JK Rowling – author of the Harry Potter series of books, just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years – has been voted “the greatest living British writer” in a recent poll in The Book Magazine.
Discworld author Terry Pratchett came second, but received just a third of the total number of votes bestowed upon Rowling.
Christine Kidney, editor of The Book Magazine, says this “provides a fascinating insight into what the British public thinks makes a ‘great’ writer”.
I’m can’t say I’d describe myself as fascinated, rather astonished. In fact, I might even go so far as to describe my current state as horrified.
For Rowling to be given this accolade above such talented – and accomplished – writers as Iain Banks, Philip Pullman, and Salman Rushdie is nothing short of outrageous. For her share of the votes to be three times that of Pratchett is downright appalling.
Rowling’s prose is deeply unimaginative when compared to the vast majority of the other authors on this list. Her content is unoriginal, even if she is dismissive of her peers and cites other sources as the inspiration for her work.
And she’s not exactly the most prolific author in the world.
But who am I to question to writing ability of Britain’s greatest? The public have spoken. It’s clear that the public are convinced, thanks to the popularity of her books, that she’s the best writer we’ve got.
Rowling has received this award simply because her books have achieved a far greater amount of publicity. If Iain Banks’ Culture novels had been successfully adapted into Hollywood movies, would his name be top of the list? If a wizard named Rincewind had graced our screens, instead of a wizard named Harry, would Pratchett be crowned the greatest?
It’s hard to dispute Rowling’s status as Britain’s most popular author, but she’s a long way from great.
I still think of Rincewind as an elderly and clapped-out mail server… our sysadmin at the dot-com I worked for was a Pratchett nut and heavy metal freak, so before we introduced the policy of naming servers after Class A drugs, all the boxes were called things like “Rincewind” or “Anthrax” (Anthrax was a SQL 6.5 box…)
Scandal! She writes kids books for adult’s!
I would put people like Pratchet, Rushie and even Stephen King above her.
Yes King may not be the ‘best’ write in the world, but I bet he’s close to being the most prolific!
And then there are things like the Dark Tower series that show’s he is more than just a Horror writer.
Some people………..
Great writer Stephen King but sadly excluded from being the ‘Greatest living British writer’ as he’s an American.
This should have been called ‘The Most Popular British Writer’ and it’s sad that people confuse popularity with being great. Popularity means being able to appeal to the widest group of people and that rarely goes hand in hand with being great. In fact it often means the opposite.