Thursday, 30 July 2009

British Authors on Twitter... 60 names and counting!

A few weeks ago, US author Carin Berger re-tweeted Mashable's list of the top 100 authors of Twitter. I had read the list already, and enjoyed it, but found it missing a lot of British names I knew were on Twitter because I was following them.

So when Carin also asked ‘but what about the British authors?’ I decided I could at least offer her a list of those I knew. And rather than cram a load of tweets with author userames and chuck them at Carin (causing many authors to think 'is it Follow Friday already?') I thought a list on my blog would be no more effort and a lot more useful. I was wrong about the effort, but hey-ho.

After much cutting and pasting and cursing, it's ready. And, wouldn't you know it, I have a blind spot on spelling 'author'? It keeps coming out 'authour'.

There are Very Important Notes at the end, which should answer some questions you may have, and a few links to other lists of writers on Twitter, including the original Mashable post.

Each name links to that person’s Twitter page. The list is alphabetical (by first name).

So... an incomplete list of British Authors on Twitter


Alain de Botton
writer

Allyson Bird
Horror writer. My collection Bull Running for Girls has been published by Screaming Dreams. Working on a novel called Isis Unbound

Andrea Gillies
Writer. Author of 'Keeper'. Now writing novel.

Andrew Keen
The Anti Christ of Silicon Valley

Belle de Jour
Writer, ne'er-do-well, and inspiration for the TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Bernadine Kennedy
Novelist (7 books published), Freelance Writer, Traveller and occasional Blogger

Bill Thompson
I'm a hack and pundit

Caroline Smailes
I write novels and I'm trying to live happily ever after.

Charlie Brooker
Miserable writerist

Chris Cleave
I'm a novelist and I write a weekly column for The Guardian

Clare Dudman
British writer with works published by Viking, Sceptre, Serpents Tail, Tor Bantam. Interested in science & history

Clive Barker
Born and Still Living

Daisy Goodwin
Author, poetry anthologist and tv producer. Head Girl at Silver River Productions.

Dave Gorman
Don't drop litter.

Elizabeth Buchan
Best selling author, wife and mother.

Ellie Levenson
Londoner, journalist, lecturer, writer. Author of The Noughtie Girl's Guide to Feminism

Euphrosene Labon
mind body spirit artist author writer cartoonist freelance journalist

Fiona Pitt-Kethley
Author of 21 books.I live with my chessGM husband and son in Spain. My hobbies: snorkelling,minerals,karate,music, cycling, fishing, hill-walks,food,film, cats

Fiona J Mackenzie
Author of The BEAUTY QUEENS and The DARWIN MYSTERIES. Failed saint, successful sinner, descended from a pirate.

Gary William Murning
A writer living in the northeast of England, Gary's first novel, If I Never, is due to be published later this year.

Greg Stekelman
Writer, illustrator, worker bee, idiot

Helen Smith
author - I write novels, children's books, plays, screenplays and poetry

Iain Aitch
Author and journalist, nosey git and Tottenham fan, sometimes funny

Ian Hocking
I'm a novelist and psychologist

Iain Broome
Fiction writer and copywriter for leading UK design company, The Workshop. Blogger-in-chief at Write for Your Life and Websites for writers.

India Knight
Sunday Times columnist, novelist, mammal. This is my personal Twitter.

Jag Bhalla
Sharer of amusing and intriguing expressions from around the world. Author of 'I'm Not Hanging noodles on your Ears'.

Jane Costello
Author of novels including Bridesmaids and The Nearly Weds

Jason Bradbury
TV presenter and author of Dot.Robot

Jill Mansell
Novelist. Hates mustard.

J K Rowling
Children's Author

Jojo Moyes
novelist/author/writer of fiction. mother of three.

Judy Astley
Novelist and supreme timewaster

Katie Fforde
Romantic novelist and bad Flamenco dancer

Kate Harrison
writer & procrastinator

Kerry W. Purcell
Writer on design and photography, father, swimmer, and secret lemonade drinker.

Laura Anderson
Writer of screenplays, novels and stories, reader of words, filmmaker, vegetarian, redhead

Louise Bagshawe
Author/conservative PPC for Corby

M Murray
Ex UK and USA, artful idler, freelance journalist, author, Tuscany holiday houses landlady. Politics, food, gardens, books, animals

Margit Appleton
Author, translator, journalist: Food, fun, France

Marika Cobbold
author, family person, book lover, city dweller, animal lover, ballet fan

Mark Chadbourn
Writer of stuff - novels, TV, comics, movies.

Mark Morris
UK-based writer with 17 novels and dozens of short stories, articles and reviews to his name.

Matt Rudd
Writer/editor at Sunday Times forced by his publishers, Harper, to tweet and twitlit in build-up to 1st novel.

MichaelMarshallSmith
... And Michael Marshall, too.
Author of ONLY FORWARD, THE STRAW MEN, THE INTRUDERS, SPARES, BAD THINGS, THE SERVANTS and other stuff.

Milly Johnson
short romcom novelist and rubbish dieter

Neil Gaiman
will eventually grow up and get a real job. Until then, will keep making things up and writing them down.

Nick Harkaway
Author of The Gone-Away World. General enthusiast.

Oliver Morton NEW
editor and writer concentrating on sci/tech change and its impacts

PD Smith
a writer, reader and photographer. I review for the Guardian, the TLS and others, and am the author of 3 books, most recently Doomsday Men (Penguin).

Sarah Dunant NEW
Novelist, broadcaster, critic. How grand it sounds. How far from the truth. I am however, not complaining. Though I am now older than I ever intended to be.

Stephen Fry
British Actor, Writer, Lord of Dance, Prince of Swimwear & Blogger [though I am pretty sure you have to tick a box to not follow Mr Fry when you start Twitter]

Stevyn Colgan
Writer, Artist, Musician, Squid Hurler, Beer Monkey

Stuart Clark
Science journalist and author. Author of The Sun Kings and the up and coming CosmoThriller, the history of cosmology – fictionalised!

Tania Kindersley
writer, mostly

Terry Pratchett
Books Written Cheap

Tim Atkinson
stay-at-home dad and author of Writing Therapy

Tim Dedopulos
Hi. I'm Tim, and I'm a Brit who writes books. Like sff/horror, oddness, inspiration, INFJ. Always hunting interesting people!

Tim Lebbon
Bald Horror and Fantasy Writer, and lover of fine ales.

...and that's the lot at the moment.

There is also a valuable list of Screenwriters that Tweet on Miss Read’s blog, which you can look at here.

Very Important Notes

The descriptions are not mine, they are taken direct from each author’s Twitter bio.

The list is not my personal recommendations. My recommendation is: read a baker’s dozen of anyone’s tweets before following them. Having said that writers do, in my experience, tweet the best. If you want to see people (to paraphrase Clive James) turn a phrase until it catches the light (in only 140 characters), following writers is a good place to start.

This list is not every British author on Twitter, so it’s open to additions, but because I want the list to be worthwhile (without getting elitist) here's what I am interested in:

  1. Published British authors on Twitter.
  2. Writing should be a major part of what they do, not a sideline.
  3. They should be Tweeting as their author selves.
  4. At the moment the bias is to fiction, but I’m not saying no to non-fiction. Maybe there should be two list. Maybe I need a secretary.
Let me know who I missed with a comment here, or by contacting me through Twitter (I’m @Angpang). I'll update the list as and when my workload and children let me.

PS - If you want to know more about the Fragonard painting that opens this blog, it's at The National Gallery of Art, Washingto, DC.

Oh, and that Mashable list can be found here.

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for the great post :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice work! Thank you. I would also suggest Clare Dudman, @Duddy on Twitter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. *waves hand* I'm twittering @ Ghostwoods, and can tick 1-4 :) My full name is Tim Dedopulos, to save you having to hunt it, if you see fit!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks all, about eight names to add so far, keep them coming, want this to be a good resource...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you so much for taking the time to create this list. It's very comprehensive. I've decided to follow most people on the list and look forward to their conversation. PS: Tim Lebbon's link seems to have an error.
    Regards, @CynthiaBlue44

    ReplyDelete
  6. Diane, thanks for letting me know the list has been useful, and for pointing out that broken link. I think it is now fixed!

    More to be added very soon, will let you know through Twitter.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, thank you for including me on the list. Such esteemed company!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi - dropped in via Caroline Smailes' tweet. Feel free to add me if you like: @ian_hocking 'I'm a psychologist and novelist.'

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you so much for this - very useful!
    I'm also following Andrew Keen (@ajkeen), Alain de Botton (@alaindebotton) and Bryan Appleyard (@BryanAppleyard). Not fiction - more like friction...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bloody brilliant list. I've got a severe case of RSI now from adding all those that were missing from my list :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi,

    Great list. If you want to add me you are most welcome. I am @robolollycop on twitter, British author, living in London.

    Many thanks!

    Craig.

    ReplyDelete

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