List of British Jewish writers
List of British Jewish writers is a list that includes writers (novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists and others) from the United Kingdom and its predecessor states who are or were Jewish or of Jewish descent.
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Contents
Authors, A-J
- Grace Aguilar [2], novelist & poet
- Naomi Alderman [3], novelist, winner of the Orange Award for new writers 2006
- Lisa Appignanesi [4], novelist
- Jillian Becker [1]
- Alain de Botton [5], writer
- Caryl Brahms [2], writer
- David Bret biographer, broadcaster & chansonnier (French-born, Jewish father)
- Anita Brookner [6], novelist
- Ian Buruma [7], Dutch-born journalist and writer
- Elias Canetti [8], novelist, Nobel Prize (1981) (Bulgarian-born)
- Chapman Cohen [3], writer on secularism
- Jackie Collins [9], novelist
- Alan Coren [4], humorous writer
- Charlotte Dacre [10], novelist and poet
- Isaac D'Israeli [11], writer
- Jenny Diski [12] writer
- Richard Ellmann [5], literary scholar and biographer
- Moris Farhi, writer (Turkish born): TimesAd
- Benjamin Farjeon [6]
- Eleanor Farjeon, daughter of Benjamin Farjeon
- Gilbert Frankau [7], writer
- Bobby Friedman, journalist, author, biographer of fellow-Jew John Bercow.
- Stephen Fry [13], actor & writer
- Neil Gaiman [14], fantasy writer
- Ralph Glasser (Growing up in the Gorbals)
- Louis Golding [15], novelist
- Lewis Goldsmith, journalist and political writer [8]
- Linda Grant [16], novelist
- Charlotte Haldane [17], feminist writer
- Basil Henriques [18]
- Muriel Gray [19], Author, 'The Tube' presenter.
- Zoë Heller [20], author (Jewish father)
- Noreena Hertz [21], great granddaughter of Joseph Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Empire)
- Anthony Horowitz, famous works include the Alex Rider series.
- Eva Ibbotson, known for her award-winning children's books and for her romance novels.
- Joseph Jacobs [22], folklorist
- Howard Jacobson [23], writer & broadcaster
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala[9] novelist and screenwriter
- Gabriel Josipovici, novelist and short story writer (JYB 2005 p215)
Authors, K-Z
- Judith Kerr [24], children's writer
- Gerald Kersh [25], novelist.
- Matthew Kneale [26], writer (Jewish mother)
- Arthur Koestler [27], novelist & critic
- Marghanita Laski [28], writer
- Sir Sidney Lee (1859–1926) [29], biographer and literary scholar
- Joseph Leftwich [30], writer, one of the Whitechapel Boys
- David Levi [10], writer on Jewish subjects
- Amy Levy, 1861–1889, poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist.
- Paul Levy, food writer, biographer. Long rabbinical pedigree, vide "Finger Lickin' Good: A Kentucky Childhood," (London 1986)
- Emanuel Litvinoff [31], novelist.
- Leo Marks [32], cryptographer & screenwriter
- Anna Maxted, writer, journalist
- George Mikes, Hungarian-born comic writer.[11]
- Santa Montefiore [12], author
- Simon Sebag Montefiore [33], author
- Alexander Piatigorsky [34] writer, philosopher, culture theorist Winner of the Russian Bely Prize (2002)for literature
- Harold Pinter [35], writer, playwright
- Frederic Raphael [36], screenwriter, novelist & critic
- Michael Rosen [37], novelist, poet & broadcaster
- Bernice Rubens [38], novelist
- Will Self [39], novelist (Jewish mother)
- Muriel Spark, [40], novelist (converted to Roman Catholicism later in life)[13]
- William Sutcliffe, Novelist - New Boy(1986), Are You Experienced? (1997), Whatever Makes You Happy (2008)
- Adam Thirlwell, novelist
- Fredric Warburg, author and publisher
- Stephen Winsten Jewish Quarterly article on the Whitechapel Boys, writer
- Leonard Woolf [41], writer & activist
- Israel Zangwill [42], novelist
- "Israel Zangwill, Anglo-Jewish writer and political activist, was probably the best known Jew in the English-speaking world at the start of the twentieth century."
Poets
- Dannie Abse [43], poet, brother of Leo Abse and psychoanalyst Wilfred Abse
- Al Alvarez [44], poet
- Ivor Cutler [45], poet, humorist, musician
- Elaine Feinstein [46], poet, writer, biographer
- Rose Fyleman [14], children's writer
- Karen Gershon [47], German-born poet
- Philip Hobsbaum [48], poet
- Jenny Joseph, poet (The Times (London); 23/11/02; Amanda Craig; p. 6)
- Laurence Lerner [49], poet (born South Africa)
- Denise Levertov [50] [51], poet, born in England
- Peter Levi [52], poet (born Jewish; family converted to Catholicism)
- Amy Levy [53], poet & novelist
- Vivian de Sola Pinto [54], poet
- John Rodker, poet and publisher[15]
- Isaac Rosenberg [55], war poet
- Siegfried Sassoon [56], poet
- "Abstract: "Difference at War" is a comparative study of three Jewish poet-soldiers of the First World War: Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, and U. Z. Grinberg. ... The poetry of each of these Jewish poets was transformed by the War"
- Jon Silkin [57], poet
- Humbert Wolfe [16], poet and civil servant
Playwrights
- Peter Barnes [58], playwright
- Ronald Harwood [59], playwright & screenwriter
- Tom Kempinski [60], playwright & screenwriter
- Patrick Marber [61], playwright & comedian
- Harold Pinter [62], playwright
- Jack Rosenthal [63], TV playwright
- Peter & Anthony Shaffer [64], playwrights
- Tom Stoppard [65], playwright
- Alfred Sutro [66], playwright
- Arnold Wesker [67], playwright
Journalists
- Barbara Amiel [17]
- Lionel Blue, rabbi and journalist
- Alex Brummer, Economic and financial journalist and biographer
- Ian Buruma [68], Dutch-born author and journalist
- John Diamond [69], journalist
- Jonathan Freedland [70], journalist
- Ernest Abraham Hart [18]
- Dominic Lawson [19], journalist
- Nigella Lawson [71], Cookery writer
- Norman Lebrecht [72], journalist, writer & critic
- Bernard Levin [73], journalist & broadcaster
- Emily Maitlis [74], TV newscaster & reporter
- Robert Peston [75], BBC Business Editor
- Melanie Phillips [76], journalist
- Eve Pollard [77], journalist & newspaper editor
- Marjorie Proops agony aunt
- Richard Quest [78], CNN International anchorman
- Kimberly Quinn [79], publisher
- Claire Rayner [80], agony aunt
- Jon Ronson, [81] Journalist, author, documentary filmmaker and radio presenter.
- Jim Rosenthal, TV sports journalist & presenter (The Observer (London); 18/12/05; p. 6)
- Jon Sopel, [82] Journalist, presents The Politics Show on BBC One and is one of the lead presenters on News 24.
- Mark Steyn [83] journalist & writer
- Victor Weisz, Vicky [20], cartoonist
References
- JYB = Jewish Year Book
- TimesAd: The Times, 6/7/06 p34: "A Call by Jews in Britain" (advert signed by 300 British Jews)
Footnotes
- ↑ Wikipedia; Who's Who in the World; Encyclopoedia Judaica; reviews in The Observer, Times, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator.
- ↑ Obituary, Jewish Chronicle, Dec. 10, 1982
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "the elder son of Enoch Cohen, a Jewish confectioner, and his wife, Deborah Barnett"
- ↑ The Express 15 January 2005; David Robson at large: "a book of pieces by Alan Coren, a Jewish humorous writer"
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "the second of the three sons (there were no daughters) of James Isaac Ellmann, lawyer, a Jewish Romanian immigrant, and his wife, Jeanette Barsook, an immigrant from Kiev in Ukraine"
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "His parents were Orthodox Jews"
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "In spite of his Jewish descent his sympathies were with the extreme right"
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "he was of Portuguese Jewish descent"
- ↑ [1] "Anglo-Indian writer ... Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Cologne, Germany. Her father, a lawyer, was of Polish-Jewish origin and her mother was German-Jewish. Jhabvala attended Jewish segregated school before she emigrated in 1939 with her family to Britain." Accessed 1 Nov 2006.
- ↑ Dictionary of National Biography: "Jewish controversialist, born in London in 1740, was son of Mordecai Levi, a member of the London congregation of German and Polish Jews"
- ↑ Encyclopaedia Judaica vol 6, column 789.
- ↑ The Independent Feb 7, 2005; online here Findarticles accessed 11 Dec 2006
- ↑ TheJewish Chronicle 13/3/1998 (p.1): "Dame Muriel Spark, the author of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and several other celebrated works, is halachically Jewish."
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "Her father was in the lace trade, and the family were freethinking Jews"
- ↑ Anglo-Jewish poetry from Isaac Rosenberg to Elaine Feinstein" by Peter Lawson; ISBN 0-85303-617-9
- ↑ Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born Umberto Wolff in Milan of Jewish parentage"
- ↑ Daily Mail, 21/12/2001, p13: "Conrad Black's wife Barbara Amiel, a Jewish writer"
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "as a Jew, and therefore subject to the University Test Acts, Hart decided against university entry"
- ↑ Jewish Chronicle, July 29, 2005 p.24: "Lawson - one of the few Jewish editors of a national paper"
- ↑ Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born in Germany of Hungarian Jewish parents"
