-
Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons
-
The material of the Eddas, taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy
-
A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman
-
Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy
-
Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur
-
Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism
-
William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English
-
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age
-
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with its detailed realism, can be seen as the first English novel
-
Jonathan Swift sends his hero on a series of bitterly satirical travels in Gulliver's Travels
-
Samuel Richardson's Clarissa begins the correspondence that grows into the longest novel in the English language
-
Samuel Johnson publishes his magisterial Dictionary of the English Language
-
Pride and Prejudice, based on a youthful work of 1797 called First Impressions, is the second of Jane Austen's novels to be published
-
24-year-old Charles Dickens begins monthly publication of his first work of fiction, Pickwick Papers (published in book form in 1837)
-
Charles Dickens' first novel, Oliver Twist, begins monthly publication (in book form, 1838)
-
English poet Robert Browning publishes a vivid narrative poem about the terrible revenge of The Pied Piper of Hamelin
-
London physician Peter Mark Roget publishes his dictionary of synonyms, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
-
Charles Darwin puts forward the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, the result of 20 years' research
-
Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a development of the story he had told Alice Liddell three years earlier
-
Oxford University Press publishes the A volume of its New English Dictionary, which will take 37 years to reach Z
-
Oscar Wilde publishes his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in which the ever-youthful hero's portrait grows old and ugly
-
Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book surrounds the child Mowgli with a collection of vivid animal guardians
-
English author Bram Stoker publishes Dracula, his gothic tale of vampirism in Transylvania
-
H.G. Wells publishes his science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds, in which Martians arrive in a rocket to invade earth
-
J.M Barrie's play for children Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up has its premiere in London
-
Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and the others make their first appearance in A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh
-
English children's author Enid Blyton introduces the Famous Five in Five on a Treasure Island
-
C.S. Lewis gives the first glimpse of Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
-
James Bond, agent 007, has a licence to kill in Ian Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale
-
William Golding gives a chilling account of schoolboy savagery in his first novel, Lord of the Flies
-
British philologist J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the third and final volume of his epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings
-
British author Roald Dahl publishes a novel for children, James, and the Giant Peach
-
Roald Dahl publishes a fantasy treat for a starving child, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
-
British physicist Stephen Hawking explains the cosmos for the general reader in A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes
-
A schoolboy wizard performs his first tricks in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
