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The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow
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Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature
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The material of the Eddas
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Duns Scotus, known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times
William of Ockham advocates paring down arguments to their essentials
Begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman -
1469
Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur -
William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English
Marlowe and Shakespeare are born in the same year, with Marlowe the older by two months -
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age
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1719
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with its detailed realism
1794
William Blake's volume Songs of Innocence and Experience includes his poem 'Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
1795
Thomas Paine publishes his completed Age of Reason, an attack on conventional Christianity -
1805
Walter Scott publishes The Lay of the Last Minstrel, the long romantic poem that first brings him fame -
D.H. Lawrence's career as a writer is launched with the publication of his first novel, The White Peacock
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The Amber Spyglass completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials
