These books are chosen because they are extremely popular in England and convey much of the shared language, history and values that make up English culture.
This list starts with the most recently published and ends with the oldest.
The English: A Social History, 1066–1945
By Christopher Hibbert This is included incase you become fascinated by English history as well as the cuktures, it records ...
White Teeth
Zadie Smith 2000 White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among ...
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John le Carré 1974 A mole, implanted by Moscow Centre, has infiltrated the highest ranks of the British Intelligence Service, ...
Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont
Elizabeth Taylor 1971 On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where ...
Swallows and Amazons
Swallows and Amazons is a children's adventure novel by English author Arthur Ransome and first published on 21 July 1930 ...
Tarka The Otter
Henry William Williamson 1928 One of the best-loved animal stories of our time."Twilight over meadow and water, the eve-star shining ...
In Search of England
H.V. Morton 1926 One of the great travel books of all time: H. V. Morton's famous and much-loved travelogue about ...
Carry on Jeeves
P. G. Wodehouse 1925 P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) is widely regarded as the greatest comic writer of the twentieth century ...
The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in ...
The Wind in The Willows
Kenneth Grahame 1908 Kenneth Grahame's classic tale of fantasy has attracted a growing audience in each generation. Rat, Mole, Badger ...
The Railway Children
E. Nesbit 1906 Peter, Phyllis and Roberta’s lives change overnight when their father is taken away by two strangers. They ...
Just So Stories
Just So Stories for Little Children is a 1902 collection of origin stories by the British author Rudyard Kipling. "Just ...
Three Men in a Boat
Jerome K. Jerome 1889 Three Men in a Boat, published in 1889, became an instant success and has never been ...
Black Beauty
Author: Anna Sewell Sewell died only five months after Black Beauty's publication, having lived long enough to see her only novel become ...
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll Down the rabbit hole ...
The Water Babies
Charles Kingsley 1863 After being chased from the home of an upper-class young girl called Ellie, chimney-sweep Tom falls asleep ...
The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for Children
Charles Kingsley 1856 Once upon a time there were two princes who were twins... Greek mythological heroes for children. Featuring ...
David Copperfield
Charles Dickens 1850 DAVID COPPERFIELD is a classic coming-of-age novel by Charles Dickens, and is usually considered among his finest ...
Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathon Swift 1726 Fantastic tale of Gulliver's bizarre and intriguing adventures through lands of tiny people, giant people, talking horses ...
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe 25/04/1719 The first English novel. Daniel Defoe's enthralling story-telling and imaginatively detailed descriptions have ensured that his novel ...
The Book of Common Prayer
Thomas Cranmer 1662 The plays of Shakespeare, the Authorized version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, all ...