The 50 Authors Who Shaped Me

It took me a long while to compile my list of “The 50 Authors who Shaped Me” – it was so difficult to choose only fifty from the thousands of authors whose work meant so much to me through my life.

When I began, I realised that many of the books that I had chosen were my favourite childhood books. Of course this makes sense, as the books we read when we are children make such a deep impression upon our psyche. However, I wanted to see how favourite books in each decade of my life worked to change and direct me.

In the end, I made strict rules. I could only choose fiction; and I had to name the ten authors in each decade of my life whose work had transformed my life in some way.

I call the novels on this list my “touchstone” books.

0 – 10 (1966-1976)

C.S. Lewis – The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
Enid Blyton – Five Go to Treasure Island
Eleanor Farjeon – The Glass Slipper
Elizabeth Goudge – The Little White Horse
Nicholas Stuart Grey – The Stone Cage
Joan Aiken – The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
J.R.R Tolkien – The Hobbit
Frances Hodgson Barnett –The Secret Garden
Susan Cooper – The Dark Is Rising
Geoffrey Trease – Cue for Treason

11 – 20 (1977-1986)

Ursula le Guin – A Wizard Of Earthsea
L.M. Montgomery – Emily of New Moon
E. J. Oxenham – New Abbey Girls
Anne Frank – Diary of a Young Girl
Dodie Smith – I Capture The Castle
Georgette Heyer – These Old Shades
Mary Stewart – The Moon-Spinners
Mary Webb – Precious Bane
Jane Austen – Persuasion
Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre

21 – 30 (1987-1996)

Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights
Daphne du Maurier – Rebecca
Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird
Jane Yolen – Briar Rose
Marion Zimmer Bradley – The Mists of Avalon
Robin McKinley – Beauty
Isabel Allende – The House of Spirits
Alice Walker – The Color Purple
E.M. Forster – A Room With A View
Tad Williams – The Dragonbone Chair

31 – 40 (1997-2006)

Jeannette Winterson – The Passion
Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible
Susan Vreeland – Girl in Hyacinth Blue
Juliet Marillier – Daughter of the Forest
Kim Wilkins – Angel of Ruin
Tracy Chevalier – Falling Angels
Joanne Harris – Five Quarters Of The Orange
Sarah Dunant – The Birth of Venus
Geraldine Brooks – The Year of Wonders
Carlos Ruiz Zafron – The Shadow of the Wind

41 – 50 (2007-2016)

C. J. Sansom – Dissolution
Phillipa Gregory – The Queen’s Fool
Marcus Zusak – The Book Thief
Mary Ann Schaffer – The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
Kate Morton – The Forgotten Garden
Ken Follett – The Pillars of the Earth
Karen Maitland – Company of Liars
Kate Mosse – Labyrinth
Sarah Waters – Affinity
A.S. Byatt – Possession

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The 50 Authors Who Shaped Me

0 – 10 (1966-1976)

11 – 20 (1977-1986)

21 – 30 (1987-1996)

31 – 40 (1997-2006)

41 – 50 (2007-2016)

Kate Forsyth

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