the author possesses an uncommonly fine English style, and he is dealing with subjects of vast importance that are highly topical for our time.

Mr. Sansom is English, bearded, formidably cultivated, the versatile author of numerous volumes of short stories, of novels and of pieces that are neither short stories nor travel articles but something midway between.

* Sarah Austin ( translator ) ( 1793 – 1867 ), English author

Charles Dickens was a prominent English author of the 19th century.

* 1899 – C. S. Forester, English author ( d. 1966 )

* 1904 – Norah Lofts, English author ( d. 1983 )

* 1932 – Antonia Fraser, English author

* 1911 – Constance Heaven, English author ( d. 1995 )

* 1926 – Elisabeth Beresford, English author ( d. 2010 )

* 1963 – Charles Ingram, English game show contestant and author

* 1972 – Geri Halliwell, English singer-songwriter, author, and actress ( Spice Girls )

* 1593 – Izaak Walton, English author ( d. 1683 )

* 1961 – Stuart Maconie, English journalist, author, and broadcaster

* 2007 – John Gardner, English author ( b. 1926 )

* 1922 – Kingsley Amis, English author ( d. 1995 )

* 1785 – Thomas De Quincey, English author ( d. 1859 )

* 1858 – E. Nesbit, English author ( d. 1924 )

* 1958 – Simon Baron-Cohen, English psychiatrist and author

* 1934 – Diana Wynne Jones, English author ( d. 2011 )

* 1946 – Terry Nutkins, English television host and author ( d. 2012 )

* 1928 – Bernard Levin, English journalist, author, and broadcaster ( d. 2004 )

* 1961 – Jonathan Coe, English author

* 1872 – Aubrey Beardsley, English illustrator and author ( d. 1898 )

* 1938 – Frederick Forsyth, English author