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Greatest Living British Author

Shade said:
I suppose for sheer pleasure over the years Amis would have to place highly for me. Similarly Patrick McGrath or Magnus Mills, who have each only disappointed once, though they still feel like quite minor players, with only half a dozen books each.
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I'm not denying Amis in any way, however, I think you can't simply base greatness on pleasure obtained. You have to be able to back it up with excellent prose, rounded interesting characters; really any of the things that probably give you pleasure when reading. I say this, because, if you want to base it simply on pleasurable reading, you can't leave JK Rowling out. While you and I may not think she is anything special, millions of people do.

I also don't think you need to consider your two fellows there to be "minor players" proclivity doesn't necessarily mean greatness. Look at Stephen King.
 
Well I've never read any JK Rowling which is why I haven't commented on her, and have left her out! But she does write for children so I wouldn't really expect to get that much out of her.

I should have said that pleasure, for me, means excellent prose: including of the Amis style. Frankly his characterisation is not always great but he knows how to crack a sentence into shape.
 
Shade said:
I should have said that pleasure, for me, means excellent prose: including of the Amis style.
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I assumed as much, I simply haven't read anything of his. In fact, I know nest to nothing about him. For all I know he wrote the British equivalent of Brain Droppings.

I didn't exactly back up my claim of brilliance either. Although you did a decent job for me.
 
What do people think of James Kelman? I'm reading my first Kelman book now - The Good Times. Somebody (a well respected poster) from another MB that I am a member of rates Kelman really highly. I've not finished this book yet, but so far I don't think it's as good as I ever expected.
 
There should be no question that Rowling and Pratchett are the 2 most "popular" living writers from the U.K. The 2 best though can be argued depending on your likes. And, what is wrong with writing for children. It just may be more important than writing for adults, and surely more important than writing for a small segment of people.
 
muggle said:
what is wrong with writing for children
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Nothing, but a book written specifically to be satisfying to children is unlikely to appeal to adults with developed tastes as much as a 'grown-up' novel is.
 
muggle said:
And, what is wrong with writing for children. It just may be more important than writing for adults, and surely more important than writing for a small segment of people.
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What a wise observation, Muggle. I'd say writing for children is probably more important than for adults, as the influence is greater. I must confess to having a great fondness for children's books and have read many as an adult that I missed out on when young. I really don't think 'The Wind in the Willows' would have delighted me any more as a child than as an adult. But I don't claim to have developed tastes. ;)
 
muggle said:
surely more important than writing for a small segment of people.
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Writers write either for children or adults (or occasionally both): which of these is a 'small segment of people'? Children and adults both number in their billions worldwide.

Poppy1 said:
I'd say writing for children is probably more important than for adults, as the influence is greater.
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I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'more important.' What would be the point in influencing children to read, if there weren't any adult books for them to read when they grow up, because no-one felt it was important enough to write for adults?

If you think of the greatest and most celebrated writers of the last couple of hundred years, very few were writing for children. There are children's authors who can be fully appreciated and enjoyed by adults, both past and present - A.A. Milne, Roald Dahl, Philip Pullman, for example - but if I found myself getting more pleasure out of The House at Pooh Corner than out of The Power and the Glory, I'd be rather concerned. As children our tastes are less complex than as adults, which is why children eat more brightly coloured candy than adults do, and tend to think wine is horrible. We shouldn't expect children to like Graham Greene any more than we should expect adults to pore over the latest Harry Potter. Lots do, of course, but there's a whole menu of richer, more nuanced and satisfying 'food' (I accept this metaphor is now somewhat overstretched) that they could be spending their time on and getting more out of.
 
I would say the greatest living writer has to be JK Rowling as she writes books that both children and adults can read, and they sell in huge quantities. I haven't even heard of some of the people you mention, Shade!
 
Well, by both your measures, Graeco Roman, the anonymous functionaries behind The Highway Code must be pushing Rowling for the title. The other usual response here is that if sales are a measure of quality, then the News of the World is the world's finest newspaper. (Well, who can resist Captain Cash, as he helps the needy and bashes the greedy?)

Welcome to BAR, by the way. After you've been here a while you'll have heard of all the authors I mention. Mainly because I love the sound of my own voice.
 
Thanks for the welcome...I think! :confused:

Maybe I am not getting the right message from your post but I think your attitude is a bit elitist. I mean, the Highway Code is obviously not the sort of publication that this thread is talking about, is it? And why shouldn't people read the News Of The World, and think it is the best, surely it is the best newspaper for them.
 
Well done, Graeco Roman. Some members wait for months after joining before calling others elitists. Glad to see you're making better progress.

Ah, the old elitist tag. My dictionary defines elitism as "the belief that some people are superior to others and deserve special treatment." I don't. I do however believe that some books are superior to others and deserve special treatment (ie to be read and loved eternally...).

News of the World. On reflection you're right. All those tits! And I don't mean the readers.
 
Graeco Roman said:
I would say the greatest living writer has to be JK Rowling as she writes books that both children and adults can read, and they sell in huge quantities. I haven't even heard of some of the people you mention, Shade!
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I don't know about World's greatest living writer but Rowling's work will certainly endure for many years. She is probably unsurpassed in getting children to read which is a great accomplishment, and I am not taking away Rowling's appeal to many, many adult readers. I have read all of Rowling's Harry Potter books and look forward to the next one. :)
 
What we seem to be seeing is...."read what I like or do not read at all".

Nothing more or nothing less. To even suggest that people that like Rowling or Dan Brown would be better off not to read is .......:D
 
Graeco, I'm finding it very difficult to understand how you got to this conclusion:

Graeco Roman said:
I think your attitude is a bit elitist.
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for these reasons:

I mean, the Highway Code is obviously not the sort of publication that this thread is talking about, is it? And why shouldn't people read the News Of The World, and think it is the best, surely it is the best newspaper for them.
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Neither of these points indicate elitism, especially when you take into account that the second point there is entirely fictional. Shade never said that people shouldn't read it, but hinted towards the fact that a majority of people would not consider it the world's finest newspaper.

From what I see, people who continually fling about the 'elitist' tag do it purely from jealousy or because they feel that they need to compensate in some way when they realise that someone else is more widely read than them (something which is totally unnecessary, of course). I also notice that these same people tend to put words into the mouths of these 'elitists' in later posts as a defence for branding someone with this term - it's not that hard to look back at previous posts and see that a majority of these "damning quotes" have been fictionalised ;)
 
IMO getting children to read is probably more difficult than getting an Ayatollah to put a bounty on your head. (I'm not willing to test my theory, but it would be an interesting experiment.;))
 
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