Great Britain, social life and customs book series in reading order

by Lilian Harry

by Candace Robb

by Anthony Powell

Terry Deary

340 books• 41 series

Terry Deary is a British children's author, born in 1946, best known as the writer of the Horrible Histories series. Deary has written 351 books, which have sold more than 38 million copies in over 45 languages, and has ranked among Britain's best-selling authors since 1994. In 2012 Deary was the tenth most-borrowed author in British libraries, and Books for Keeps magazine named Deary the Outstanding Children's Non-Fiction Author of the 20th Century. The catalogue lists 340 titles from Teaching Through Theatre (1977) onward, including the True Stories and Tudor Terror series.

Amanda Scott is a historical romance novelist whose catalogue lists 61 books from The Fugitive Heiress (1981) to The Kissing Stone (2018). More than twenty-five Scott novels take place in the English Regency period of 1810 to 1820, and others are set in fifteenth-century England or sixteenth- and eighteenth-century Scotland, with three contemporary romances as well. Scott began writing on a dare from a spouse and has sold every manuscript written. Awards include the RITA/Golden Medallion and Romantic Times honours for Best Regency Author and Best Sensual Regency. Series include Highland, Secret Clan, Border Trilogy, Galloway Trilogy and Lairds of the Loch. Scott lives in northern California.

Katie Flynn and Judith Saxton are both pen names of Judy Turner, whose books sold more than eight million copies before her death in January 2019 at the age of 82. The catalogue holds 98 titles from 1972 onward, the earliest carrying the Saxton name: Cousin to the Queen (1972), My Master Mariner (1974) and Princess In Waiting (1976). Family sagas set in wartime England and Liverpool dominate, through series such as Liverpool Sisters, the Neyler Quartet and the Rose Queen Trilogy. New titles keep appearing, with The Secret Child scheduled for 2027.

Lilian Harry is a British author of historical fiction and romance, and the catalogue subjects add sagas, villages, England and World War II. Early books appeared under other names: Moon Over the Mountains (1977) and Saffron (1978) as Donna Baker, and Carver's Bride (1982) and Wildtrack (1983) as Nicola West. The catalogue counts 77 books up to A Child in Burracombe (2017). Burracombe Village, April Grove, a Street at War, Glassmakers Saga, Carpetmakers' Trilogy, Corner House and Cumbrian Saga are the series, and Burracombe is an imaginary English place.

Alys Clare is the pen name Elizabeth Harris uses for English historical whodunnits, most of them set in medieval times. The Hawkenlye Mysteries pair the Abbess Helewise with Josse d'Acquin and begin with Fortune Like the Moon in 1999. Three further runs follow: the Aelf Fen Mysteries, the Gabriel Taverner Mystery novels and the World's End Bureau Victorian Mystery books. Harris grew up in the countryside near the Hawkenlye setting, went to school in Tonbridge and read English at the University of Keele. The catalogue stands at 39 titles, the newest being The Thief and the Labyrinth in 2026.

Candace Robb is an American novelist of historical mysteries set in medieval England. The catalogue holds 24 books published between 1993 and 2026 across the Owen Archer, Margaret Kerr and Kate Clifford series, plus standalones. Owen Archer opens the run with The Apothecary Rose (1993), and the investigations continue through The Lady Chapel (1994), The King's Bishop (1996) and A Gift of Sanctuary (1998). Robb has also written as Emma Campion.

E.F. Benson

106 books• 4 series

Mapp & Lucia Novels is one of the series listed for E.F. Benson, and Lucia and Miss Mapp both appear in the subjects alongside humour, England and female friendship. Born Edward Frederic Benson on 24 July 1867, Benson wrote novels, biography, memoir, history and short stories, and died on 29 February 1940. Dodo (1893) opens a listing of 106 books that includes The Babe, B.A. (1897), The Luck of the Vails (1901), The Valkyries (1903), The Blotting Book (1908) and Account Rendered (1911). Dodo Trilogy and David Blaize are further series, and English ghost stories also appear among the subjects.

Doris Lessing

66 books• 6 series

Doris Lessing, born Doris May Tayler on 22 October 1919 and died on 17 November 2013, was a British novelist and the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Iran to British parents, Lessing lived there until 1925, grew up in Southern Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - and moved to London in 1949, which is why the early career is sometimes labelled Rhodesian. The catalogue holds 66 titles from The Grass Is Singing (1950) to An Old Woman and Her Cat (2013). Children of Violence and Canopus in Argos are the two five-novel sequences; the Diaries of Jane Somers, The Fifth Child, Mara and Dann and the Collected African Stories follow. Africa, women and British social life recur as subjects.

Julian Symons (1912–1994) was a British crime writer and poet, born in Clapham, London, who died in Walmer, Kent. Alongside crime fiction, Symons wrote social and military history, biography and literary studies. The catalogue records 140 works from 1938 to 2006, starting with Poem (1938) and including Confusions About X (1939) and Obscurity and Dylan Thomas (1940). Series include Inspector Bland, Inspector Crambo, Francis Quarles and Sheridan Haynes, and The Detections of Francis Quarles (2006) is the latest entry.

Freda Lightfoot wrote family sagas set in the north of England. 54 catalogued books run from Wishing Water (1995) to Angels at War (2020), with the 2010s the busiest decade. Champion Street Market, Luckpenny Land, Lakeland Sagas, Salford Saga, Poor House Lane, Polly's Journey and the Post War Saga are the series. Social conditions, sisters and the Second World War recur as subjects. The median book runs 368 pages.

Anthony Dymoke Powell (1905-2000) was an English novelist. A Dance to the Music of Time, his twelve-volume sequence published between 1951 and 1975, is the central work and ranks among the longest novels in English; A Question of Upbringing (1951) opens it. Powell had already published Afternoon Men (1931), Venusberg (1932), From a View to a Death (1933) and Agents and Patients (1936) in the 1930s. The catalogue of 37 books also holds the memoir To Keep The Ball Rolling and the biography John Aubrey and His Friends (1948). The Times placed Powell among the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 in its 2008 list.

Beryl Matthews writes historical sagas, and both World Wars appear among the subjects of the 25 novels. London, veterans, social conditions and brothers and sisters also recur, and the Webster Family forms the one named Matthews series. A Christmas Crisis and Links of Love (both 2001) open the list. A Time of Peace (2004) and The Forgotten Family (2006) are mid-list titles, and Beautiful Innocence (2023) is the latest.

Anita Burgh wrote English historical fiction about social class, families and women, with 22 books catalogued from Distinctions of Class (1987) to The Breached Wall (2007). The median Burgh book runs to 512 pages. The Burgh series are Daughters of a Granite Land, Cresswell Inheritance and Tales from Sarson Magna. The Azure Bowl (1989), The Golden Butterfly (1990), The Stone Mistress (1991) and Avarice (1994) are among the titles, and the First World War appears in the subjects.

Jo Baker is a British writer, and the sourced record counts six novels under the name, Longbourn among them. Nine books are catalogued here, from Offcomer (2002) to The Midnight News (2023). Baker has written short stories for BBC Radio 4, plus reviews for The Guardian and for The New York Times Book Review. A Visiting Fellowship at Queen's University Belfast followed in 2018, and Baker holds an Honorary Fellowship at Lancaster University. The Mermaid's Child (2004), The Telling (2008), Longbourn (2013), A Country Road, A Tree (2016) and The Body Lies (2019) sit in the run, and Samuel Beckett in Company is the series grouped under the name.