List of British Jewish writers
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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.
List of Jews by country |
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(*most are Jewish) |
Contents |
[edit] 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
- Alain de Botton [5], writer
- Caryl Brahms [1], writer
- Anita Brookner [6], novelist
- Ian Buruma [7], Dutch-born journalist and writer
- Elias Canetti [8], novelist, Nobel Prize (1981) (Bulgarian-born)
- Chapman Cohen [2], writer on secularism
- Jackie Collins [9], novelist
- Alan Coren [3], humorous writer
- Charlotte Dacre [10], novelist and poet
- Isaac D'Israeli [11], writer
- Jenny Diski [12] writer
- Richard Ellmann [4], literary scholar and biographer
- Moris Farhi, writer (Turkish born): TimesAd
- Benjamin Farjeon [5]
- Eleanor Farjeon, daughter of Benjamin Farjeon
- Gilbert Frankau [6], writer
- Stephen Fry [13], actor & writer
- Neil Gaiman [14], fantasy writer
- Louis Golding [15], novelist
- Lewis Goldsmith, journalist and political writer [7]
- 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)
- Joseph Jacobs [22], folklorist
- Howard Jacobson [23], writer & broadcaster
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala[8] novelist and screenwriter
- Gabriel Josipovici, novelist and short story writer (JYB 2005 p215)
[edit] Authors, K-Z
- Judith Kerr [24], children's writer
- Matthew Kneale [25], writer (Jewish mother)
- Arthur Koestler [26], novelist & critic
- Marghanita Laski [27], writer
- Sir Sidney Lee (1859-1926) [28], biographer and literary scholar
- Joseph Leftwich [29], writer, one of the Whitechapel Boys
- David Levi [9], 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)
- Leo Marks [30], cryptographer & screenwriter
- Maisie Masco,writer
- Anna Maxted, writer, journalist
- George Mikes, Encyclopaedia Judaica vol 6, column 789, Hungarian-born comic writer
- Santa Montefiore [10], author (convert)
- Simon Sebag Montefiore [31], writer
- Harold Pinter [32], writer, playwright
- Frederic Raphael [33], screenwriter, novelist & critic
- Michael Rosen [34], novelist, poet & broadcaster
- Bernice Rubens [35], novelist
- Will Self [36], novelist (Jewish mother)
- Muriel Spark, [37], novelist (Jewish father, possible Jewish mother; converted to Catholicism later in life)
- Jewish Chronicle 13/3/1998 p1: "Dame Muriel Spark, the author of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and several other celebrated works, is halachically Jewish." (Says her mother was Jewish too.)
- Fredric Warburg, author and publisher
- Stephen Winsten Jewish Quarterly article on the Whitechapel Boys, writer
- Leonard Woolf [38], writer & activist
- Rachel Zadok [39], South African-born novelist
- Israel Zangwill [40], 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."
[edit] Poets
- Dannie Abse [41], poet, brother of Leo Abse and psychoanalyst Wilfred Abse
- Al Alvarez [42], poet
- Ivor Cutler [43], poet, humorist, musician
- Elaine Feinstein [44], poet, writer, biographer
- Rose Fyleman [11], children's writer
- Karen Gershon [45], German-born poet
- Philip Hobsbaum [46], poet
- Jenny Joseph, poet (The Times (London); 23/11/02; Amanda Craig; p. 6)
- Laurence Lerner [47], poet (born South Africa)
- Denise Levertov [48] [49], poet, born in England
- Peter Levi [50], poet (born Jewish; family converted to Catholicism)
- Amy Levy [51], poet & novelist
- Vivian de Sola Pinto [52], poet
- John Rodker, poet and publisher: "Anglo-Jewish poetry from Isaac Rosenberg to Elaine Feinstein" by Peter Lawson; ISBN 0-85303-617-9
- Isaac Rosenberg [53], war poet
- Siegfried Sassoon [54], 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 [55], poet
- Humbert Wolfe [12], poet and civil servant
[edit] Playwrights
- Peter Barnes [56], playwright
- Ronald Harwood [57], playwright & screenwriter
- Patrick Marber [58], playwright & comedian
- Harold Pinter [59], playwright
- Jack Rosenthal [60], TV playwright
- Peter & Anthony Shaffer [61], playwrights
- Tom Stoppard [62], playwright
- Alfred Sutro [63], playwright
- Arnold Wesker [64], playwright
[edit] Journalists
- Barbara Amiel [13]
- Lionel Blue, rabbi and journalist
- Alex Brummer, Economic and financial journalist and biographer
- Ian Buruma [65], Dutch-born author and journalist
- John Diamond [66], journalist
- Oliver Finegold [67], journalist
- Jonathan Freedland [68], journalist
- Ernest Abraham Hart [14]
- Christopher Hitchens [69] journalist & writer
- Dominic Lawson [15], journalist
- Nigella Lawson [70], Cookery writer
- Norman Lebrecht [71], journalist, writer & critic
- Bernard Levin [72], journalist & broadcaster
- Emily Maitlis [73], TV newscaster & reporter
- Melanie Phillips [74], journalist
- Marjorie Proops [75], agony aunt
- Richard Quest [76], CNN International anchorman
- Kimberly Quinn [77], publisher
- Claire Rayner [78], agony aunt
- Jon Ronson, [79] Journalist, author, documentary filmmaker and radio presenter.
- Jon Sopel, [80] Journalist, presents The Politics Show on BBC One and is one of the lead presenters on News 24.
- Jim Rosenthal, TV sports journalist & presenter (The Observer (London); 18/12/05; p. 6)
- Mark Steyn [81] journalist & writer
- Victor Weisz, Vicky [16], cartoonist
- Nicky Woolf, journalist
[edit] References
- JYB = Jewish Year Book
- TimesAd: The Times, 6/7/06 p34: "A Call by Jews in Britain" (advert signed by 300 British Jews)
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ 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"
- ^ The Independent Feb 7, 2005; online here Findarticles accessed 11 Dec 2006
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "Her father was in the lace trade, and the family were freethinking Jews"
- ^ 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"