John Quincy Adams | Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory |
| 1777 | Thomas Faulkner | History and Antiquities of Brentford, Ealing and Chiswick |
| 1791 | Charles Knight | Penny Magazine |
| 1792 | Frederick Marryat | Mr Midshipman Easy |
| 1801 | St John Henry Newman | Apologia Pro Vita Sua |
| 1808 | William John Blew | The Church Hymn and Tune Book |
| 1815 | Ada, Countess Lovelace | Sketch of The Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage |
| 1825 | Thomas Huxley | Evolution and Ethics |
| 1830 | Charles Jones | Ealing From Village to Corporate Town |
| 1836 | WS Gilbert | The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance |
| 1837 | Henry Mitchell | Records and Recollections of Acton |
| 1838 | Frederic Festus Kelly | Kelly’s Directory |
| 1852 | William Arthur Dunkerley (John Oxenham) | A Mystery of the Underground |
| 1855 | William King Baker | Acton, Middlesex |
| 1856 | Sir Montague Sharpe | Bygone Hanwell |
| 1856 | William Willett | The Waste of Daylight |
| 1862 | Edith Jackson | Annals of Ealing |
| 1862 | Frederick Delius | Walk to the Paradise Garden |
| 1864 | Marion Wallace Dunlop | Fairies, Elves, and Flower Babies |
| 1867 | John Alexander Barbour-James | The Agricultural and other Industrial Possibilities of the Gold Coast |
| 1867 | Percival Jolliffe | Acton and its History |
| 1869 | Frances Blogg | How Far is it to Bethlehem? |
| 1876 | Charles Hamilton (Frank Richards) | Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School |
| 1877 | Cyril Neaves | A History of Greater Ealing |
| 1878 | Dorothea Lambert Chambers | Lawn Tennis for Ladies |
| 1880 | Elsie J. Oxenham | Goblin Island |
| 1886 | Charles Hocking | A Short History of Acton |
| 1890 | Agatha Christie | 4.50 from Paddington |
| 1890 | Dorothy Kerin | The Living Touch |
| 1890 | Hồ Chí Minh | The Prison Diary of Hồ Chí Minh |
| 1892 | Stanisław Sosabowski | Freely I Served |
| 1897 | Ronald Skirth | The Reluctant Tommy |
| 1899 | Nevil Shute | No Highway |
| 1900 | Edward Ardizzone | Tim All Alone |
| 1901 | Christmas Humphreys | Concentration and Meditation: A manual of Mind Development |
| 1904 | Ralph Downes | Baroque Tricks: Adventures with the Organ Builders |
| 1904 | Richard Meads | Growing-Up With Southall From 1904 |
| 1906 | James Hadley Chase | No Orchids for Miss Blandish |
| 1907 | Richard Titmuss | Social Policy. An Introduction |
| 1909 | Eric Ravilious | Ravilious and Wedgwood: The Complete Wedgwood Designs of Eric Ravilious |
| 1909 | Fred Perry | Fred Perry: An Autobiography |
| 1910 | Edith Whetnall | The Deaf Child |
| 1912 | John Van der Kiste | Always There |
| 1912 | RNG Rowland | Acton from A to Z |
| 1915 | Thomas Merton | The Seven Storey Mountain |
| 1916 | Edmund de Rothschild | A Gilt-Edged Life |
| 1919 | Margot Fonteyn | Margot Fonteyn: Autobiography |
| 1919 | P. F. Strawson | Introduction To Logical Theory |
| 1920 | Mary Hocking | Good Daughters |
| 1921 | Honor Blackman | Honor Blackman’s Book of Self-Defence |
| 1925 | George McRobie | Small Is Possible |
| 1926 | John Main | Word Into Silence |
| 1926 | Jessica Huntley | Bogle L’Ouverture Publications |
| 1927 | Michael Green | The Art of Coarse Acting |
| 1927 | Alexis Korner | Tap Turns on the Water |
| 1928 | Professor Heinz Wolff | The Great Egg Race |
| 1928 | Geoffrey Burnstock | How Cells Work |
| 1929 | Joseph Hucknall | The Boy in a Turban |
| 1929 | Lynne Reid Banks | The L-Shaped Room |
| 1930 | Dick Leonard | Elections in Britain |
| 1930 | Lionel Bart | Oliver! |
| 1930 | Paul Kirwan | A Brief History of Southall |
| 1930 | Roy Bartlett | Life’s A Ball |
| 1930 | Sean Connery | Being A Scot |
| 1932 | Sir Peter Hall | Great Planning Disasters |
| 1932 | Michael Henderson | See You After the Duration |
| 1933 | David Holmes | A Brush With the Music of Time |
| 1933 | George Perry | Forever Ealing |
| 1933 | Veronica Heley | False Money |
| 1934 | Mahmud Kianush | Through the Window of the Taj Mahal |
| 1935 | Colin Emmins | Automatic Vending Machines |
| 1935 | Jack Gratus | The Great White Lie: Slavery, Emancipation & Changing Racial Attitudes |
| 1935 | Ray Jenkins | Z Cars, Callan, The Sweeney, The Chief |
| 1935 | Ted Dexter | Ted Dexter Declares |
| 1937 | Ian D Richardson | Florrie – A Life Unexpected |
| 1937 | Jill Hyem | The Dales, Angels, Tenko, Howards Way, Wish Me Luck |
| 1937 | Peter Jay | The Road to Riches or the Wealth of Man |
| 1939 | Simon Napier-Bell | You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me |
| 1940 | Adam Faith | Acts of Faith |
| 1940 | Mike Molloy | The Nana Troll |
| 1941 | John Quicke | Grammar School Boy |
| 1941 | Robin Duval | Bear in the Woods |
| 1941 | Tony Palmer | All You Need is Love: The Story of Popular Music |
| 1942 | Colin Thompson | Ruby |
| 1942 | Neil Kinnock | Making Our Way |
| 1943 | Michael Lawrence | Withern Rise Trilogy |
| 1943 | Victor Osborne | Digger’s Diary |
| 1944 | Chris Patten | First Confession: A Sort of Memoir |
| 1944 | John Sergeant | Give Me Ten Seconds |
| 1944 | Richard Fawkes | The Classical Music Map of Britain |
| 1944 | Terence Burns, Baron Burns | The UK Government’s Financial Strategy |
| 1945 | John McVie | The Chain |
| 1945 | Pete Townshend | Horse’s Neck |
| 1946 | Elizabeth Sladen | The Autobiography |
| 1946 | Janet Street-Porter | Baggage: My Childhood |
| 1946 | Mitch Mitchell | Jimi Hendrix: Inside the Experience |
| 1946 | Paul Mathieu | Duel: How Lord Hastings stole ‘The Pocket Venus’ |
| 1947 | Adrian Turner | Goldfinger: The Ultimate A-Z |
| 1947 | Robin Hamlyn | William Blake |
| 1948 | Paul Fitzmaurice | An American President in Ealing |
| 1948 | Phil Swern | Sounds of the Sixties |
| 1948 | Philip Woods | Reporting the Retreat: War Correspondents in Burma, 1942 |
| 1949 | John R Gold | The Experience of Modernism: Modern Architects and the Future City |
| 1949 | Kamal Ahmed | The Life and Times of a Very British Man |
| 1949 | Peter Ackroyd | Chatterton |
| 1949 | Rick Wakeman | Grumpy Old Rock Star |
| 1949 | Robert Rankin | East of Ealing |
| 1949 | Vanda Foster | A Visual History of Costumes in 19th Century |
| 1950 | Frances Hounsell | Greenford, Northolt and Perivale Past |
| 1950 | Paul Howard Lang | Ealing Then & Now |
| 1950 | Torin Douglas | Complete Guide to Advertising |
| 1951 | Bob Salmons (Robert Hokum) | The A-Z of Ealing Rock |
| 1951 | Phil Collins | Not Dead Yet |
| 1951 | Sue Elliott | Love Child |
| 1952 | Peter Osborn | The Talking Revolution |
| 1953 | Eric Scerri | The Periodic Table |
| 1953 | Gavin Esler | The United States of Anger |
| 1953 | Gwenan Llwyd Evans | A Few Drops of Water: The Story of the Questors Theatre |
| 1953 | Susan Hamlyn | The Only Thing Untouched |
| 1954 | Mark Holloway | The Bill, Ballykissangel, The Royal, Heartbeat, The Forgotten Toys |
| 1955 | Alex Gerlis | The Best of our Spies |
| 1955 | Richard Dikstra | Tigeropolis |
| 1955 | Sherard Cowper-Coles | Cables from Kabul |
| 1956 | Ann Phimister | The Life of the Mall, Ealing |
| 1956 | Caroline Black | The PR Professional’s Handbook |
| 1956 | Charlotte Green | The News is Read |
| 1956 | Fiona Fullerton | Dear Fiona: Letters from a Suspected Soviet Spy |
| 1956 | Jan Foster-Bartlett | Behind The Window |
| 1956 | Tim Lott | The Scent of Dried Roses |
| 1957 | Jeff Chegwin | Dare to Win |
| 1957 | Kay Hutchison | My Life in 37 Therapies |
| 1957 | Oliver Comins | Yes to Everything |
| 1958 | Ali Thurm | One Scheme of Happiness |
| 1958 | David Young | Stasi Child |
| 1958 | Miranda Vickers | The Albanians: A Modern History |
| 1958 | Rory Cellan-Jones | Dot.Bomb: The Rise and Fall of Dot.Com Britain |
| 1959 | Catherine Pepinster | The Keys and the Kingdom |
| 1959 | Julian Clary | A Young Man’s Passage |
| 1959 | Michele Monro | Matt Monro: The Singer’s Singer |
| 1959 | Niall Leonard | Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed, Monarch of the Glen |
| 1959 | Saz Vora | My Heart Sings Your Song |
| 1960 | Caroline Elton | Mrs Peacock Runs the Marathon |
| 1961 | Diane Coyle | GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History |
| 1963 | Eleni Kyriacou | She Came to Stay |
| 1963 | Erika Mitchell (EL James) | Fifty Shades of Grey |
| 1964 | George Szlachetko | Wira of Warsaw |
| 1964 | Giles Goodland | Capital |
| 1964 | Stephen Sackur | On the Basra Road: Scenes from the Gulf War |
| 1965 | Robert Sellers | The Secret Life of Ealing Studios |
| 1965 | Simon Wooldridge | I Like To Watch: Stories From The Stands |
| 1965 | Tasmin Little | Encore!: Seven Showpieces for Violin & Piano |
| 1966 | Fatima Ananda Spinola de Abreu | Beyond the Lonely Heart |
| 1966 | Paul Waters | Blackwatertown |
| 1967 | Bettany Hughes | Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities |
| 1967 | Gregory Slysz | Mary Tudor, England’s first Queen Regnant |
| 1967 | Hattie Ellis | What to Eat? |
| 1967 | Marianne Holmes | A Little Bird Told Me |
| 1968 | Mel Giedroyc | The Best Things |
| 1969 | Amer Anwar | Brothers in Blood |
| 1969 | Jonathan Oates | Ealing: A History |
| 1969 | Steve McQueen | Hunger |
| 1970 | Neil Elder | The Space Between Us |
| 1970 | Sapna Pieroux | Let’s Get Visible! |
| 1971 | Charlie Brooker | Black Mirror |
| 1971 | Samia Rida | Nessie and Me |
| 1972 | Faye Bird | My Second Life |
| 1972 | Jacqueline Shakespeare | In this Moment |
| 1972 | Rupa Huq | Making Sense of Suburbia through Popular Culture |
| 1972 | Sarah Pinborough | Behind Her Eyes |
| 1972 | Simon Reeve | The New Jackals |
| 1973 | Ade Adepitan | Cyborg Cat and the Night Spider |
| 1973 | Barton Williams | But What Are You? |
| 1975 | Shappi Khorsandi | A Beginner’s Guide to Acting English |
| 1976 | Konnie Huq | Cookie and the Most Annoying Boy in the World |
| 1977 | Victoria Williams | Weird Sports and Wacky Games Around the World: From Buzkashi to Zorbin |
| 1978 | Andrew Strauss | Driving Ambition |
| 1979 | Louie Stowell | Write and Draw Your Own Comics |
| 1979 | Hannah Sullivan | Three Poems |
| 1981 | Nicola Rayner | The Girl Before You |
| 1984 | Peter Crouch | How to Be a Footballer |
| 1985 | Polly Barton | Fifty Sounds |
| 1985 | Phoebe Waller-Bridge | Fleabag |
| 1988 | Henry Lewis | The Play That Goes Wrong |
More reading and sources:
London Remembers
English Heritage – Blue Plaques in Ealing
Gunnersbury Park & Museum