The Greatest Books of All Time Set in England

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
2374 Roxana Daniel Defoe 1724 British English
2390 It Can't Always Be Caviar Johannes Mario Simmel 1960 Austrian German
2402 Last Seen Wearing Colin Dexter 1976 British English
2404 The Poems Of John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester John Wilmot 1680 British English
2407 Best Ghost Stories Of Algernon Blackwood Algernon Blackwood 1907 British English
2414 Loitering With Intent Muriel Spark 1981 British English
2417 Lyrical Ballads William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
2435 The Scarlet Pimpernel Baroness Emmuska Orczy 1905 British English
2438 The Railway Children Edith Nesbit 1906 British English
2451 Henry V William Shakespeare 1600 British English
2453 Joy in the Morning P. G. Wodehouse 1946 British English
2455 The Sign of Four Arthur Conan Doyle 1890 British English
2456 Frost In May Antonia White 1933 British English
2462 Men At Arms Evelyn Waugh 1952 British English
2460 Shirley Charlotte Brontë 1849 British English
2476 Essays And Criticism William Hazlitt 1823 British English
2478 Quatermass And The Pit Nigel Kneale 1959 British English
2487 Small Island Andrea Levy 2004 British English
2490 The Millstone Margaret Drabble 1965 British English
2491 Murder In The Cathedral T. S. Eliot 1935 British English
2492 The Moon And Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham 1919 British English
2513 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
2525 Old Filth Jane Gardam 2004 British English
2540 A Bear Called Paddington Michael Bond 1958 British English
2542 Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English
2544 Camilla Fanny Burney 1796 British English
2545 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Winifred Watson 1938 British English
2558 Keep the Aspidistra Flying George Orwell 1936 British English
2569 Apologia Pro Vita Sua John Henry Newman 1864 British English
2569 The Idea Of A University John Henry Newman 1852 British English
2581 Trial And Error Anthony Berkeley 1937 British English
2589 Hamnet Maggie O'Farrell 2020 Irish English
2590 Sir Charles Grandison Samuel Richardson 1753 British English
2596 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
2607 Poems And Prose Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1797 British English
2614 Book of Common Prayer Thomas Cranmer 1549 British English
2621 The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain 1881 American English
2628 Selected Plays of George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw 1976 Irish English
2640 The Child in Time Ian McEwan 1987 British English
2644 The Complete Poems And Plays T. S. Eliot 1952 British English
2665 The Lost World Arthur Conan Doyle 1912 British English
2678 The Vampyre John William Polidori 1819 British English
2692 The Book Of Margery Kempe Margery Kempe 1436 British Middle english
2697 Wise Children Angela Carter 1991 British English
2699 Cod Mark Kurlansky 1997 American English
2711 Alan Turing Andrew Hodges 1983 British English
2720 Richard Ii William Shakespeare 1595 British English
2722 Revelations Of Divine Love Julian of Norwich 1395 English Middle english
2724 A Man For All Seasons Robert Bolt 1960 American English
2727 Last Poems A. E. Housman 1922 British English
2738 Look Back In Anger John Osborne 1956 British English
2752 The Worm Forgives The Plough John Stewart Collis 1947 British English
2788 A Cultural History Of The Modern Age Egon Friedell 1927 Austrian English
2794 The Eagle Has Landed Jack Higgins 1975 British English
2798 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
2807 The Art of Memory Frances A. Yates 1966 British English
2819 The Empty House And Other Ghost Stories Algernon Blackwood 1906 British English
2831 The Listener And Other Stories Algernon Blackwood 1907 British English
2838 The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge 1974 British English
2851 Bad News Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
2853 A Bullet In The Ballet Caryl Brahms &S. J. Simon 1937 British English
2871 The Information Martin Amis 1995 British English
2880 The Diary of Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys 1825 British English
2883 Physics And Beyond Werner Heisenberg 1971 German German
2887 John Keats Walter Jackson Bate 1963 American English
2892 The Caretaker Harold Pinter 1960 British English
2904 Longsword, Earl Of Salisbury Thomas Leland 1762 Irish English
2904 The Return Walter de la Mare 1910 British English
2908 A Taste For Death P. D. James 1986 British English
2910 Ruth Elizabeth Gaskell 1853 British English
2918 Bring Up the Bodies Hilary Mantel 2012 British English
2938 Dracula's Guest Bram Stoker 1914 British English
2938 Tales Of A Traveller Washington Irving 1824 American English
2948 Eva Trout Elizabeth Bowen 1968 Irish English
2950 Some Hope Edward St Aubyn 1994 British English
2967 Kane and Abel Jeffrey Archer 1979 British English
2980 The Man of Property John Galsworthy 1906 British English
2981 The Life And Loves Of A She Devil Fay Weldon 1983 British English
2986 Tipping The Velvet Sarah Waters 1998 British English
3013 The Game Of Kings Dorothy Dunnett 1961 British English
3017 The Old Men At The Zoo Angus Wilson 1961 British English
3021 The Echoing Grove Rosamond Lehmann 1953 British English
3021 The Memoirs Of Barry Lyndon William Makepeace Thackeray 1844 British English
3020 The Ministry Of Fear Graham Greene 1943 British English
3021 Captain Blood Rafael Sabatini 1922 British English
3033 Novel on Yellow Paper Stevie Smith 1936 British English
3035 Less Than Angels Barbara Pym 1955 British English
3038 The Snow Goose Paul Gallico 1941 British English
3041 The Good Companions J. B. Priestley 1929 British English
3041 England, Their England A. G. Macdonell 1933 British English
3041 South Riding Winifred Holtby 1936 British English
3041 East Lynne Ellen Wood 1861 British English
3041 The Great Impersonation E. Phillips Oppenheim 1920 British English
3041 Whose Body? Dorothy L. Sayers 1923 British English
3039 Manservant And Maidservant Ivy Compton-Burnett 1947 British English
3052 Red, White & Royal Blue Casey McQuiston 2019 American English
3056 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3064 The Secret River Kate Grenville 2005 Australian English
3065 Three Guineas Virginia Woolf 1938 British English
3083 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome 1930 British English
3097 Second-class Citizen Buchi Emecheta 1974 Nigerian English
3104 Foreign Affairs Alison Lurie 1984 American English
3107 Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Douglas Adams 1987 British English
3109 The Warden Anthony Trollope 1855 British English
3114 Affinity Sarah Waters 1999 British English
3123 Cover Her Face P. D. James 1962 British English
3135 Mother's Milk Edward St Aubyn 2005 British English
3137 The False Inspector Dew Peter Lovesey 1982 British English
3142 The Cask Freeman Wills Crofts 1920 British English
3148 Chronicles Jean Froissart 1370 French Middle french
3185 The Quest For Corvo A. J. A. Symons 1934 British English
3188 The Judas Window Carter Dickson 1938 British English
3191 The Age of Reason Thomas Paine 1794 British English
3203 Fever Pitch Nick Hornby 1992 British English
3235 The Radiant Way Margaret Drabble 1987 British English
3249 Death On The Nile Agatha Christie 1937 British English
3253 All Hallows' Eve Charles Williams 1945 British English
3289 Candida George Bernard Shaw 1898 Irish English
3305 Henry IV, Part I William Shakespeare 1597 British English
3323 Tirant Lo Blanc Joanot Martorell 1490 Spanish Catalan