Snippets from British literature (1950-2010)

Timeline created by facebooker_527452854 in Art and Culture

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Event Date:	Event Title:	Event Description:
03/08/1955	The Lord of the Rings	An epic work of fiction and not just in the lonely nerdboy sense of the word. However, The Lord of the Rings is quite possibly the root of the evil, which drives grown men and women to run around with elven ears and wooden swords chanting THOU SHALL NOT PASS at innocent sylvan dwellers, otherwise known as Live Action Role Playing. It is also what launched Orlando Bloom into the humid depths of teenage female minds.
03/01/1957	Room at the Top	John Braine's famous novel from the Kitchen sink realism movement
01/01/1958	Saturday Night and Sunday Morning	The third famous novel of the kitchen sink realism movement. Authored by Alan Sillitoe
01/01/1960	A Kind of Loving	Another famous novel from the Kitchen sink realism movement. Authored by Stan Barstow
03/08/1961	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie	A short humorous work of fiction by Muriel Spark, rated as one of Britain's best post-war authors. In 2005, her novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.
03/02/1962	A Clockwork Orange	A brilliantly lurid novel circling around violence, rape, milk, government plots, ye olde English cadence and, of course, oodles of fun. Coincidentally it is also one of Kubrick's best films.
03/02/1962	The Golden Notebook	A novel by Nobel prize winning author Doris Lessing. Explores mental and societal breakdown.
03/02/1968	2001: A Space Odyssey	A science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke, which unsurprisingly takes place in space. The book was actually published after the film by Kubrick, but the two are known to have been in collaboration. The film features men floating in space to classical music and is loved by hipsters all around the world.
03/02/1981	Midnight's Children	A milestone work of post-modernism and magical realism. This book is likely to be the most amazing thing that will ever happen to you in your life. Anybody who doesn't put at least 30 hours into studying this book is decadent and should be shot. Won the Booker prize in 1981, The Best of the Booker in 1993 and once again in 2008.
03/08/1983	The Colour of Magic	Sir Terry Pratchett's first novel, which jumpstarted the Discworld series still prominent today. Not a bad novel by any standard, but younger fans of the series tend to idolize it to such disgraceful extremes, that to call them annoying little twits would be an understatement of superior measure.
03/02/1988	The Satanic Verses	Another of Rushdie's major works, which took him around 4 years to write. Due to the controversy around it, the book is Rushdie's best known work, and is the reason why he is considered a critic of religion in some crowds. Rushdie has often voiced his disdain for this phenomenon and emphasizes that the book is about the immigrant experience in London and not Islam, to which he dedicated some 80 pages of his 600 page book.
03/08/1989	The Remains of the Day	A seemingly transient novel by Japanese born prodigy Kazuo Ishiguro. For some reason, teachers find it wise to include this tiny masterpiece in compulsory reading lists, as if they couldn't predict the ensuing shitstorm upon forcing 16-year-olds to read about British butlers. Beneath the surface, this seeming aggrandizement of servitude is a love story and historical novel of highest merit.
03/08/1990	The Buddha of Suburbia	The best known work of porn-writer turned literary great Hanif Kureishi. Tackles the issue of interracial homosexuality in 1970s suburban England. You should watch the video I have linked to get a better overview.
03/02/1993	Trainspotting	Irvine Welsh's best known novel, it was shortlisted for the Booker prize. It was later made into a movie starring Ewan McGregor, which left something to be desired. The book popularized Iggy Pop's famous line "America's taking drugs in psychic defence" in the form of "Scotland's taking drugs in psychic defence." Warning: most of the book is written in Scottish slang, you should have an Urban Dictionary near at hand.
03/02/1995	High Fidelity	Nick Hornby's book that is probably better known for the film adaptation starring John Cusack. Is responsible for men spoiling any chance of a sexual encounter by asking their dates to list the top five foreign films they last saw or the top 10 post-punk albums that have most affected their lives.
01/01/1998	Seamus Heaney awarded the Nobel prize in Literature
03/02/1998	The Last King of Scotland	Giles Foden's best known book. It won the Whitbread First Novel Award, a Somerset Maugham Award, a Betty Trask Award and the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. It was later made into a movie and shown in Estonia during the Black Nights Film Festival
03/08/2009	Wolf Hall	The last British novel to win the Booker Prize. Authored by Hilary Mantel, apparently it's about Thomas Cromwell, da l0rd pr0t3ct0r.
Timespan Dates:	Timespan Title:	Timespan Description:
10/02/1904 to 04/03/1991	Graham Greene	An author suffering from bi-polar disease. Also published something like The Quiet American
05/28/1908 to 08/20/1964	Ian Fleming	Renown for creating the James Bond series. Published 12 Bond novels.
09/19/1911 to 06/19/1993	William Golding	Best known for The Lord of the Flies (1954) and the Rites of Passage (1980) which garnered him the Booker prize. He also won the Nobel prize.
09/13/1916 to 11/23/1990	Roald Dahl	A fantasy writer and story-teller of great repute. His works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG. However, he is best known for being the inspiration behind Roald-Henrik Sinissaar's first name.
08/09/1922 to 12/02/1985	Philip Larkin	The life of Philip Larkin, who came to fame in the 1950s and 60s. Considered the most important post-war writer in Britain by The Times. Also one of the best loved poets of post-war Britain. Famous poetry collections include The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows.
03/31/1926 to 11/05/2005	John Fowles	An acclaimed writer of the latter half of the 20th century. Famous works include The French Lieutenant's Wife, The Magus and The Ebony Tower.
01/01/1950 to 01/01/1960	Kitchen Sink Realism	Characterised by "angry young men"
03/08/1950 to 03/08/1956	The Chronicles of Narnia	A fantasy series authored by C.S. Lewis. Its importance lies in giving hope to disillusioned children that one day, the cupboard they crawl into might actually save them from the pangs of ordinary life. Was later made into a godawful movie in 2005, proving yet again the incompetence of Walt Disney Pictures.
03/01/1960 to 03/01/1970	British Poetry Revival	A somewhat controversial poetic movement, which is akin to performance art. The poets of the movement looked to Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. Notable poets include J. H. Prynne, Eric Mottram, Tom Raworth, Denise Riley and Lee Harwood.
03/08/1968 to 03/08/2010	The Booker Prize	The Commonwealth's Pulitzer. Became known in 1968
03/02/1979 to 03/02/1992	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	A five book science fiction comedy saga, which is probably best known for the BBC radio play. It is also available in audiobook, brilliantly narrated by Stephen Fry
03/02/1989 to 03/02/1998	Fatwa against Salman Rushdie	Iran calls for Salman Rushdie's death for insulting Islam in the Satanic Verses. To an extent, this fatwa is in effect to this day, but Rushdie is no longer in hiding.