"Best Books for Anglophiles." What a perpetually changing list this could be! The titles selected below are perennial favorites with Anglophiles. This "old favorites" list, however, could rightfully include many additional titles--and then there will be future titles to consider. As you can see, a list of best books for Anglophiles is quite organic!
What criteria did I use for choosing the books on my list? Well, I did not choose books simply because they are best-sellers. Lots of books written by British authors may be best-sellers but they don't necessarily provide readers insights into the various regional differences in Britain or into the British mind-set, and for my list, such insights are paramount. I chose books that offer either a vividly described British setting, vivid enough to make readers feel transported to Britain, or books that delve deeply into the British mind-set, helping Anglophiles understand the psychology of the British people. Of course, some books I choose do both!
I strongly encourage my dear Anglophile readers to email me titles of books (new or old) that they feel should be added to this list. But please, make sure your suggestions meet my criteria! (Submission form is below.)
Now, drum roll, please. . . .
Zella's Pick of Best Books for Anglophiles - Fiction category (in alphabetical order)
A Clockwork Orangeby Anthony Burgess
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
A Room with a Viewby E.M. Forster
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
About A Boy by Nick Hornby
Accelerando by Charles Stross
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Carry On, Jeevesby P.G. Wodehouse
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
David Copperfieldby Charles Dickens
Emmaby Jane Austen
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
Good Omens by Terry Prachett
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Howards End by E.M. Forster
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Kestrel for a Knaveby Barry Hines
Lady Chatterley’s Loverby D.H. Lawrence
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
London Fields by Martin Amis
Lucky Jimby Kingsley Amis
Maisie Dobbs (entire series) by Jacqueline Winspear
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Mauriceby E.M. Forster
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Rebeccaby Daphne du Maurier
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre
To Serve Them All My Daysby R.F. Delderfield
To the Lighthouseby Virginia Woolf
The Adventures of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
The Collectorby John Fowles
The Complete Sherlock Holmesby Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
The Death of the Heartby Elizabeth Bowen
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Forgotten Gardenby Kate Morton
The Girls of Slender Meansby Muriel Spark
The Go-Betweenby L.P.Hartley
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows
The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
The Horses’s Mouth by Joyce Cary
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nicklebyby Charles Dickens
The Little Strangerby Sarah Waters
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe
Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (a Flavia de Luce Mystery) by Alan Bradley
The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag(a Flavia de Luce Mystery) by Alan Bradley
Trainspottingby Irvine Welsh
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Women in Loveby D.H. Lawrence
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Books Recommended by Anglophiles United Readers:
A Fine Romance - Falling in Love with the English Countryside by Susan Branch
Americashire: A Field Guide to a Marriage by Jennifer Richardson
Anglophiles Top Guide to British Words and Beyond by Jen Reckard
Chilled Vengeance by Rupert de Cesaris
Guernsey Evacuees by Gillian Mawson
Hidden Masters & the Unspeakable Evil by Jack Barrow
In the Devil's Own Words by Elizabeth Wixley
Notes from a Small Island (nonfiction) by Bill Bryson
Pretty Nostalgic (British magazine)
Television: Rare & Well Done by Terence Towles Canote
The Book of British Firsts by Paul Godby
The City of London Freeman's Guide by Paul Jagger
The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milene
The Smith of Wooton Major by JRR Tolkien
The Tea Rose byJennifer Donnelly
The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
The Witness: A Novel by Naomi Kryske
Their Whispered Voices - Poems from Herne and Hertingfordbury by Lorna Murrell
Zella's Comment: One of my all-time-favorite finds in London is Persephone Booksat 59 Lamb's Conduit Street, near the Russell Square tube station in Bloomsbury. (Everything about this small, quaint shop is amazing--including the name of the street it's on. "Lamb's Conduit." How cute is that?! Leave it to the Brit's to come up with such a name, right? But I digress.)
Persephone Books caters to a very interesting niche market. It sells only reprints, which they themselves print. The books they choose to reprint must be "neglected books," from earlier days, that were written by women, for women, or about women. The stories tend to be genteel. The owners scour dusty libraries and old bookstores to find these forgotten gems. And most charming of all? Persephone cares about the BEAUTY of their books. All have identical exterior covers (gray with cream-colored labels), but the books' interior endpapers are the shop's trademark. Each book has its own uniquely designed endpapers (with wallpaper-like graphics), chosen to compliment the book's date and mood. And each comes with a bookmark of matching design. I'm simply gaga about all this. I leave the shop feeling like I've just purchased matching fabric for an ottoman and overstuffed reading chair! If you're in London, be sure to visit Persephone. And if you're not in London, well, you're still in luck, because the shop sells online.