Nella Last
Nella Last was a wife and mother who wrote up her day-to-day experience of civilian life in the Second World War as part of the Mass-Observation Archive, which was set up by sociologist Charles Madge and anthropologist Tom Harrisson to record ordinary people's views on contemporary events. She was an intelligent woman, who was stifled by her life and repressive marriage in a provincial place. Fortunately, she had two escape routes from depression: her writing and her work with the Women's Volunteer Service. She began the diary in 1937 and kept it up longer than most and writing more than everyone else. It was finally published in 1981. Nella died in 1968, so never lived to see her wartime diaries published.
If you like author Nella Last here is the list of authors you may also like
Buy books on AmazonTotal similar authors (21)
-
Christopher Fowler
Librarian note:
Buy books on Amazon
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Christopher Fowler was an English writer known for his Bryant & May mystery series, featuring two Golden Age-style detectives navigating modern London. Over his career, he authored fifty novels and short story collections, along with screenplays, video games, graphic novels, and audio plays. His psychological thriller Little Boy Found was published under the pseudonym L.K. Fox.
Fowler's accolades include multiple British Fantasy Awards, the Last Laugh Award, the CWA Dagger in the Library, and the inaugural Green Carnation Award. He was inducted into the Detection Club in 2021. Beyond crime fiction, his works ranged from horror (Hell Train, Nyctophobia) to m -
Alison Weir
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Buy books on Amazon
Alison Weir is an English writer of history books for the general public, mostly in the form of biographies about British kings and queens, and of historical fiction. Before becoming an author, Weir worked as a teacher of children with special needs. She received her formal training in history at teacher training college. She currently lives in Surrey, England, with her two children. -
Carolly Erickson
Distinguished historian Carolly Erickson is the author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, The First Elizabeth, Great Catherine, Alexandra and many other prize-winning works of fiction and nonfiction. She lives in Hawaii.
Buy books on Amazon
http://us.macmillan.com/author/caroll... -
Virginia Woolf
(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.
Buy books on Amazon
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." -
James Herriot
James Herriot is the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS also known as Alf Wight, an English veterinary surgeon and writer. Wight is best known for his semi-autobiographical stories, often referred to collectively as All Creatures Great and Small, a title used in some editions and in film and television adaptations.
Buy books on Amazon
In 1939, at the age of 23, he qualified as a veterinary surgeon with Glasgow Veterinary College. In January 1940, he took a brief job at a veterinary practice in Sunderland, but moved in July to work in a rural practice based in the town of Thirsk, Yorkshire, close to the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. The original practice is now a museum, "The World of James Herriot -
Susan Hill
Susan Hill was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1942. Her hometown was later referred to in her novel A Change for the Better (1969) and some short stories especially "Cockles and Mussels".
Buy books on Amazon
She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, Th -
Jessica Mitford
Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford was an English author, journalist and political campaigner, who was one of the Mitford sisters. She gained American citizenship in later life.
Buy books on Amazon -
Jenny Holmes
Jenny Holmes lives in a beautiful part of Yorkshire and sets her sagas in the industrial heartland nearby. She enjoys horse riding, gardening and walking her dog in the dales. She also writes children's books as Jenny Oldfield.
Buy books on Amazon -
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard, CBE, was an English novelist. She was an actress and a model before becoming a novelist. In 1951, she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first novel, The Beautiful Visit. Six further novels followed, before she embarked on her best known work, a four novel family saga (i.e., The Cazalet Chronicles) set in wartime Britain. The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off were serialised by Cinema Verity for BBC television as The Cazalets (The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion and Casting Off). She has also written a book of short stories, Mr Wrong, and edited two anthologies.
Buy books on Amazon
Her last novel in The Cazalet Chronicles series, "ALL CHANGE", was published in November 2013. -
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Buy books on Amazon
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen -
Alan Davies
Alan Davies is an English stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He has played the title role in the BBC mystery drama series Jonathan Creek since 1997, and has been the only permanent panellist on the BBC panel show QI since 2003.
Buy books on Amazon -
Cathy Glass
Cathy Glass is a bestselling British author, freelance writer and foster carer.
Buy books on Amazon
Her work is strongly identified with both the True Life Stories and Inspirational Memoirs genres, and she has also written a parenting guide to bringing up children, Happy Kids, and a novel, The Girl in the Mirror, based on a true story.
Glass has worked as a foster career for more than 20 years, during which time she has fostered more than 50 children. Her fostering memoirs tell the stories of some of the children who came in to her care, many of whom had suffered abuse.
The first title, Damaged, was number 1 in the Sunday Times bestsellers charts in hardback and paperback. Her next three titles, Hidden, Cut and The Saddest Girl in the World, were similarly succes -
Ian Mortimer
AKA James Forrester.
Buy books on Amazon
Dr Ian Mortimer is a historian and novelist, best known for his Time Traveller's Guides series. He has BA, MA, PhD and DLitt degrees from the University of Exeter and UCL. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was awarded the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society in 2004. Home is the small Dartmoor town of Moretonhampstead, which he occasioanlly introduces in his books. His most recet book, 'Medieval Horizons' looks at how life changed between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries.
He also writes in other genres: his fourth novel 'The Outcasts of Time' won the 2018 Winston Graham Prize for historical fiction. His earlier trilogy of novels set in the 1560s -
Lissa Evans
After a brief career in medicine, and an even briefer one in stand-up, Lissa Evans became a comedy producer, first in radio and then in television. Her first novel, Spencer's List, was published in 2002, and since then she has written three more books for adults (two of them longlisted for the Orange/Baileys Prize) and two for children (the first of them shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal). Her two most recent books for adults were set in London during the Second World War; one of them, 'Their Finest Hour and a Half' has now been made into a film entitled 'Their Finest', starring Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy
Buy books on Amazon -
Mark Boyle
Mark Boyle aka The Moneyless Man (born 8 May 1979) is a business graduate who lived completely without money for three years, and is the best-selling author of The Moneyless Man (2010), and The Moneyless Manifesto (2012) and Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi (2015).
Buy books on Amazon
He is a director of Streetbank, a charity which enables people across the world to share skills and resources with neighbours. Mark writes for publications as varied as the Guardian and Permaculture magazine, contributes to international radio and television, and has been featured in major media including CNN, The Telegraph, BBC, The Huffington Post, ABC, Mother Jones and Metro. He lives on a smallholding in Ireland. -
Elly Griffiths
Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway novels take for their inspiration Elly's husband, who gave up a city job to train as an archaeologist, and her aunt who lives on the Norfolk coast and who filled her niece's head with the myths and legends of that area. Elly has two children and lives near Brighton. Though not her first novel, The Crossing Places is her first crime novel.
Buy books on Amazon -
Lulu Taylor
Lulu was brought up in the Oxfordshire countryside, attended a girls’ school and then went to Oxford University, where she read English Literature. After university, she worked in publishing for several years, before becoming a novelist.
Buy books on Amazon
Lulu says of her books: ‘I’ve always adored stories of the rich and reckless at play, everything from The Great Gatsby to the brilliant blockbuster novels of the 80s. It’s fantastic escapism, and I’ve always loved creating my own stories of adventure, romance and luxury. My heroines are often very privileged and blessed with great looks and good health – but that doesn’t mean their lives are simple – far from it. They go through plenty of drama and suffering before everything is finally resolved.
‘Sex, love, -
Amanda Prowse
Previous Book: 'Swimming to Lundy', published th August 2024'.
Buy books on Amazon
Latest Book: 'This One Life', published 7th January 2025.
Next Book: 'Ever After' published 7th August 2025.
Amanda Prowse is an International Bestselling author whose thirty-two novels, two non-fiction titles and ten novellas have been published in dozens of languages around the world. Published by Lake Union, Amanda is the most prolific writer of bestselling contemporary fiction in the UK today; her titles also consistently score the highest online review approval ratings across several genres. Her books, including the chart topping No.1 titles 'What Have I Done?', 'Perfect Daughter', 'My Husband's Wife', 'The Girl in the Corner' and ‘The Things I Know’ have sold millions of copi -
Elaine Everest
Elaine Everest is the Sunday Times Bestselling author of historical sagas including The Woolworths Girls series, The Teashop Girls series and other popular books.
Buy books on Amazon
She is represented by the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency Ltd. -
Rebecca Romney
Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and the cofounder of Type Punch Matrix, a rare book company based in Washington, DC. She is the rare books specialist on the HISTORY Channel’s show Pawn Stars, and the cofounder of the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize. She is a generalist rare book dealer, handling works in all fields, from first editions of Jane Austen to science fiction paperbacks. Her work as a bookseller or writer has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more. In 2019, she was featured in the documentary on the rare book trade, The Booksellers. She is on the Board of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and the faculty of the Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS-Mi
Buy books on Amazon -
Adam Kay
Adam Kay is an award-winning comedian and writer. He previously worked for many years as a junior doctor. His first book "This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor" was a Sunday Times number one bestseller for over a year and has sold over two million copies. It has been translated into 37 languages and is winner of four National Book Awards, including Book of the Year, and will be a major new comedy drama for the BBC.
Buy books on Amazon
His second book "Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas" was an instant Sunday Times number one bestseller and sold over 500,000 copies in its first few weeks.
"Dear NHS", edited by Adam Kay, was an instant Sunday Times number one with all profits donated to charity. His first children's book "Kay's Anatomy" will b