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.
And for more information, our Writers Tales page carries links to anecdotes, pictures and articles.
| 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 | Queen Victoria | Queen Victoria’s Journals |
| 1819 | Thomas Layton | The Layton Collection |
| 1826 | Thomas Harrington Tuke | Journal of Mental Science |
| 1831 | George Manville Fenn | Once a Week |
| 1832 | Sir Edwin Arnold | The Light of Asia |
| 1834 | Frederick Walton | The Infancy and Development of Linoleum |
| 1834 | James McNeill Whistler | The Gentle Art of Making Enemies |
| 1834 | WILLIAM MORRIS | News from Nowhere |
| 1837 | Henry Fox Bourne | John Stuart Mill: His Life and Works |
| 1839 | Dr John Todhunter | Three Bardic Tales |
| 1839 | Mary Cecil Hay | The Squire’s Legacy |
| 1841 | Mary Popham Blyth | The Queen’s Jewel |
| 1843 | James Sime | History of Germany |
| 1847 | Richard Bowdler Sharpe | Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum |
| 1847 | Robert Stevenson | Engraving |
| 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 | Charles Elkin Mathews | The Yellow Book |
| 1851 | Llewellyn Atherley-Jones | Miner’s Manual |
| 1851 | SERGIUS STEPNIAK | Underground Russia |
| 1852 | Goddard Henry Orpen | Ireland under the Normans |
| 1853 | Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree | Henry VIII and His Court |
| 1853 | WPW Phillimore | Historic Collections Relating to Chiswick |
| 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 | Roger Ingpen | Storm Boy |
| 1867 | Sir Sydney Cockerell | The Book Of Hours Of Yolande Of Flanders |
| 1868 | Jessie Georgina Sime | The Mistress of All Work |
| 1869 | Dan Rider | Adventures With Bernard Shaw |
| 1869 | Lindsay Philip Butterfield | Floral Forms in Historic Design |
| 1869 | St John Hankin | The Return of the Prodigal |
| 1872 | Edward Gordon Craig | On the Art of the Theatre |
| 1872 | Sir Charles (CB) Cochran | Secrets of a Showman |
| 1873 | Ford Madox Ford | Parade’s End |
| 1873 | George Reginald Bacchus | The Confessions of Nemesis Hunt |
| 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 | Mark Edward Perugini | The Story of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith |
| 1876 | Sir Percy Harris | Forty Years In and Out of Parliament, London and its Government |
| 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 | Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery of Alamein | The Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery |
| 1887 | KC Barnaby | Basic Naval Architecture |
| 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 | GEOFFREY HOUSEHOLD | Rogue Male |
| 1900 | STEPHEN POTTER | Gamesmanship |
| 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 | Giles Playfair | Keane: Paradoxical Genius |
| 1910 | MS Bartlett | An Introduction to Stochastic Processes |
| 1910 | Rachel Kempson | Life Among the Redgraves |
| 1913 | Hugh Cudlipp, Baron Cudlipp | Publish and be Damned: The Astonishing Story of the “Daily Mirror” |
| 1913 | Jack Bentley | Laura and Disorder |
| 1913 | Jo Grimond, Baron Grimond | The Liberal Future |
| 1913 | Ralph Hoddinott | The Thracians |
| 1914 | Alec Dickson | Chance to Serve |
| 1914 | DYLAN THOMAS | Under Milk Wood |
| 1917 | ANTHONY BURGESS | A Clockwork Orange |
| 1917 | Leo Abse | Margaret, Daughter of Beatrice |
| 1917 | T Affleck Greeves | Bedford Park: The First Garden Suburb |
| 1918 | Mora Dickson | Nannie: A Lifetime Of Devotion |
| 1919 | DAME IRIS MURDOCH | The Sea, The Sea |
| 1919 | Donald Pleasence | Scouse The Mouse |
| 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 | Eamonn Andrews | For Ever and Ever, Eamonn: The Public and Private Life of Eamonn Andrews |
| 1922 | MICHAEL FLANDERS | At the Drop of a Hat |
| 1924 | JAMES BERRY | News for Babylon |
| 1924 | John Grigg | All Quiet in the Western Suburbs |
| 1924 | Professor Robin Marris | Ending Poverty |
| 1924 | Ralph Miliband | Marxism and Politics |
| 1924 | ROBERT BOLT | A Man for All Seasons |
| 1925 | ALUN OWEN | A Hard Day’s Night |
| 1925 | Diana Pullein-Thompson | I Wanted A Pony |
| 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 | Dame Gillian Lynne | A Dancer in Wartime |
| 1926 | Eric Morecambe | Mr Lonely |
| 1926 | Fritz Spiegel | A Small Book of Grave Humour |
| 1926 | Gillian Lynne | A Dancer in Wartime |
| 1926 | Humphry Berkeley | The Life and Death of Rochester Sneath |
| 1926 | John Fowles | The French Lieutenant’s Woman |
| 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 | Brian Tesler | The Best of Times |
| 1929 | Dennis Farr | British Sculpture since 1945 |
| 1929 | JOHN OSBORNE | Look Back in Anger |
| 1929 | John Vaizey | The Trade Unionist and Full Employment |
| 1929 | Martin Hoffman | Hoffman on Pairs Play |
| 1929 | Patricia Lousada | American Baking |
| 1929 | Roderick Gradidge | Dream Houses, The Edwardian Ideal |
| 1930 | Andy Garnett | A Year in the Life of an English Meadow |
| 1930 | Donald Churchill | Mixed Feelings |
| 1930 | HAROLD PINTER | The Caretaker |
| 1930 | JG BALLARD | Empire of the Sun |
| 1930 | Marthe Armitage | The Making of Marthe Armitage Artist & Patternmaker |
| 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 | Alan Toop | Only £3.95 ? ! The Creative Element in Sales Promotion |
| 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 | Christine Ozanne | |
| 1936 | Clive Bingley | Business of Book Publishing |
| 1936 | Don Taylor | Days of Vision |
| 1936 | John Bird | Bremner, Bird and Fortune |
| 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 | Bill Hagerty | British Journalism Review |
| 1939 | Corin Redgrave | Michael Redgrave: My Father |
| 1939 | Erin Pizzey | Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear |
| 1939 | John Fortune | Bremner, Bird and Fortune |
| 1939 | Lynn Seymour | Lynn |
| 1939 | Michael Billington | State of the Nation: British Theatre Since 1945 |
| 1939 | Frederick Vine | Global Tectonics |
| 1939 | Professor Robert Skidelsky | How Much Is Enough? |
| 1939 | Virginia Makins | The Invisible Children |
| 1940 | Jimmie Chinn | Straight and Narrow |
| 1940 | Michael Cockerell | Unmasking Our Leaders |
| 1940 | Sir Michael Rose | Fighting for Peace: Bosnia 1994 |
| 1941 | Ginny Brown | Swans At My Window |
| 1941 | Sir George Young MP | I’m Keeping Young: The Everyday Life of an MP |
| 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 | LYN REDGRAVE | Shakespeare for My Father |
| 1943 | Michael Parker | My Life, My Hurdles |
| 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 | Robin Knight | A Road Less Travelled |
| 1943 | Simon Jenkins | The Companion Guide to Outer London |
| 1944 | Angela Rippon | Fabulous at Fifty and Beyond |
| 1944 | John Entwistle | Bass Culture: The John Entwistle Bass Collection |
| 1944 | Peter Murray | The Saga of Sydney Opera House |
| 1944 | Polly Devlin | Vogue Book of Fashion Photography |
| 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 | Andrew Saint | The Chronicles of London |
| 1946 | Jenny Smith | The Refuge |
| 1946 | Julia Langdon | Gordon Brown |
| 1947 | Graham Holderness | D.H. Lawrence: History, Ideology and Fiction |
| 1947 | Ian Peacock | Bankers: From Pillars to Pariahs |
| 1947 | Michael Dibdin | Ratking |
| 1947 | Rick Stein | English Seafood Cookery |
| 1947 | Roddy Llewellyn | Beautiful Backyards |
| 1947 | Rula Lenska | Rula: My Colourful Life |
| 1947 | Tony Stoller | Sounds of Your Life, Classical Music Radio |
| 1947 | Vicki MacKenzie | The Revolutionary Life of Freda Bedi |
| 1948 | Andrew Lloyd Webber | The Phantom of The Opera |
| 1948 | Gareth Armstrong | Around the World with Shakespeare’s Jew |
| 1948 | Lulu | I Don’t Want to Fight |
| 1948 | Mavis Cheek | Pause Between Acts |
| 1948 | Val Bott | Hogarth’s House |
| 1948 | Wayne Sleep | Precious Little Sleep: The Autobiography of Wayne Sleep |
| 1949 | Floella Benjamin | Coming to England |
| 1949 | Glenn Frankel | High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic |
| 1949 | Robert Rankin | The Witches of Chiswick |
| 1949 | Susan Penhaligon | For the Love of Angel |
| 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 | Bob Osborne | Cash is King: The Art of Defaced Banknotes |
| 1953 | Cahal Dallat | Beautiful Lofty Things |
| 1953 | Carol Townend | Shattered Vows |
| 1953 | Joan Smith | Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists |
| 1953 | Louella Miles | Perfect Marketing |
| 1953 | Mark Ellen | Rock Stars Stole My Life |
| 1953 | Mark Malloch Brown | The Unfinished Global Revolution |
| 1953 | Midge Ure | Do They Know It’s Christmas? |
| 1953 | Vyvyan Kinross | Information Warriors |
| 1954 | Christopher Wilk | Modernism |
| 1955 | Janet Ellis | The Butcher’s Hook |
| 1956 | Sebastian Coe | Running My Life |
| 1957 | Edwin Lester Arnold | Gulliver of Mars |
| 1957 | Laurence Rees | Auschwitz: the Nazis and the Final Solution |
| 1957 | Nick Hennegan | How to make a Crisis out of a Drama |
| 1957 | Peter Oborne | How Trump Thinks |
| 1958 | Bruce Dickinson | What Does This Button Do? |
| 1958 | Cath Kidston | Coming Up Roses: The Story of Growing a Business |
| 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 | Fergal Keane | The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear and PTSD |
| 1961 | Imogen Stubbs | We Happy Few |
| 1961 | James Thellusson | School’s Out |
| 1961 | Vesna Goldsworthy | Monsieur Ka |
| 1962 | Phillip Schofield | Life’s What You Make It |
| 1962 | Rebecca Frayn | Misbehaviour |
| 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 Cook | One Leg Too Few |
| 1965 | William Dalrymple | The Last Mughal |
| 1966 | Carrie Reichardt | Cash is King: The Art of Defaced Banknotes |
| 1966 | David Miller | Today |
| 1967 | Adrian Chiles | We Don’t Know What We’re Doing |
| 1967 | Rageh Omaar | Only Half of Me |
| 1967 | Sadie Jones | The Outcast |
| 1968 | Al Murray | The Pub Landlord’s Book of British Common Sense |
| 1968 | Jason Donovan | Between the Lines |
| 1968 | Kate Humble | Home Cooked |
| 1968 | Susie Pearl | The Art of Creativity |
| 1969 | Sir Craig Oliver | Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of Brexit |
| 1970 | Kristina Bill | Positive Discipline |
| 1970 | Richard Osman | The Thursday Murder Club |
| 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 | Beverley Turner | Daily Mail, Daily Mirror Columns |
| 1973 | Dharshini David | The Almighty Dollar |
| 1973 | Gabby Logan | The First Half |
| 1973 | Warwick Draper | Chiswick |
| 1974 | Harriet Evans | The Wildflowers |
| 1975 | Alec Marsh | Rule Britannia |
| 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 | Dr Josephine Perry | Perform Under Pressure |
| 1976 | Elizabeth Baker | Chains |
| 1979 | Henry Hemming | M: Maxwell Knight, MI5’s Greatest Spymaster |
| 1979 | Sophie Ellis-Bextor | Spinning Plates |
| 1980 | Adam Kay | This is Going to Hurt |
| 1980 | Bryony Gordon | The Wrong Knickers: A Decade of Chaos |
| 1986 | Corina Stanescu | Rawry’s Missing Tooth |
| 2013 | Miranda Sofia | Poems and Stories for Little People |