JKR is quite youthful, and her full body of work has yet to be written. Her best may be yet to come. Her later Harry Potters were superior to the earlier ones. She is still developing.
She deserves to be on the list. I don’t take much notice of ranking as I always find it a bit subjective.
Never mind the pedants criticizing her writing. She has managed to capture the imagination of adults and children alike with her story-telling and the top-notch research put into creating an authentic ‘other’ world and that deserves a place on the list IMO.
Being a great writer isn’t just dependent on how well you can string a sentence together. That said I must say I’m surprised that Alan Bennett isn’t on this list for both quality and entertainment value.
I’m also glad JK’s ranked higher than Pullman. I think he’s rubbish, and shouldn’t be on it at all. Maybe the HDM trilogy is ok but I haven’t read it because I’ve read some of his other stuff and it is absolute crud, which has put me off reading HDM completely. He can’t write convincing situations, his characters are cardboard and his plots are too easily resolved.
this is cooli do agree JKR should have ranked a bt higher say inthe top 25 and i think tolkien should have been #1
50 years from now shell be in top 10—
look at C.S. Lewis—and his books arent all that great
and Roald Dahl behind C.S. Lewis!!!! wow
Hey Jo!!!
She definitly should have been higher, but who cares. Shes still the best EVER!!!
Jo should have been put very first in my view…some of these names I haven’t even heard of!! what kind of criteria is this?????
I think Ian Fleming is way too high on the list. He is primarily remembered for James Bond and while the books are good I don’t think they rank with many of the others including JKR. I am old enough to have read them before all but the first couple of movies appeared.
c. s. lewis’ fantasies are the chronicles of narnia, the space trilogy, the screwtape letters and the great divorce, (have i forgotten anything?). he also wrote a lot of non-fiction, both in his field of literature and about theology. he’s very different from jkr, but in my opinion they’re both great. i totally agree that lists like this contain an awful lot of subjectivity. to get on the list at all is the important hing, and assumes a certain level of both skill and popularity.
i took a look at the first few entrieson the list and noticed that 2 of the top 6 are poets and there are 4 poets and 1 poet/ playwright as well as 1 standalone playwright and to me there would be a valid arguement that they should be on a seperate list for the top 50 British Poets and one for the top 50 british playwrights since 1945, I will not deny they are writers but it seems odd to me to combine 2 such different types of writing as novels and poetry, and plays in the same list and there are 4 entriesonthe list that at least to me seem somewhat debatable to callthem british, Salman Rushdie ( Iranian birth), Kazuo Ishigumo ( Japanese Descent), Isaiah Berlin (Russian) and Hanif Kureshi ( asian descent) all these things lead m,e to wonder what criteria was used to determine who was eligiable for this list and who got to vote on who was on the list. but as with all greatest list there willwalways be some debate and arguement over who is and isn’t onthe l;ist as well as where those on the list ranked
Nothing wrong with 42. Afterall, it is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything!
i don’t think this list really means anything, but i still think that Jo should have been higher, it’s only their opinions though.
She should be number 1!!!! Well, to me she’s number one! Anyway, congrats Jo! You rock!
Megan
Of course the intellectual snobbery latent whenever Jo’s books are mentioned in “lofty publications” is sickening and typical of the old Marxist fervour that if something is popular , then it must be rubbish. You can never over exaggerate the jelousy and bitterness of other writers, publishers and agents towards the likes of Tolkien and Jo.
Your always # 1 with us Jo!!!!
Congrats!